Despite violent crime rates falling since 2021, community violence—which includes gun violence, stabbings, and other violent crime that happens in neighborhoods, schools, and other public places—remains a critical national issue. In response, many cities have established offices of violence prevention or neighborhood safety.
To improve the success and impact of violence prevention efforts, cities should engage community members who have been affected by violence and apply their insights to inform policies and practices. Since 2022, the Urban Institute has collaborated with five local government offices working toward violence prevention—in Baltimore, Maryland; Dallas, Texas; Jackson, Mississippi; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and St. Louis, Missouri—to elevate community members’ voices to government officials as part of the Municipalities Reimagining Community Safety Initiative, a technical assistance effort led by the National League of Cities.
Urban conducted focus groups with community members in each city, working with each office to determine their populations and topics of interest, and used the findings to provide real-time recommendations to stakeholders in city government. We spoke with the following groups:
- Baltimore: Young people shared recommendations for a pilot high school–based violence intervention program.
- Dallas: Community-based organizations (CBOs) and local government staff discussed their violence prevention successes and challenges. Young adults with prior criminal legal system involvement provided recommendations for programs for youth and young adults affected by the system, especially teenagers and those in their early to mid-twenties.
- Jackson: Residents and leaders spoke about their perceptions of community violence and how local government can prevent it.
- Philadelphia: Gun violence intervention staff and hospital-based violence intervention program staff shared how city government can assist their work and facilitate collaboration between the two types of programs.
- St. Louis: People reentering society after incarceration, family members of people reentering, and reentry service providers discussed their needs, ways the city can support them, and their perceptions of community violence.
All focus groups also touched on participants’ definitions and perceptions of safety. Based on our focus groups, here are three recommendations for how local governments can learn from community members’ voices to strengthen their violence prevention work.
- Create spaces to collaborate with community-based organizations.
When CBOs and local government strategize together and align their public safety goals, they can work synergistically to create more holistic violence prevention programming.
During focus groups, service providers in several cities emphasized the need for cocreation and collaboration with local government. Collaboratives and commissions, task forces, and multidisciplinary teams are all models cities can use to provide a formal collaboration space.
Additionally, research and technical assistance can help cities and CBOs implement these models effectively. Urban’s focus groups in Dallas helped inform the development of the city’s Youth Safety Collaborative (PDF), which is led by the CBO Lone Star Justice Alliance and brings youth- and young adult–focused CBOs, local government, and youth and young adults themselves together to address community violence among youth and young adults. Serve as a hub to showcase and support local community violence resources.
In several cities, focus group participants said they were unaware of all their cities’ organizations and resources related to community violence. It is critical for service providers and those affected by community violence to be aware of their communities’ resources because people affected by community violence have a wide variety of needs, and one service provider likely cannot address all of them.
In our focus groups, service providers said it would be helpful for local government to create resource maps or directories of vetted public safety resources in the community.
[W]e need to make sure we have services ready to go—and vetted services, so if I encounter someone in distress, I can say there’s a vetted organization I can send them to. And to my knowledge, I don’t think we have that.
Public safety is multifaceted, so resource maps or directories should include not only organizations directly related to the criminal legal system but also those that address other elements of public safety, such as housing stability, substance abuse assistance, education, financial well-being, and social capital. In St. Louis, the Clark-Fox Family Foundation, a local CBO, created the St. Louis Region Criminal Justice Resource Ecosystem Map (PDF), which includes CBOs and government services related to the criminal legal system, victimization, and reentry, and other critical areas such as family support and health.
Use qualitative and quantitative data to inform public safety strategies.
Cities have increasingly turned to quantitative data on crime and its risk factors to guide their community violence prevention efforts. These data provide invaluable insights, but they cannot tell the full story of why community violence happens and how to prevent it.
Qualitative data can help cities understand the factors driving community violence in specific contexts, as well as the perceptions and attitudes of those it affects. Cities can work with researchers from universities and organizations like the Urban Institute to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data on community violence. Findings and recommendations should be shared with not only local government stakeholders but also CBOs and community members affected by violence. The Newark Public Safety Collaborative pioneered Data-Informed Community Engagement (DICE), a model in which community organizations and residents use data on environmental predictors of crime to design violence prevention strategies. DICE has since been implemented in Dallas through the Child Poverty Action Lab, in St. Louis by the St. Louis Public Safety Collaborative, and in other cities nationwide.
Speaking directly with those most affected by community violence and incorporating their insights and needs into prevention programming can help local governments and community members work together to build a sustainable future without violence.
Let’s build a future where everyone, everywhere has the opportunity and power to thrive
Urban is more determined than ever to partner with changemakers to unlock opportunities that give people across the country a fair shot at reaching their fullest potential. Invest in Urban to power this type of work.
