09/14/2026
The Attention Economy of Violence : A Me + We Framework for CVI.
*Ask among those suffering from the problem,what are the solutions that they have.We must also look for creative remedies among unusual sources.
-Bob Woodson
Nationally known and respected CVI leader Lee Davis is the architect of
“The Attention Economy of Violence and the Me + We Framework” for CVI. His framework, outlined below, transforms how we understand and interrupt street violence and negative social media group trends(Including teen takeovers).
Street violence operates on its own brutal attention economy. Reputation, respect, and belonging are the currency. Young men and women jockey for status, often on a digital stage, where a “slight”can escalate into a shooting within minutes. If marketing leaders now understand that success hinges on blending hyper-personalized appeals (“Me”) with communal, identity-shaping experiences (“We”), we in violence prevention must learn the same lesson. Those who do become the cultural leaders in our neighborhoods—the credible messengers and interventionists who command true influence.
The Attention Economy of Violence
A Me + We Framework for CVI.
Moving Beyond Case Management – Competing for Influence, Belonging, and Status.
The Problem – Violence Runs on Attention
Key Points:
· Street violence isn’t random – it’s an attention economy.
· Currency = Reputation, Respect, Belonging.
· Social media accelerates conflict: a diss track, a taunt, a slight → shooting in minutes.
· Traditional CVI often moves too slow and treats symptoms, not the status drivers.
“If marketing blends ‘Me’ (personalized) and ‘We’ (communal), so must violence prevention.” — Lee Davis
You cannot change a young person’s trajectory without giving them a new “We” that outcompetes the street’s offer.
The Old Way vs. The Me + We Way
Old way
One-on-one case management, isolated from peer group
Me + We way
Personalized healing inside a new community
Old way
Treats risk scores, not identity
M + W
Treats the person’s story and their need to belong
Old Way
Segments by label (gang, victim, perpetrator)
M + W
Weaves and connects across enemy lines
The street’s offer is perversely perfect:
· Gives you a name, protection, communal identity (We).
· Validates your personal grievances and need for respect (Me).
*The Me + We Intervention Model (Now with mySHO Continuity)
Two strands braided together:
Me (Personalization)
· Hyper-personalized life coaching
· Trauma triage & emergency relocation
· Job training based on their actual skills
· Cognitive reframing around their specific triggers
We (Communal Experience)
· Peace circles that feel like family
· Group healing sessions
· Paid crews doing neighborhood beautification
· Survivor cohorts transforming together
CVI Worker Action: Don’t just case manage – orchestrate belonging. But belonging requires support between contacts.
Resource Integration (mySHO):
Interrupters, counselors, and therapists now have a 24/7 extension of their work. mySHO provides evidence-based mental-health and SEL support on the Scalable Care platform — available 24/7 in 92 languages.
· For the "Me": Individuals get personalized, private support to process trauma and triggers at 3 AM when a counselor isn’t available.
· For the "We": Groups can use the platform to maintain healing circles virtually, strengthening the communal bond between in-person peace circles.
Result: Continuity of care (CVI+) layers onto violence-interruption work, so support keeps going between an interrupter’s contacts, not just during them.
*Connect, Don’t Segment (Weaving a Responsive Net)
Problem: We segment by caseloads, labels, risk scores. Law enforcement segments for prosecution. Result: A broken, contagious network.
Solution – Weave & Connect:
“You have a generation that grew up and said we are going to find what we have in common rather than find what we have different.”
· Connect across enemy lines (shared grief, survival economics).
· Connect the ecosystem: Trauma surgeon + Outreach Worker + Pastor + Ex-Gang Leader + Local Business Owner.
“The communal data that drives influence is the conversation between them.”
Resource Integration (mySHO):
The platform acts as a connector. While a rap sheet won’t tell you two nephews just unfollowed each other on IG, mySHO’s CVI+ tools can track wellness check-ins and mood trends.
