Ruben, the violence interruptor

In May 2016, Ruom traveled to Jamaica for USAID to tell the story of Ruben, a former notorious gangster from the infamous Canterbury neighborhood of Montego Bay. 

Ruben Robinson is a 36-year-old community activist from the Canterbury neighborhood of Montego Bay, Jamaica - one of the most violent communities in the Western Hemisphere. Ruben got into gang life from an early age, pushed, he says, by poverty and a difficult home life. “When I was 9 I started smoking weed. When I was 13 I started using guns,” he says. “Things got so wild, we started killing just to earn our money.”

As he grew older, Robinson became a notorious Canterbury criminal and spent time in jail. Though Robinson long wanted to leave gang life, his turning point came in 2013 when he was approached to participate in a program supported by the Government of Jamaica to engages at-risk youth with positive and productive activities rather than illicit ones. He soon after became a violence interrupter, working with members of his community to prevent criminal activity. Violence interrupters are often the first line of defense in high-crime neighbors. They are chosen because they have the credibility needed to affect change. USAID helped develop the community-based policing program in Jamaica and has worked with Jamaican authorities to pilot it as part of its Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.