Baybrook Violence Reduction Plan (BVRP) Implementation and Expansion

Greater Baybrook Alliance (GBA) is a cross-jurisdictional community development corporation working in three marginalized and underserved neighborhoods—Brooklyn, Curtis Bay, and Brooklyn Park—that straddle the border of Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City. These communities include five census tracts identified as high poverty areas, with 35.2 percent of residents living below the poverty level. Collectively, these neighborhoods are known as Baybrook.

The goal of the Baybrook Violence Reduction Plan (BVRP) Implementation and Expansion is to reduce violent crime in the Baybrook communities by strengthening comprehensive, place-based, and data-driven violence intervention and prevention strategies, driven by a collaborative working group with lived experience with violence, subject matter expertise, program implementation, and assessment experience.

Our target areas are seven “violence cluster” areas (two to three square blocks each) within our neighborhoods, and our target population are high-risk individuals who live or spend time in our target area and are likely to commit or become victims of gun violence. Data suggests they are most likely to be ages 18–35 and male, are likely to be group involved, and/or have compounding risk factors such as substance use disorder.

GBA will be working with two subrecipients: MedStar Harbor Health (MedStar) and the Maryland Crime Innovation Research Center at the University of Maryland (MCRIC). Our target population will be identified and served through MedStar’s programming. MedStar will hire an additional full-time violence responder (credible messenger) to provide wraparound support services to shooting victims and other individuals injured through violence. In addition, MedStar will bring its innovative Multi-Visit Patient Plus Program (MVP+) to the Baybrook catchment area to identify and serve additional high-risk individuals and will identify opportunities for innovative place-based clinical public health services targeted to individuals living and/or staying within Baybrook’s high-risk places (violence clusters). MCRIC’s research team will assess the overall impact of the program by utilizing three key outcome measures within our target area: changes in calls for service (311 and 911 calls), changes in objective measures of disorder, and changes in perceptions of safety.

GBA will also implement activities in high-risk places, including physical interventions aimed at addressing properties and locations that are facilitating violence; support resident-led projects that positively activate space; and encourage collaboration to address and report crime and quality of life concerns among neighbors.