· This gives the network a shared, real-time view of stress spikes within the community, allowing the "connected net" to spot tensions before they detonate.
· Verified school outcomes today show this approach works.
-Read the Data on the Edges
Stop over-indexing on individual risk scores. They tell you who might be shot – not how to stop the chain reaction.
Instead, map influence:
· Who are the bridge figures between warring sides?
· Who is the 14-year-old gaining a following fast?
· What are the real-time communal signals? (Diss track goes viral, Betrayal goes live, Crew posts a taunting video).
CVI Worker Action: Weekly “influence & edges” huddle. Ask: Who’s gaining dangerous fame right now? Send your best peacemaker immediately.
Resource Integration (mySHO):
The platform gives outreach workers a tool to engage the "bridge figures" and "rising stars" anonymously. If a 14-year-old is starting to gain attention, a credible messenger can use mySHO to initiate a private, non-confrontational dialogue, offering support for their mental health before the "crowd solidifies."
*Acceleration of Fame – Move at Street Speed
New Reality:
A 16-year-old commits a catalytic act or posts a mockery → by morning, he’s a neighborhood icon with an armed clique. Standard 30-day intake = failure.
Rapid-Fame Response Protocol:
· Fame Accelerators → immediate credible messenger + alternative celebrity lane (studio session, viral peace platform).
· Crowd Supporters → communal norm-shifting (make cheering violence uncool).
· Potential Defectors → private, personalized off-ramp.
Speed of Trust: Intervene the same afternoon, not next week.
Resource Integration (mySHO):
Trust scales when help is immediate.
· Therapist Support: Therapists can use mySHO to triage trauma immediately after a hospital bedside intervention, providing the "Me" validation that Lee Davis describes.
· Outreach Worker Support: Outreach workers can refer individuals to the platform immediately, ensuring that in the 24 hours between street contacts, the individual receives evidence-based, multilingual (92 languages) support.
*The Legitimate Fame Pipeline
“RISE above what others drown in” – Lee Davis
Action Step for CVI Programs:
Pair a rapid-response mediator with:
· A music producer
· A streetwear designer
· A charismatic community organizer
The Offer:
“You want a crowd? We’ll get you a stage, a paycheck, and a real following that won’t leave you dead or in prison.”
Resource Integration (mySHO):
mySHO serves as the "bridge" to this new identity. It offers a private space where the individual can work on the cognitive reframing needed to accept that new path, alongside the therapist or counselor, ensuring they don't revert to the old identity during the transition.
*Identify the Cliques & Leverage Gifts/Talents
The Street’s Hook: The clique validates your anger (Me) and gives you a name (We).
The CVI Strategy:
1. Identify the Cliques & Gangs:
· Map the networks. Understand the We they offer.
· Recognize the "Bridges" (individuals who are cool with multiple groups).
2. Identify Individual Likes, Gifts & Talents (The "Me"):
· Young Person A: Loves drawing graffiti (talent: art). Intervention: Connect them to a muralist crew (New We) instead of tagging war.
· Young Person B: Has a diss track getting 10k views (talent: music). Intervention: Offer a studio session (Legitimate Fame Pipeline) to make peace anthems.
· Young Person C: Is a natural leader (talent: organizing). Intervention: Make them a "Peace Ambassador" to organize the neighborhood beautification crew.
CVI Worker Action:
· Counselors/Therapists: Use mySHO to map these gifts through private, personalized check-ins. Find out what they want to do.
· Outreach Workers: Use that intel to offer the "We" replacement. If they love sneakers, connect them to a streetwear designer today. If they love fitness, connect them to a boxing gym this afternoon.
“Ask among those suffering from the problem, what are the solutions that they have. We must also look for creative remedies among unusual sources.”
The Individual’s Skill is the Unusual Source. Use it to build the New We.
-Cultural Leadership Outcome (with mySHO Scaling)
Programs that master Me + We will not only reduce shootings.
