Safe & Sound Community Partners Program Overview September 2008

In June of 2007 the Community Partners program was brought under Safe & Sound. Since then we have strengthened the best of Community Partners while developing new initiatives to address the changing realities of crime and violence in Milwaukee. The Community Partners program currently has eleven full time staff, two Public Allies and one Marquette intern, while other Safe & Sound programming and administration comprises an additional 6 staff. Many of our staff has been with us for years, some since the program’s beginnings. Each offers a depth of experience as well as sincere dedication to addressing crime issues in Milwaukee.

A major focus of Safe & Sound Community Partners is daily, year-round door-to-door outreach to access residents in the target areas. A lack of functional literacy is an undeniable issue with a high population of residents not graduating from high school – approaching almost 60% in some neighborhoods. Face-to-face interaction between organizers and residents facilitates greater awareness of and access to resources as well as forging a connection enabling follow-up on crime issues. Outreach is targeted to areas where criminal activity is regularly observed to open up communication with those residents most affected. Phone and written communication is continued through correspondence. In addition, collaborative meetings and events, such as walking block meetings, neighborhood surveys, and restorative justice conferences with offenders are organized with involvement from the general population. Crime reduction and neighborhood improvement activities may include block meetings, street events and conducting neighborhood housing code or blight surveys and issuing warnings. Lastly, resident contacts in high-crime areas allow Community Partners to make reports of residents’ collective concerns of drug, gang, gun and nuisance activities to law enforcement.

In July of 2008 alone, Safe & Sound Community Partners conducted 1,735 door-to-door contacts with residents, 129 resident referrals and follow-ups, and 103 contacts with block club captains. Additionally, Partners actively participated in 81 community meetings and events, as well as logged 159 contacts with NSP coordinators, Safe Places and community or faith based agencies. Thirty-six meetings and events, including neighborhood business walks, block club meetings and youth led events, were facilitated in July by Community Partners. As of June 30 of this year, 1561 unduplicated youth and adult community residents have participated in anti-crime meetings and events facilitated by Safe & Sound. Fifty-six percent of participants were male and 44% were female. Sixty-five percent or 1015 were African American, while 19% were Latino. Forty-three percent of these individuals were between 12-17 years old, within the Safe & Sound target population for anti-crime efforts. Sixty-nine of the meetings and events were established through Safe & Sound’s 26 youth leadership groups at Safe Places as part of their Crime Strategy Initiatives. Lastly, 2,138 hours of community service were logged through the efforts of 1302 offenders and community volunteers’ working with Community Partners towards anti-crime and community improvement in Milwaukee. Lastly, in July alone 100 reports of illegal activity were made to law-enforcement based on resident complaints of drug dealing, prostitution, gun activity, gang activity, and other crime issues.

Safe & Sound currently funds 34 youth-focused organizations that effectively serve youth within their centers by developing youth-led programming that addresses the concerns of the surrounding neighborhoods. Community Partners work to develop Safe Place youth leadership groups and help the youth identify those specific neighborhood crime issues of importance to them. The youth then develop a Safe & Sound Crime Strategy Initiative (CSI). The CSI facilitates collaborative problem-solving among the Safe Place, Community Partner, law enforcement and other neighborhood resources to address the crime issue. Moreover, Safe Place youth leaders develop a plan to recruit youth from the surrounding neighborhood, specifically teens between the ages of 14-17 and a small percentage of those youth displaying delinquent behavior, such as those habitually truant or previously involved with the criminal justice system.

Safe & Sound has seen impressive outcomes already. For example, 670 instances of graffiti have been removed in District 6 alone through Community Partners collaborative efforts and offenders’ court ordered community service hours. In collaboration with the Department of Neighborhood Services, Safe & Sound issued exterior housing and nuisance warnings. Of 336 households re-inspected, 85.5% completed exterior maintenance, while 68% of 507 property owners complied voluntarily with exterior housing code violation warnings. Additionally, 77 households have applied for low-cost home improvement resources at the Community Warehouse this year through our referrals. Crimes against property, such as graffiti and vandalism, decreased 8.6% from 2006 to 2007 as compared to an increase in areas outside of the Safe & Sound neighborhoods over the same time period. The overall change in crimes against persons was less in the Safe & Sound areas, highlighted by a 27% decrease in homicides as compared to a 15.6% increase outside of the Safe & Sound target areas between 2005 and 2007. Crimes against society were also less than areas outside of Safe & Sound’s 21 targeted neighborhoods from 2005 to 2007. Narcotics offenses saw a 9.1% decrease and prostitution dropped 28.1%, two highly visible and disruptive crimes that Community Partners works to reduce.

Additionally, Community Partners have conducted 688 resident and youth “street surveys” with residents and youth pertaining to specific quality of life and crime issues in the first six months of 2008. In July, Community Partner Supervisor Charles Reese coordinated other staff members to conduct 156 “Shots Fired” street surveys in the Waico/Amani sector, an area plagued by shootings and homicides. The intention was to safely initiate conversation on gun activity at the door, while gaining perspective on resident perceptions and encouraging specific actions, such as encouraging residents to take responsibility for reporting gunshots to the police. The results of this survey are available at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com

Safe & Sound is working with the District Attorney’s Community Prosecution Unit to inform residents of charged offenses from drug and gun arrests in their neighborhood. The Impact Community Offense Alert is a regularly distributed document which provides a wide range of community agencies with detailed information on recent arrests. The growing e-mail list has over 180 recipients, enabling the community to become more aware of these crimes and also to contribute to the sentencing process. Given that the entire community is the victim of drug dealing and gun violence, the alert allows community members to exercise their rights as victims of these crimes which affect their neighborhoods and quality of life. It informs the neighborhood where specific crimes have take place, while allowing the community a voice through Neighborhood Impact Statements, a written impact assessment submitted by residents to the courts. This project is just one more step recently undertaken by Safe & Sound towards reducing crime in the City of Milwaukee.

The efforts detailed above are just some of the examples multifaceted activities being implemented to address the issues faced by Milwaukee’s highest-crime, lowest-income neighborhoods. Through Safe & Sound’s proven three-prong strategy of youth development, community organizing and tough law enforcement, we are able to identify and harness each individual neighborhood’s unique community strengths and existing resources to address crime and improve the overall quality of life in Milwaukee.

Joseph Kubisiak
Safe & Sound – Community Partners Program Manager