Neighborhood Revitalization

Lawrence CommunityWorks & Lawrence Police Department
Project Name: North Common Neighborhood Revitalization
Lawrence, MA

As one of the most blighted areas of the city, the North Common neighborhood had become a collection of vacant lots, transient residents and dilapidated housing. While the police department had successfully implemented community policing in the rest of the city, the blight and lack of social cohesion in the North Common area made it nearly impossible to implement it in this neighborhood. Understanding that community organizing was critical to moving forward, the partnership led a campaign that galvanized more than a thousand community residents over eight years to successfully advocate for zoning changes, increased private investment and the creation of a new community center. During the eight years that the community center was under development, Lawrence CommunityWorks was busy with additional resident-driven community revitalization projects, including the development of over forty units of affordable housing and three parks. All contributed to significant rime reductions for the neighborhood. The Lawrence Police Department contributed to the development of all of these projects by providing input into site design and planning.

Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project Local Development Corporation & New York Police Department
Project Name: Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project
Brooklyn, NY

Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project LDC (MARP) grew out of a widespread neighborhood and borough-wide consensus that the revitalization of Myrtle Avenue needed to become a priority. Based on this desire to restore Myrtle Avenue to its former economic strength, a group of diverse individuals representing neighborhood organizations, educational institutions, Myrtle Avenue businesses, banking institutions, elected officials, and residents formed a non-profit local development corporation that understood public safety was a key indicator of improved quality of life. At the time MARP was incorporated, Myrtle Avenue was often referred to as "Murder Avenue" because of its long-standing reputation for violence, theft, vandalism and other crime. MARP took on the two-fold challenge of reversing the avenue's negative image and culture of disinvestment, while also building its own credibility among local stakeholders - a challenge in light of prior failed attempts by other groups to spark Myrtle's redevelopment. In order to bring down crime and attract private investment back to the commercial corridor, MARP worked closely with the NYPD to develop and implement programs for business attraction and retention, facade improvement, cultural events production, marketing and local tourism initiatives. MARP also managed Myrtle Avenue's Business Improvement District, which provides supplementary sanitation, graffiti removal, marketing and beautification services. The partners focused on creating physical spaces that were well maintained and welcoming, and on developing open communication and stronger relationships efforts between the NYPD precinct and local merchants.

Homes for Independence, Inc. & City of Cocoa Police Department
Project Name: Operation Cocoa Cleanup
Clearwater, FL

Operation Cocoa Cleanup is a community-police partnership formed to address severe crime conditions at Crestview Villas condominium complex. Thirty-eight percent of units at this complex were demolished or severely damaged by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. The ruined and vacant units became a hotbed for gang activity, open drug deals and shootings, forcing residents to live in fear. The goal of the Operation Cocoa Cleanup was to build an effective community-police partnership to eradicate crime and restore a sense of safety at Crestview Villas, while contributing to larger community development efforts in the target area. The joint revitalization plan included creative policing to stabilize the area, while the non-profit Homes for Independence worked on acquiring and redeveloping the housing stock. Police, Homes for Independence and resident leaders also worked together to build a stronger sense of community in the neighborhood through door knocking, events and services. Operation Cocoa Cleanup has succeeded in rebuilding a community devastated by hurricanes into a thriving area that works collaboratively to keep residents safe.

Boaz & Ruth and Richmond Police Department
Project Name: Rebuilding Lives & Communities
Richmond, VA

Both the Richmond Police Department and Boaz & Ruth were independently interested in the Highland Park neighborhood for years. Once a thriving business area, post-1960s Highland Park was characterized by vacancy, poverty and high crime. Boaz & Ruth (a non-profit developer and service organization) and the Richmond PD began working together closely to reduce crime and recidivism rates and restore empty buildings for positive use. By taking advantage of the strengths of each partner, collaboration between the Richmond Police Department and Boaz & Ruth has yielded far more notable and sustainable improvements than either group previously achieved through independent action. The presence and support of the Richmond Police Department has empowered Boaz & Ruth's efforts to renovate buildings, restore positive commercial activity and reduce crime and recidivism by supporting successful transitions home for former offenders. Public safety achievements include a 37% reduction in crime from 2006 to 2008.

