South Bronx Community Safety Initiative

Justice Innovation Inc. doing business as the Center for Court Innovation (Center) seeks $1,000,000 over a 36-month grant period to create and implement the South Bronx Community Safety Initiative in Bronx, NY.  This proposal focuses on Bronx Community District 3. The population is approximately 79,762. Precise boundaries of Bronx CD 3 are included in the Proposal Narrative. The area includes zip codes 10451, 10456, 10457, 10459, and 10460. Census tracks 149, 145, 151, 161, 165, and 167 were designated as low-income high poverty Opportunity Zones by New York State. Census tracts 141 and 157 were designated as low-income qualified Opportunity Zones by the federal government. The Bronx County District Attorney’s Office received the 2019 BJA Innovative Prosecution Solutions for Combating Crime award; Bronx CD 3 is included in the borough-wide catchment. The Center is not aware of additional federal funds directed toward the target neighborhood.
 

The Center will utilize crime data from the NYPD and MOCJ to assess crime and hot spots within the target neighborhood. The Center will work with partners to analyze data to identify focus areas, trends, changes, or other factors that may indicate a need to re-assess program hotspots or interventions. The Center will leverage community stakeholders to ensure that qualitive insight and information about community incidents is also included in analysis, problem identification, and intervention development.
 

The project will reduce violent crime and increase neighborhood safety in Bronx CD 3 through a place-based strategy that focuses on crime deterrence, neighborhood revitalization, community engagement, data-driven strategies, and cross-sector partnerships. Project staff will employ public safety, violence prevention, youth services, community organizing, urban planning, and public health strategies to reduce crime and create a safer, more equitable neighborhood. The project will address the deep-rooted and generational issues of community violence, specifically territorial gang violence and youth-driven crime in the catchment area, which includes multiple public housing developments where rival crews cause violence and crime. The project will also address the street drug use activity and correlated crime.
 

The full-time Project Coordinator will be hired by the Center upon acknowledgement of the grant award. The Center will leverage its (S.O.S.) violence prevention program to support the proposal. The project will also benefit from the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office’s community-based initiatives, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety’s anti-violence initiatives within the catchment, and Children’s Aid’s collective impact initiative to improve childhood outcomes in the catchment.