Indy TenPoint Coalition OGs ready to hit the streets in 2024
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indy TenPoint Coalition will be taking to the streets Tuesday night for the first time in 2024.
The group began canvassing Indianapolis neighborhoods to help reduce urban youth violence in January 1999, and 2024 marks Indy TenPoint’s 25th anniversary.
Indy TenPoint uses volunteers called OGs, or Original Gangsters, to go into vulnerable Indy neighborhoods and connect with at-risk youth.
“The work of TenPoint OG focuses on gang activity, neighborhood cliques, at-risk youth, and youth drug and criminal activity that leads to senseless street violence,” Rev. Dr. Charles Harrison, founder of the Indy TenPoint Coalition, said on X.
Harrison added that, since 2016, “Indy TenPoint has been measuring its efforts on the ground to help reduce murders of young men of color, ages 12 to 24, in nine different hotspot areas across the city.”
Harrison said on X that five out of eight hotspot areas went a year without any youth or adult murders. He also said he believes in collaborative partnerships with IMPD and community stakeholders.
Indy TenPoint’s hotspot areas:
- Butler – Tarkington (38th to 42nd streets)
- Crown Hill Zone #1 (34th to 38th streets)
- Crown Hill Zone # 2 (30th to 33rd streets)
- Highland Vicinity
- 29th Street and MLK (2-block radius)
- Carriage House East Apartments – South of 42nd St. and Mitthoeffer Rd.
- Gas Stations and businesses at 38th St. and Mitthoeffer Rd.
- Gas Station and businesses at 38th St. and German Church Rd.
Police in Indianapolis note the increase in youth violence throughout 2023.
IMPD Public Information Officer William Young told News 8’s Danielle Zulkosky that he believes homicides are down in part thanks to the community’s willingness to work with officers and violence reduction groups like Indy TenPoint.