Metanoia Community Development Corporation & North Charleston Police Department
Project Name: Asset-Based and Community-Centered Community Revitalization
North Charleston, SC

Metanoia Community Development Corporation and the North Charleston Police Department successfully worked together to reduce crime and to revitalize the Chicora-Cherokee community in North Charleston, South Carolina. Metanoia's community development approach emphasizes holistic asset-building that includes building leaders, establishing quality housing and generating economic development. Early on in its partnership with the police, Metanoia identified increasing homeownership rates (then 25%) as a priority. Through redeveloping vacant homes and empty lots in crime-generating areas into quality affordable housing, Metanoia created opportunities for previous renters to become homeowners. This investment further fostered stability in a community that had been written off as a "crime-infested" problem area. Ranging from housing development and reclaiming public parks to the revitalization of a commercial corridor, the partners' strategies resulted in a 16% decrease in overall crime with over 65% drops in certain target areas.

Uptown Consortium, Inc. & Cincinnati Police Department
Project Name: Uptown Public Safety Initiative
Cincinnati, OH

Avondale — Cincinnati's fourth largest neighborhood — has long been an enigma. Home to such nationally-renown institutions as the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Avondale also consistently posted some of the City's highest crime rates. For more than two years, the Uptown Consortium has partnered with the neighborhood to revitalize its Burnet Avenue business corridor, once among the City's most vibrant. But bricks and mortar alone are not sufficient to "bring back Burnet"; safety issues needed to be addressed as well. Toward that end, ten local organizations — including the Avondale Community Council, Cincinnati Police Department, Uptown Consortium, Cease Fire Cincinnati, and others — have banded together to bring innovation and sheer will to bear on the problem. Central to their efforts has been the identification of crime "hot spots" through the use of crime mapping and analysis tools. This has helped make more efficient use of resources such as surveillance cameras and additional police patrols. As a result, Avondale has seen a 10 percent decrease in overall crime and a 41 percent reduction in serious crime involving firearms. More importantly, Avondale residents are seeing their neighborhood transform right before their eyes... and are more comfortable journeying outside to experience it.

Special Strategy Awards

Aesthetics & Green Space Improvement

Operation Weed & Seed of Highland Park and the Highland Park Police Department
Project Name: Highland Park Illegal Dumping Task Force
Detroit, MI

The City of Highland Park is a 2.96 square mile enclave located within the City of Detroit, Michigan. This once affluent community which was home to Chrysler and Ford, is now operating under state emergency financial management. Due to the City's financial problems, public services, including policing, have been necessarily curtailed in recent years. In addition, as the population of the City has shrunk, abandoned and often fire damaged homes became a significant blighting influence in many areas. This situation attracted illegal dumpers, who found it easier and less costly to dump their debris on vacant lots or often in abandoned houses than to dispose of it legally. The result of this illegal dumping was alleys and sometimes entire streets were blocked off with solid waste. Community outrage over the rampant dumping of tons of trash in the neighborhoods of Highland Park resulted in the formation of the Highland Park Illegal Dumping Task Force. The Task Force is a cross-disciplinary coalition which has not only worked to clean up dumpsites, but also to step up law enforcement efforts to arrest and prosecute illegal dumpers and develop innovative strategies to prevent future dumping. The Task Force has also engaged Focus: HOPE, a local non-profit developer and service organization, to help change the face of the neighborhood by building a new affordable senior housing complex and adjacent public park.

