This interim evaluation draws from various data sources to offer initial findings into the Oakland Department of Violence Prevention’s (DVP’s) community healing and restoration (CHR) strategy. The CHR strategy aims to support families and neighborhoods most affected by violence by helping community members cope and heal in response to incidents of violence, and strengthen social capital in neighborhoods as a protective factor against violence. Activities falling under the CHR strategy include family support services, large community-building events, and targeted healing and restorative activities that help foster community healing by strengthening local bonds.

What we found

Between the summers of 2022 and 2024, the DVP connected with over 150 families, offered more than 400 family-support services, helped organize hundreds of group events, and disbursed $465,000 in local capacity-building mini grants. Community events received overwhelming support from attendees, who consistently reported positive interactions with event staff and fellow community members. However, these events had no detectable, statistically significant effect on local crime outcomes. That said, in areas where summer “Town Nights” events were hosted, per capita rates of calls for service were higher and more crimes were reported than in comparable areas, suggesting that event organizers were successfully reaching neighborhoods of Oakland disproportionately affected by crime and violence.

To build on the CHR strategy’s early progress, the DVP can help grantees build up organizational capacity and support collaboration between service providers, freeing up resources to expand group events and direct services. Service providers could also benefit by implementing a series of data-collection-specific changes to facilitate a more rigorous analysis of the DVP’s processes and outcomes. These findings are preliminary, and a final report to be released in 2025 will provide an updated analysis.