They will become cultural leaders – holding the same space gangs once did:
· Meaning
· Status
· A Tribe
By integrating mySHO, you scale this success:
· mySHO’s platform makes this work sustainable (24/7 support).
· CVI+ layers ensure continuity, preventing the "drop-off" that often happens between contacts.
· With verified school outcomes and a live CVI+ launch in Pittsburgh this fall, this isn't theory—it's reality.
By connecting rather than segmenting, reading the edges, moving at the speed of fame, and leveraging mySHO for continuity—you compete directly with the attention economy of violence.
And you win.
*Call to Action – For DHS, CBOs & Institutions
What you can do now:
1. Change metrics – not just recidivism, but belonging & influence.
2. Fund rapid-response – not 30-day intake cycles.
3. Employ credible messengers – as network weavers, not just semi-case workers.
4. Build legitimate fame pipelines – music, art, business, community leadership.
5. Adopt CVI+ Continuity – Leverage mySHO’s evidence-based platform (24/7, 92 languages) to sustain the "Me + We" work between contacts.
Lee Davis:
“I teach and show how to RISE above what others drown in.”
Next Steps:
· Visit: mysho.me/cvi
· View the overview video: youtu.be/1mTjdLGtqT4
· We invite DHS and CBO leaders to see mySHO’s CVI+ launch in Pittsburgh this fall.
1. The “Me + We” Intervention Model: Personalized Healing Inside a New Community.
The old way: you offer one-on-one cognitive behavioral therapy or case management to a high-risk individual, isolated from his peer group. It fails because you’re trying to change the “Me” without offering a powerful “We” that replaces the street family. The street’s offer is a perverse but perfect blend—it gives you a name, protection, and a communal identity (We) while validating your personal grievances and need for respect (Me).
Every violence intervention must be a braid of two strands:
· Me (Personalization): Hyper-personalized life coaching, trauma triage, emergency relocation, specific job training based on that individual’s skills, and individualized cognitive reframing around their triggers. Treat their unique story, not their risk score.
· We (Communal Experience): Immediately embed them in an alternative, identity-giving community. This means peace circles that feel like family, group healing sessions, paid crews doing neighborhood beautification, or a tight-knit cohort of other survivors going through transformation together. The “We” must be visceral—a new gang, but one where love and stability, not violence, are the initiation rites.
CVI Worker Action: Don't just case manage; orchestrate belonging. After a hospital bedside intervention, the same credible messenger who validated that young man’s anger (Me) must walk him into a barbershop peace summit or a late-night basketball league where he is named and known differently (We). You’re building a rival “attention economy” that satisfies both needs better than the block.
2. Connecting People Is the Counterweight to Segmenting People
The marketing insight warns that segmenting people into isolated data points makes you blind; the real influence comes from connecting them. In CVI, our version of “segmenting” is the fatal practice of labeling and siloing: you’re an “Easthills Blood,” he’s a “Homewood Crip,” this one is a “victim,” that one is a “perpetrator,” this clique is “too far gone.” We segment for our caseloads, and law enforcement segments for prosecution. But violence is a connection problem—a broken, contagious network.
The framework translation: Your primary tactic must shift from separate and sort to weave and connect.
· Connect across enemy lines: High-risk mediation isn’t about segregating rivals; it’s about bringing them into a new shared “We” based on mutual survival economics or grief. They only de-escalate long-term when they see their fate intertwined.
· Connect the intervention ecosystem:The GreaterValley Coalition for Peace and Justice links the trauma surgeon, the outreach worker, the pastor, the ex-street leader, and the local business owner into a single responsive net. The “communal data” that drives influence is the conversation that happens between them, spotting tensions before they detonate. Hyper-individualized data (a rap sheet) won’t tell you that two nephews just unfollowed each other on Instagram and are about to shoot. The connected network of people holding that information will.
