Meet the man tasked with reducing violence among Indianapolis youth

INDIANAPOLIS — Ransom Place was many things to Ralph Durrett Jr. growing up.

The west-side nook, tucked between Indiana Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, was where everyone knew each other’s name. If his grandmother needed sugar, she’d send him to Miss Geraldine down the block. And if Miss Geraldine needed something, she’d come to them.

The area also holds the title of the most intact 19 ^th -century African American neighborhood in Indianapolis.

But just like any neighborhood, Durrett noted, the occasional trouble would flare up. Drugs. Crime. Sometimes, violence.

“Those things were there,” he recalled. But it did not define the area, nor shape him as a person.

Instead, what Durrett says molded him most was the now-shuttered YMCA near 10th Street and Fall Creek Parkway North Drive. The facility served as a haven to play basketball or swim with other kids after school.

“They’d watch out for us,” he said of the workers.

Durrett draws from these experiences as he steps into a role never done before in Indianapolis. Earlier this month, he was tapped as the city’s new chief violence prevention officer, a position that officials specifically created to curtail the rising problem of youth violence.

The job description is as daunting as it is new. Shootings and killings among the kids 17 years and younger have continued to climb , even as homicide totals in the city have dropped closer to pre-pandemic levels from a historic peak in 2021. Critics have cast blame on a range of theories – absent parents, easily accessible firearms or a broken justice system.

More: Stories of rising Indy youth violence 'shock the conscience.' But not everyone has given up

In March, Indianapolis’ struggle with youth violence was thrown into the national spotlight when a petty dispute between teenagers culminated downtown, resulting in the shooting of seven minors , all between the ages of 12 and 16.

Durrett's new role, housed under the Office of Public Health and Safety , is to prevent teens from going down the wrong path before the opportunity presents itself.

But when working with kids whose brains haven’t developed yet, who frequently invoke the harsh reality that drug dealing rakes in more money than many odd jobs, it seems impossible to sell the idea of doing the right thing.

Yet, when presented with the grim reality, Durrett maintains a level-headed, approachable manner.

“I don’t have a magic wand that can ultimately just fix this issue today, tomorrow, a month from now,” he said. “But I will be visible, I will be intentional, I will be present.”

It’s the same mantra Durrett has repeated to himself throughout his professional and academic life. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from IUPUI, and later a doctorate in jurisprudence from Indiana University McKinney School of Law.

He’s also personally seen how youth can change, pointing to his past volunteer work leading a boys’ youth group on the east side. He focused on changing their perspectives of the world – not their personality. He gave the example of a program he dubbed ‘Heroes versus Villains,’ showing the kids that superheroes and villains often share similar traits and traumatic upbringings. What makes them different, he said, is how they interact with the world.

More: What Indianapolis high schoolers think about the city’s violence, and how to fix it

He thinks the same concept can be expanded throughout the city.

“It’s like planting a seed. But not just planting the seed and hoping it grows, but cultivating the environment for it to flourish,” he said.

To do that, he intends to expand youth community organizations, such as New B.O.Y. and Groundwork Indy , which serve at-risk teens and bolsters healthy neighborhoods.

For those already tangled in the criminal justice system, he intends to provide resources as they navigate the courts.

Providing those resources, or “tools” as Durrett refers to them, just like the mentors and the YMCA he had growing up, is how he thinks the ship will turn.

“The biggest misconception is that the youth are out here by themselves, and it’s the Wild, Wild West,” he said. “I believe there are plenty of great parents, great guardians and adults in these kids’ lives who care about them. They have to have stronger tools to corral and cultivate.”

Contact reporter Sarah Nelson at sarah.nelson@indystar.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Meet the man tasked with reducing violence among Indianapolis youth