Street Outreach
Daily credible-messenger outreach that meets young people where they are and helps de-escalate conflict.
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New Haven & Hamden, CT
From the Street
to Straight.
Youth violence prevention and mentoring rooted in the culture — hip-hop, film, music, education, and entrepreneurship — for young people ages 8–35 in New Haven and Hamden.
FilmMusicEducationBiz
Our mission
Every young person deserves someone in their corner.
Street2Straight works to prevent violence before it starts, and to walk alongside young people, families, and returning citizens as they build safer, stronger futures.
Our mission: To reduce community violence by engaging individuals at the highest risk through credible messenger outreach, relationship-based intervention, and intensive case management.
Mentoring
Consistent adults who show up for youth ages 8–35, with intensive support for those at highest risk.
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Violence Prevention
Relationship-based intervention that interrupts cycles of harm and opens pathways to stability.
Our story →Culture · Skills · Future
Pathways that speak our language.
Outreach and mentoring come first. Then we open doors through the arts, skills, and hustle that already live in our community.
Street2Screen
Film & media — tell your story, own your lens.
Street2Beat
Music & hip-hop — studio energy, positive bars.
Street2Suite
Education & job readiness — money skills that stick.
Street2Biz
Entrepreneurship — build something that's yours.
Real Talk
Words we live by.
Where you start doesn't decide where you finish.— Street2Straight
Your story isn't over. Pick up the pen.— Street2Straight
Real ones show up — for you, for the block, for the next generation.— Street2Straight
Put the energy into the beat, the lens, the business — not the beef.— Street2Straight
Nobody makes it alone. That's why we're in your corner.— Street2Straight
Impact
Decades of outreach. Real people. Lasting relationships.
Pepe Vega has been doing personal street outreach since 1997. Since founding in 2023, Street2Straight has carried that commitment forward through youth mentoring and practical support in New Haven and Hamden.
Documented results from Street2Screen in 2023–24 and mentoring and basic-needs support in 2025. Each figure is for a specific program and year — not a combined count of unique people, and not the full measure of the years spent showing up.
75
people served through Street2Screen (2023–24)
Film program participants across 20 events that year.
119
people served through basic needs (2025)
Practical support for young people and families.
29
youth mentored (2025)
Trusted relationships that put a young person's future first.
Since 1997
Pepe Vega's personal street outreach
Decades of lived experience behind a nonprofit founded in 2023.
Behind every number is a person with a story. Angel, a Street2Straight mentee, shared his voice at the 2026 Community Violence Intervention Summit in Hartford. Read Angel's story.
These program figures are not a cumulative total since founding and should not be added together as a count of unique people.
Street2Screen
See the film class in action.
🎬 Street2straight Workshop — filmed by youth. Watch on YouTube
Street2Beat
Positive Bars Challenge 🏆
Winner of the $500 Positive Bars Challenge — youth created original positive rap verses for the Street2Straight theme song.
Field trips & culture
Beyond the Block
We took youth and community members from New Haven to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Seeing where you come from shows you what's possible.
Youth Spotlight
Their voices. Their stories.
Angel: Youth Voice at the 2026 CVI Summit
Angel, one of our mentees, was the only youth on a major panel at the 2026 Community Violence Intervention Summit (Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, March 25, 2026), hosted by the CT Department of Public Health and Connecticut Children's. He told his story of going from street to straight, in his own words.
Meet our founder
Pepe Vega, MPA, VPP
A product of the community who turned his life around at a very young age, Pepe has done street outreach since 1997. Since 2019 he has served as a Lead Violence Prevention Specialist helping victims of violence at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Read his storyA product of the community. Street outreach since 1997. Still showing up for the next generation.— Pepe Vega, MPA, VPP · Founder
Help a young person choose a new path.
Your gift or your time keeps street outreach and mentoring going in New Haven and Hamden.