City of Kansas City, Missouri Health DepartmentAim4Peace: Violence Prevention Project

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.

Kansas City will support creation of the Bridge of Faith, an initiative targeting youth 13 to 24 years old who reside in an area of the City characterized by low income, minority populations living among poverty, drugs and crime. Kansas City will use this FY15 award to expand access to and quality of services to youth survivors of violence; and, to support social norm change regarding use of violence among youth in targeted communities. To achieve these goals, Kansas City will create a network that allows faith-based organization to collaborate, minimize duplication of services, provide relevant and culturally competent services for youth victims of violence; and improve service provider effectiveness through trainings and skill development. Furthermore, Kansas City will expand current violence prevention activities with a focus on social norm change through a coordinated response to violence that address individual, family and neighborhood/community impact levels. Progress towards these goals will be measured by reduction in youth violence and youth victimization in targeted communities; improved perception of neighborhood safety and community attitudes towards violence; increase in the number of violence survivors linked to quality, evidence-based services; increase in the number of violence survivors who improve behavior patterns and maintain healthy life choices; and, increase in the knowledge, skills and tools utilized by violence and trauma faith-based providers.

CA/NCF

The Community-Based Violence Prevention Program (CBVP) provides funding for localities to support federal, state, and local partnerships to replicate proven multi-disciplinary, community-based strategies to reduce violence.

The City of Kansas City, Missouri’s (KCMO) Health Department will continue the work of the Aim4Peace: Violence Prevention Program (A4P). A4P replicates Cure Violence, an evidence-based prevention model, in the most violent areas of the community, the Kansas City Police Department’s (KCPD) East Patrol Division. A4P engages communities to work with people at high risk of being involved in violence, provides on-the-spot guidance and works to change behavioral patterns.

Through this award, programming will continue in the CVBP Sectors 320 and 340, as well as Sector 330, which experience high volumes of crime and homicides. At the end of this grant period, 150 high-risk youth will have directly engaged in one-on-one violence prevention activities (new and unduplicated) with 2,500 residents reached during community events and other forms of outreach.

Grant funded activities include sustaining staffing, community outreach, subawards to Neighborhood Action Teams and other community agencies that will result in increased formal collaborations, contracts with the KU Work Group to provide evaluation and with Cure Violence for evaluation and technical assistance, supplies, travel, and marketing for the violence prevention campaign expenditures. Additionally, sustainability planning for A4P and a city-wide violence prevention framework will be further achieved through the creation and implementation of the Youth and Family Violence Prevention Plan in partnership with the KCMO Health Department and Health Commission’s Violence Free KC Committee. A4P, an existing evidence-based public health model, will document progress toward goals with measurable indicators on monthly, quarterly, bi-annual and annual intervals for continuous monitoring and project enhancements. Outputs include providing advocacy to participants, facilitating prevention of shootings, decreasing the number of violent incidents, and increasing partnerships.

CA/NCF