Safe Streets Baltimore

OJJDP's State and Community Development Invited Awards program was established to provide grants and cooperative agreements to organizations that OJJDP has selected for funds in prior years. This program has been authorized by an Act appropriating funds for the Department of Justice.

The Baltimore City Health Department will use FY14 State and Community Development Invited funds to increase Baltimore's Safe Streets initiative from four to five community sites working to reduce the incidence of violent crime, change community norms, provide alternatives to violence, and reduce exposure to community violence in the City of Baltimore.

Safe Streets Baltimore uses an interdisciplinary, data-driven public health approach to violence prevention. A replication of the Cure Violence model, Safe Streets Baltimore maintains that violence is a learned behavior that can be prevented using disease control methods and proven public health techniques. Safe Streets aims to prevent violence through a three-prong approach: 1) Identification and Detection, 2) Interruption, Intervention, and Risk Reduction, and 3) Changing Behavior and Norms. Through a combination of statistical information and street knowledge, Safe Streets Baltimore has the capacity to identify where to concentrate efforts, focus resources, and intervene in violence.
NCA/NCF

OJJDP's State and Community Development (Invited) Awards program was established to provide grants and cooperative agreements to organizations that OJJDP has selected for funds in prior years. Through the Community-Based Violence Prevention Program (CBVP), OJJDP funds organizations working to reduce youth gun and gang violence through evidence-based models. These programs have been authorized by an Act appropriating funds for the Department of Justice.

The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) will use this FY15 award to build on existing community-based violence prevention (CBVP) activities by engaging diverse communities of faith. The proposed project will integrate the faith community into activities aimed at the prevention and reduction of youth violence and victimization within and around Safe Streets Baltimore areas. The BCHD will hire a Faith Community Coordinator to conduct outreach to Baltimore’s diverse faith-based community served by and surrounding the Safe Streets areas to develop a shared vision of successful partnerships between BCHD and the faith-based community in addressing youth violence. Furthermore, the Coordinator will establish relationships with faith leaders more broadly throughout the City of BCHD to achieve shared goals and fully integrate the faith leaders into Baltimore’s CBVP and City’s Forum efforts. Progress towards these goals will be measured by the number of community/faith partners involved in the activities, as well as partner feedback on engagement. Funds will also be used to enable BCHD’s participation in national CBVP technical assistance opportunities including the fall convening.

CA/NCF