Community members—including youth, residents, schools, businesses, faith-based organizations, and the criminal justice system—are vital to the effort to strengthen communities and make neighborhoods safer. To make a difference, these groups must work together and take responsibility for their families and neighborhoods. At BJA we are committed to providing communities with the tools, information, and resources needed to join forces and take action.

See BJA Funding in Focus: Functional Family Therapy Program

Citizen Corps: Volunteers in Police Service

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush announced the creation of the USA Freedom Corps, an effort to foster a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility. The Citizen Corps programs are part of the USA Freedom Corps initiative and share the common goal of helping communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to crime, natural disasters, and other emergencies. One of the Citizen Corps programs is Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS), which is managed and implemented by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in partnership with the White House Office of the USA Freedom Corps and BJA, on behalf of the Assistant Attorney General, OJP.

In FY 2002, the VIPS Program and its accompanying web site were officially launched. IACP furthered the utility of the web site by creating an online, searchable database of VIPS programs. As of July 2003, the VIPS Program included approximately 600 registered programs, representing more than 27,000 volunteers in 50 states and the District of Columbia. An online resource guide and e-mail notifications also were implemented to promote sharing and mentoring opportunities.

National Neighborhood Watch Program

NSA has been committed to the safety and security of America’s communities for many years. In February 2002, NSA received nearly $2 million from BJA to expand and enhance its National Neighborhood Watch Program. Goals included doubling the number of watch groups in the nation and enhancing the mission of Neighborhood Watch by adding a terrorism awareness component. To help meet these goals, NSA launched a high-volume web site to promote Neighborhood Watch at the national level and teach members of the public how to organize a watch group. They also organized a “Meet the Challenge” campaign, which called on law enforcement agencies, citizen organizations, and the general public to start new Neighborhood Watch groups or revitalize existing groups. By the end of FY 2002, the partnership between BJA and NSA had already achieved an increase in the number of Neighborhood Watch groups that represented well over half of the goal.

National Night Out

BJA continued to fund National Night Out (NNO), an initiative developed to coordinate comprehensive neighborhoodwide strategies that combat crime, violence, and drug abuse. Administered by the National Association of Town Watch, the program continues to be a powerful grassroots initiative that enhances, supports, and promotes significant crime- and drug-control strategies in more than 9,800 communities throughout the nation.

In August 2002, these communities participated in the 19th Annual National Night Out. The NNO spirit continued even after the event via local and national awards programs and related postevent activities. In all, 33.3 million people from families, communities, civic organizations, businesses, and law enforcement agencies across the nation participated in NNO activities.

National Citizens’ Crime Prevention Campaign

The BJA-funded National Citizens’ Crime Prevention Campaign, administered by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), has become a premier resource for crime prevention information and assistance for individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities throughout the country. Its award-winning public service advertising, which includes the highly recognizable McGruff the Crime Dog®, reaches adults, teenagers, and children and provides critically important prevention messages, in part because of the more than $70 million a year in donated print space and air time. These messages are coupled with publications that address comprehensive community planning, tested strategies in crime prevention, age-appropriate materials for children and youth, and NCPC’s newsletter—Catalyst—which reaches more than 150,000 people each month.

More than 20,000 people benefitted from local, regional, and national training in venues including the National Youth Summit and the National Conference on Preventing Crime. As secretariat to the Crime Prevention Coalition of America, NCPC produced the Coalition’s report, Mobilizing the Nation To Prevent Crime, Violence, and Drug Abuse.

In response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, NCPC produced a print advertisement urging tolerance and a television public service announcement informing viewers about Neighborhood Watch and the United for a Stronger America: Citizens’ Preparedness Guide. The guide, which teaches citizens how to prevent and prepare for terrorist acts and other emergencies, was distributed nationally and is available on the Citizen Corps web site.

TRIAD

TRIAD was first established in 1988 to prevent criminal victimization of the elderly and reduce unwarranted fear of crime through partnerships between law enforcement agencies and senior citizen groups. The American Association of Retired Persons, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Sheriffs’ Association founded TRIAD.

Since its inception, TRIAD and 824 counties throughout the nation have signed agreements to create safety programs for senior citizens. Furthermore, 34 states have signed statewide agreements, thereby consolidating a larger effort to keep senior citizens safe from crime. TRIAD also has hosted 13 national training conferences, the most recent of which was held in Orlando, Florida in December 2002.

National Training and Information Center

The National Training and Information Center (NTIC) is one of America’s largest networks of community organizing projects. Founded in Chicago in 1972, NTIC helps build leadership-driven grassroots organizations with the capacity to identify local issues, develop effective strategies to address the root causes of these issues, and create opportunities for leaders of the organizations to negotiate with decisionmakers.

Over the past 14 years, BJA has worked with NTIC to test the concept of partnership and coalition building at the neighborhood level for the express purpose of having residents and representatives of local governments work closely together. In FY 2002, NTIC received nearly $1 million in funding from BJA. Through the Community Justice Empowerment Project, NTIC focused its efforts on more than 20 cities and some rural areas to implement promising leadership development and anticrime strategies.

Although it is difficult to gauge the success of most crime abatement programs, NTIC has been a positive factor in ensuring that crime abatement has become a permanent part of community organizing—training leaders from POWER in Los Angeles, California to Hope Street Youth Development in Wichita, Kansas to the Anti-Displacement Project in Springfield, Massachusetts.