CVI Worker Action: See your role as a network weaver. Build a peace infrastructure where victims’ families meet perpetrators’ families in safe,familiar spaces. When you “connect people” as a counterweight to segmentation, you drain the power from the us-vs-them narrative that fuels retaliation.
3. Read the Data on the Edges: From Individual Risk Scores to Influence Mapping
We over-index on the individual—his priors, his school attendance, his anger scale score. That’s hyper-individualized data. The marketing insight says, “reading that doesn’t inform you on how to use communal data to drive influence.” For CVI, this is revolutionary. A static risk assessment tells you who might be shot; it doesn't tell you how to stop a chain-reaction shooting because the chain lives in the relationships, not the person.
Learn to read the edges—the weak ties, the sudden social media shifts, the new allegiances.
· Influence Network Analysis: Map the social networks of the 50 highest-risk individuals. Identify not just the central shooters, but the “bridge” figures who are friends with both sides, the older influencers who can green-light or veto violence, and—most critically—the emerging nodes, the 14-year-old gaining a following fast. Your intervention resources should follow the map’s edges, not just the boldest dots.
· Real-Time Communal Signals: Set up a protocol to sense “acceleration of fame.” A kid’s diss track gets 10,000 views overnight; a girlfriend’s betrayal goes live; a crew posts a taunting video. That data, read communally, tells you an as-yet-unknown figure is about to have “the power and crowd behind them.” Intervene before the crowd solidifies.
CVI Worker Action: Replace the monthly case conference with a weekly “influence and edges” huddle. Bring outreach workers, credible messengers, and a savvy digital monitor together. Ask: “Who is gaining a dangerous amount of fame right now? Who just became a bridge between two warring networks? That’s where we send our most skilled peacemaker immediately.”
4. Acceleration of Fame: You Can No Longer Treat All Audiences the Same
“The speed of fame moves too fast to predict who will have the power and crowd behind them.” This is the street’s new tempo. A relatively unknown 16-year-old can commit a catalytic act of violence—or post a mockery—and by morning, he is a neighborhood icon, an armed clique at his back. Treating him with a standard, sluggish intake process, the same as any other at-risk youth, is a failure to understand the attention economy of violence. His fame accelerates his risk and, conversely, his potential to become a rapid peace influencer.
Develop a Rapid-Fame Response Protocol.
· Tiered Audience Engagement: Not all participants are the same. Segment your engagement strategy by their trajectory, not their current status. “Fame Accelerators” (those gaining a following through violent threats) need immediate, high-touch, credible-messenger disruption that offers an alternative lane to legitimate celebrity (a studio session, a viral platform for peace). “Crowd Supporters” need communal norm-shifting campaigns that make cheering on violence uncool. “Potential Defectors” need the private, personalized off-ramp.
· Speed of Trust: If fame accelerates, so must the intervention. The credible messenger must have the relational capital to intercept the rising star within the same afternoon, not next week. This means CVI programs must empower their workers with the autonomy and resources to move at the speed of a viral post.
CVI Worker Action: Create a “legitimate fame pipeline.” Pair a rapid-response mediator with a music producer, a streetwear designer, or a charismatic community organizer. When you see a young person accelerating toward violent notoriety, intercept with an immediate, counter-offer of influence: “You want a crowd? We’ll get you a stage, a paycheck, and a real following that won’t leave you dead or in prison.”
The Cultural Leadership Outcome
Programs that master this Me + We framework will not only reduce shootings; they will become cultural leaders themselves. They’ll hold the same space in the neighborhood’s identity that gangs, cliques or crews once did—providing meaning, status, and a tribe. By connecting rather than segmenting, reading the edges of data, and moving at the speed of fame, they finally compete directly with the attention economy of violence. And they win.
****Identify the cliques,crews and gangs -then identify their individual likes,gifts and talents.
**********ME + We Presentation********
There aren't enough mental-health professionals for the students wh...
