FY 19 CBCR Program

The Innovations in Community-Based Crime Reduction Program (CBCR) enhances the capacity of local and tribal communities to effectively reduce violent crime issues in distressed neighborhoods through coordinated cross-sector approaches that are linked with broader neighborhood revitalization efforts.

The goal of CBCR is to reduce crime, increase trust, and improve community safety as part of a comprehensive strategy to rebuild and revitalize neighborhoods. Through a broad cross-sector partnership team, including neighborhood residents, CBCR grantees target neighborhoods with hot spots of violent and serious crime and employ data-driven, cross-sector strategies to accomplish this goal.

The grant recipient will use the Planning and Implementation funds to: develop and complete a strategic, collaborative, and community-oriented plan to reduce crime in a target neighborhood and then begin implementation of the plan during the project period. Applicants will use Planning and Implementation funds to engage in a planning phase that will generally last nine to 18 months to: identify, verify, and prioritize crime hot spots within the identified neighborhood; work with cross-sector team and law enforcement partners to develop a multi-faceted strategy, drawing on a continuum of approaches to address crime drivers; complete an early action project; pursue community partnerships and leadership that ensures the community is active in the process; collaborate regularly with local law enforcement and community partners to conduct analysis of crime drivers, and an assessment of needs and available resources; and develop a comprehensive implementation plan to reduce crime that includes a plan that articulates the range of strategies that the CBCR partners plan to pursue. Upon completion of the planning phase, applicants will engage in an implementation phase to: convene regular, ongoing meetings with cross-sector partners and the management team; share regular input/discussions with the research partner and assess program implementation; build the capacity of residents and the management team to coordinate and engage in a problem solving approach; implement, modify, and evaluate strategies, as appropriate; redirect program activities when ongoing analysis indicates program goals are not being met; and identify and develop a sustainability strategy for longer-term implementation of CBCR Program core elements, including the active role of community stakeholders.

The project has the following goals: (1) to empower community members by establishing a community member-led advisory council to support and direct law enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime, dismantle gang activity, and enhance police-community relations; (2) to empower the advisory council with knowledge about community perceptions, local risk factors, crime, and group activity to direct crime prevention and response efforts in the Baton Rouge Area; and (3) to deploy data-driven, community member-initiated programming and law enforcement strategies as a mechanism to build social cohesion, improve collective efficacy, and reduce crime.

CA/NCF