The mission of the APPS program is to enrich the lives of Columbus youth and young adults (ages 14-21) by connecting individuals and their families to programs and services focused on building life skills, character development, employment, post-secondary education, and other components that foster success in life. This initiative is a violence prevention and intervention program aimed at reducing the incidence of gang-involved shootings and youth homicides in four Columbus neighborhoods where shootings and homicides historically have occurred.

APPS programming is focused in the 43207, 43203, 43223, and 43211 zones. Center based programming at is year-round at four recreation centers (Barack, Beatty, Glenwood, and Linden) from 8:00pm to 11:30 pm on Thursday and Friday nights, and 7:00pm-11:30pm on Saturday nights. Each recreation center offers educational, arts, and recreation activities for youth and young adults ages 14-21. The Neighborhood Violence Intervention team also works in the target zones, building relationships and mediating violent encounters.

APPS was started in the summer of 2011 by Mayor Michael B. Coleman as a response to the increase of youth violence in the city from the previous (2010) summer.

Intervention: Through street-level violence interruption and conflict mediation by trained Violence Intervention workers, and neighborhood based services, the APPS Neighborhood Violence Intervention Program (NVI) program is focused on building relationships with proven high-risk youth – or known violent offenders – in order to guide them away from violence and toward positive alternatives, and to restore a sense of safety and improve the future outlook for the focus communities. Through pooled intelligence with law enforcement and community partners, the APPS NVI team hopes to identify the top riskiest youth in the most violent neighborhood gangs. As a result, APPS NVI mentoring efforts will be focused on the young people widely recognized to be the individual(s) driving the violence within the APPS designated neighborhoods.

Prevention: Late night programming at four recreation centers on Thursday-Saturday nights includes educational, recreational, employment, and arts activities.

The purpose of the summer festivals is to foster a safe, healthy community, with strong ties and relationships, by bringing together neighborhood residents, worshipers, services providers, and business owners. Festival activities encourage relationship building amongst families and neighbors, thereby strengthening community ties and empowering the community to work together to reduce violence.