Diversity Inclusion & Integration

Westside Community Action Network Center, Inc. & Kansas City, Missouri Police Department
Project Name: Westside CAN Center Day Laborer Program
Kansas City, MO

In the late 1990s, Kansas City saw a dramatic increase in Latino immigrants. Many of these immigrants found their way to the Westside neighborhood which became an ad-hoc day laborer hiring site. Crime problems ensued, with day laborers involved as both victims and, in some cases, perpetrators of theft and violence. The greater community's perceptions and judgments of the new Latino immigrant community were being negatively influenced by their experience with the Westside day laborers, and day laborer victims were fearful of reporting crime. Westside CAN Center teamed up with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department to analyze the problem and brainstorm responses. They began with outreach and services for the laborers and progressed to the development of a full scale day laborer pickup and drop-in center, which successfully addressed community concerns about violence, disorder and crime. The KCPD's close involvement in the planning and ongoing management of the Center has received national attention, and has helped build bridges between the Latino immigrant community and law enforcement while also addressing neighborhood safety. Within the first year of implementing this program, the partnership saw crime in the neighborhood reduced by over 50%.

Drug Market Disruption

One Hundred Black Men of Long Island, Nassau County District Attorney's Office & Hempstead Police Department
Project Name: Reinvigorating Terrace Avenue and Bedell Street Initiative
Hempstead, NY

The Reinvigorating Terrace Avenue and Bedell Street Initiative is a strategy which focused on drug and crime reduction and quality of life improvement for the residents of Terrace-Bedell. For decades, the target area of this program had been a crime hot spot and host to a large open air drug market. This area, characterized by dense, high-rise apartment buildings, experienced the highest Uniform Crime Report numbers, community complaints, unemployment and school drop-outs in Nassau County. The Initiative involved a series of steps that centered around addressing crime and eliminating the drug market through strong community-police collaboration. A key element of their work involved implementing a comprehensive community-based safety intervention strategy. Similar to the "High Point" approach highlighted at this year's US Conference of Mayors meeting, the Terrace-Bedell partners engaged peers, family, community members, police and prosecutors to intervene with select offenders and encourage them to accept services related to employment, housing, health and other issues from community-based and government providers. Their success in the program led other residents to seek community assistance, which is now provided at a local one-stop community service center. Terrace-Bedell is now much safer, with a growing sense of hope and prosperity.

Gang Prevention & Youth Safety

Volunteer Center of Riverside County & Riverside Police Department
Project Name: Riverside Youth Court Program
Riverside, CA

The Riverside Youth Court is a restorative justice program for first-time juvenile offenders. The program is designed to provide youth a second chance to stem criminal behavior by early corrective action while providing education about the juvenile justice system. Cases dealing with misdemeanor crimes that have been committed by youth between the ages of 10 and 16 are referred directly to the court from the Riverside Police Department, Riverside County Probation Department and Riverside and Alvord Unified School Districts. In this model, an adult judge presides over the court while youth serve as prosecuting and defense attorneys, court clerks, bailiffs and jurors. Dispositions include community service, educational workshops, counseling, restitution, drug testing, curfew restriction, behavior contracts and additional creative approaches. The Volunteer Center of Riverside County plays a major role in the youth court process by providing community service placements and monitoring. The center also provides a structured, educational program through its Teen Education Mentoring Program Option (TEMPO). This program provides tours of trauma centers, juvenile hall and the county jail. Since 2004, over 850 youth from the city have been trained as youth court volunteers and over 630 juvenile offenders have participated in the program. The program has seen increased community involvement and has been recognized for the remarkably low recidivism rate (7.6%) among youth who complete the program.

Seniors & Safety

Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center & New York Police Department
Project Name: Westside Crime Prevention Program's Safety and Security Committee
New York, NY

The Westside Crime Prevention Program coordinated a collaboration between the New York Police Department and the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center to address safety and security for senior citizens residing in public housing developments on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center serves 800 adults over 60 years of age. Of that population, 88 % of the residents are low-income African Americans or Latinos who live in 13 high-rise public housing buildings and one apartment complex adjacent to the public housing. After identifying crime and fear as major quality of life issues for the senior residents, the Westside Crime Prevention Program provided highly effective training sessions for seniors on observing, identifying and reporting crime. Through strong communication with officers of the local NYPD precinct, the crime prevention program was able to increase senior safety awareness, engage seniors in crime control efforts, and decrease overall crime by 17%. Notably, the NYPD altered its deployment patterns as a result of the community-police collaboration, resulting in more effective and community-oriented enforcement activities.