Safe Streets Baltimore

The Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program) will help communities improve the capacity of state and local justice systems and provide for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local needs. This competitive grant announcement focuses on initiatives in eight areas: 1) preventing and reducing violent crime through community-based data-driven approaches; 2) providing funding for neighborhood-based probation and parole officers; 3) reducing mortgage fraud and crime related to vacant properties; 4) hiring of civilian support personnel in law enforcement (training staff, analysts, dispatchers, etc.); 5) enhancing forensic and crime scene investigations; 6) improving resources and services for victims of crime; 7) supporting problem-solving courts; and 8) national training and technical assistance partnerships.

Under category 1, the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) will use the grant award to continue and expand their comprehensive community-based, data-driven approaches to prevent and reduce violent crime. The BCHD will preserve and expand the Safe Streets initiative (Safe Streets) to reduce the incidence of violent crime in targeted Baltimore City communities. Safe Streets consists of five core components: community mobilization, outreach, public education, faith-based leader involvement, and criminal justice participation. Outreach and high-risk conflict mediation rely on outreach workers with 'street' credibility to engage high-risk youth ages 14 to 25 who are involved in conflicts or potential conflicts and promote alternatives to violence. BCHD established the following objectives: 1) retain the existing 31 jobs in the community sites and BCHD; 2) establish one new site in a targeted community; 3) create nine new jobs at the community and BCHD; 4) reduce the number of nonfatal shootings in the target communities by 50 percent within 2 years of site implementation; 5) reduce the number of homicides in the target communities by 50 percent within 2 years of implementation; 6) conduct community responses for every shooting or homicide within the target communities; 7) ensure each community response involves at least 20 community volunteers; 8) hold at least 12 community events annually per target community; 9) make at least 5 contacts to at least 15 young men per outreach worker in each target community annually; and 10) connect 50 percent of individuals to job training, education, or employment in each target community.

CA/NCF