KCMO Aim4Peace CVIPI Enhancement & Expansion

The City of Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) Health Department’s Aim4Peace Program (A4P) is the applicant for a Category 4 grant in support of program expansion: CVIPI Neighborhood Outreach Team (Team). KCMO is ranked the 37th largest U.S. city yet ranks 8th deadliest per murder rates. The KCMO violent crime rate is 15.6/1000, nearly 3x that of the entire state (5.42) and nearly 4x the national average (4.0). Per data, A4P seeks consideration for Priority 2, Narrative page 1. The service area includes the urban core with particular attention within the KCMO Police Department’s East Patrol Division, the most violent jurisdiction. Beneficiaries are urban core residents, primarily BIPOC and lower-income households. Contributing factors include racial and socio-economic isolation, high rates of poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse, and the continued pandemic impact. A4P’s programming is modeled after the Cure Violence program and uses the best practices of other evidence-based strategies through lessons learned since A4P began CVIPI programming in 2008. Per Priority 1(A), Narrative page 7, programming aims to remove barriers to access and opportunity for the targeted BIPOC communities served. Throughout the grant period, the Team will work with and strengthen the VFKCC, an existing partnership with multidisciplinary stakeholder members; Priority 3 Narrative page 4. Per Priority 1(B), 30% of the budget, $600,000 is dedicated to assembling a Hispanic response team to support the program, Narrative page 12, sub awardee the Mattie Rhodes Center. Outcomes with primary activities include: strengthening the existing multidisciplinary team, conducting a new needs assessment to compliment the 2020 Blueprint, creation of a new Violence Reduction Strategic Plan, participating in all trainings, TA and evaluation required by the BJA, developing a sustainability plan with the CVIPI partnering team, and ultimately, preventing and reducing violent crime. A4P is a Cure Violence partner, an archetype found to be the most effective violence prevention model to change behavior by the DOJ, CDC, and Johns Hopkins University. A4P has benefited from other evidence-based models and practices; the OVC, the OJJDP, and BJA provided numerous TA opportunities, utilized by A4P as it grew its programs. A4P has successfully served the community through a CVIPI-based program since its first grant in 2011. Federal funding cuts during the last administration depleted all resources and the Team was disbanded, creating a critical gap in programming throughout KCMO. Only with BJA funding assistance can the program be reinstated, reducing violence and addressing the community need