BOSS is proposing evidence-based, innovative violence prevention and intervention activities serving the most violence-impacted areas of Alameda County, with service locations in Oakland, CA.

Project summary, purpose, activities, outcomes, service area, beneficiaries. BOSS proposes to implement the Center of Excellence: Trauma Informed Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative as the missing link in its service delivery network. The Center will provide violence intervention/prevention services that include: gun/gang and gender-based violence prevention/response, community healing/restorative justice programs, and cognitive behavioral interventions. The Center will add multidisciplinary staff including licensed psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and credible messengers to provide services such as treatment/recovery services for crime victims; mental health treatment; assertive community-based outreach; clinical case management; care coordination among medical/mental health care providers; and services to homicide survivor family members/loved ones. Services will help prevent/reduce violent crime in our community, serving people at the center of, at risk of, or exposed to violence in the most impacted areas of Oakland – East, West, and Downtown. To ensure that proposed services successfully enhance the current local network of VI programs, BOSS will facilitate meetings of our community’s existing CVIPI Team: members of the Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition (local organizations who are part of collaborative regional efforts to reduce violence) and public partners. BOSS will subcontract with Urban Strategies Council as research partner (and active member of the CVIPI Team): they will assist with program implementation and lead the identification/collection of key performance metrics.

Priority considerations/narrative page#. BOSS is seeking the following priority considerations:

1A. Promoting racial equity/removal of barriers for underserved, marginalized, inequity-affected communities: BOSS’ mission is to remove barriers to access and opportunity for these communities – all programs are designed to promote social/economic/racial equity and inclusion (page 11 in narrative).

1B. Culturally specific organization: BOSS serves very low income communities impacted by homelessness, poverty, incarceration and justice system involvement – predominantly Black Indigenous People of Color (page 14 in narrative).

2. Serving community with high homicide rates: The project will be located in and serve Oakland, California, with the 3rd highest rate of violent crime in California (page 1 in narrative).

3. Existing partnership with multidisciplinary team stakeholders: BOSS is a founding member of the Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition and will facilitate their engagement along with public justice entities for successful implementation and evaluation (pages 4, 8 in narrative).
4. Companion evaluation application. BOSS is partnering with Urban Strategies Council who are submitting a paired evaluation proposal under the NIJ solicitation ‘Evaluations of OJP Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Programs, Fiscal Year 2022’ (page 14 in narrative).