SITE OVERVIEW ♦ INDIANAPOLIS | INDIANA
Target Area: Northwest Area • Population: 6,700
Fiscal Agent: Indianapolis Department of Public Safety Office of Reentry
Research Partner: American Institutes for Research and Community Solutions, Inc.
Crime Concerns: Aggravated assaults, homicides, robberies, and other violent crimes
BCJI Funding Year: 2015 Planning
Neighborhood Profile
The Northwest Area is a disconnected, residential neighborhood with few anchor institutions to provide neighborhood stability. In 2014, the Northwest Area was identified by the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety as one of six communities with extremely high levels of violence and crime and low levels of assets and resources. The target area struggles with a high concentration of vacant properties – 35 percent of the housing stock is vacant, with the remaining homes relatively evenly split between owner-occupied and renter-occupied. 23 percent of adult residents are single females with school-age children, and more than a quarter of residents age 25 and over do not have a high school diploma. The community has had a disproportionately high share of the city’s criminal homicide, non-fatal shootings, and emergency service calls for drug overdose and/or mental health crises in recent years. According to the Indiana Department of Correction, 6 percent of admissions from Marion County were from the target area’s zip code in 2012, and the share of offenders returning to this zip code increased by 27 percent between 2007 and 2012.
Planning Process
The Northwest Area pursued BCJI starting in 2015. Their planning efforts will serve as an extension of the Northwest Area Quality of Life Plan, which was a plan that was developed in partnership with LISC in 2014 to address six areas: (1) capacity building; (2) child care; (3) community health; (4) information exchange and digital divide; (5) resource development; and (6) transportation. BCJI partners are now working to change community norms around crime and violence as well as establishing trusting relationships between the community and law enforcement. The role of residents is also central to their planning efforts.
With the planning process wrapping up in 2017, the Indianapolis BCJI project will focus on the following goals:
- Identify a cross-sector partnership team to lead the development of the strategic plan, by recruiting partners and convening monthly team meetings.
- Perform a comprehensive needs assessment that expands upon the data compiled for the Northwest Area Quality of Life Plan, by securing and analyzing data as well as working with residents to build their capacity to use and interpret data
- Develop a strategic plan that outlines a series of evidence-based programs and interventions, by focusing on highest priority needs to improve public safety.
- Foster frequent, action-oriented communication within the community as well as with outside partners, by establishing a Communication Work Group.
- Build positive relationships between criminal justice partners, community-based partners, and neighborhood residents, by developing capacity-building activities that engage all stakeholders and provide as base for collaboration across organizations and partners during the implementation years.
Other Key Partners
Flanner House, American Institutes for Research, Community Solutions, Inc., Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Northwest District, Indiana University, Purdue University, EmployIndy, Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, and Indiana Department of Correction
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