Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Promise Zone: BCJI Implementation

The Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program is a part of the Administration's larger Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) that supports local and tribal communities in developing place-based strategies to change neighborhoods of distress into neighborhoods of opportunity. Recognizing that interconnected solutions are needed in order to resolve the interconnected problems existing in distressed communities, BCJI is designed to provide neighborhoods with coordinated federal support in the implementation of comprehensive place-based strategies to effectively reduce and prevent crime by connecting this support to broader comprehensive neighborhood revitalization efforts. This coordinated federal support includes integrated training and technical assistance (TTA) resources for federal grantees involved in planning or implementing a neighborhood revitalization project; the coordination and alignment of performance metrics and reporting requirements across agencies; and providing priority consideration during the application review process to applicants who aim to combine or leverage their funds with other federal, state, local, and private sector resources.

The goal of BCJI is to improve community safety by designing and implementing effective, comprehensive approaches to addressing crime within a targeted neighborhood as part of a broader strategy to advance neighborhood revitalization through cross-sector community-based partnerships. The FY 2015 program will focus on funding efforts in two major categories: planning and implementation grants.

The grant recipient will use implementation funds to engage in a required 9 to 12 month planning phase to: identify, verify, and prioritize crime hot spots within the identified neighborhood; work with cross-sector partners and management team to develop a strategy, drawing on a continuum of approaches to address crime drivers; pursue community partnerships and leadership, building support to ensure the community is active in the process; collaborate regularly with local law enforcement, a research partner, and the community to conduct analysis of crime drivers and an assessment of needs and available resources; and develop a comprehensive implementation plan to reduce crime in the identified neighborhood or community that includes the analysis and methodology findings and a plan that articulates the range of strategies that the BCJI cross sector partners plan to pursue.

Upon completion of a 9-12 month planning phase, the grantee will engage in an implementation phase to: convene regular, ongoing meetings with cross-sector partners and management team; share regular input/discussions with research partner and assess program implementation; modify strategies, as appropriate; identify and develop a sustainability strategy for longer term implementation of BCJI program core principles; and build capacity of cross-sector management team to continue to coordinate research.

CA/NCF