Community Partners Report Impressive Results for 2009
Jan 12th, 2010
Since January of 2009, Community Partners 0rganizers have been busy working the blocks in some of the hardest hit areas of Milwaukee. In order to accomplish the goal of reducing crime and blight, they met with residents face to face and discussed the problems they contend with everyday in their neighborhood. In fact, in 2009 our eight staff made direct contact with 11,474 residents in their efforts to address crime and poverty in the low-income, high-crime Safe & Sound neighborhoods.
These contacts on Milwaukee’s front porches resulted in several notable accomplishments, including 931 resident referrals to law enforcement, city services, and community resources. Referrals increased neighborhood quality of life by providing residents with the information necessary to access resources. Of the 931 referrals and follow-up contacts made, 16% were for Safe Place resources and Community Partner services, such as block club formation. Self-development resources, such as employment assistance or GED programs made up 12.9%. Anti-crime and city services comprised 16.4 % of referrals. Continued follow-up contacts with residents to address issues were 39.7% of the total. We also worked with residents to address over 267 complaints of criminal activity; primarily the drug, gun and gang activity that impacts communities the hardest.
Over 83,991 pieces of resource material and programmatic information were distributed in 2009 during outreach efforts. Of these materials, 10.8% were for Safe & Sound programming, such as Safe Place opportunities or assistance with crime issues. Anti-crime resource information made up 42.2% of the material discussed with residents door-to-door, totaling 35,371 pieces of information. Lastly, 40.2% of the outreach literature used to inform residents was provided to Safe & Sound by partner agencies and community resources available to Milwaukee residents. Resource providers were invited to present their programs to our organizing staff at bi-weekly meetings to enable the best transfer of information to residents.
Successes related to increasing property values and blight reduction were realized through coordination with the Department of Neighborhood Services and written warnings for debris or junk vehicles and deteriorated housing. Although 800 written warnings were scheduled, only 679 total written warnings were issued in 2009. The shortage is due primarily to a loss of staff in the early part of the year when most warnings are issued. Through neighborhood surveys, properties were identified and written warnings posted. A copy of the warnings were mailed along with a cover letter explaining our goal of neighborhood improvement and a property owners’ resource listing. Out of 362 exterior nuisance warnings 334, or 92%, were found compliant. A total of 197 of 319 housing code violation warnings were voluntarily addressed, translating to a rate of 62% compliance. Overall, these efforts resulted in a voluntary compliance rate of 78%, a reduction in blight and avoidance of costly city services intervention.
An additional strategy used to increase quality of life and property values is neighborhood improvement events. An impressive 88 neighborhood improvement events were planned and executed with Safe Place youth and residents with a total of 2,512 participants. Additionally, a total of 430 collaborators participated in these events, including 319 law enforcement professionals and 84 community based organizations. Several significant outcomes were realized through neighborhood improvement events, such as affixing alley identification to 454 garages for increased safety. A total of 5,110 community service hours were logged by community residents, with 1,219 hours served by offenders with court ordered hours and supervised offenders from minimum security facilities such as Felmers Chaney Correctional Center. Additional evidence of the impact is the 2,034 bags of garbage cleaned up during these events in Milwaukee’s streets and alleys.
As of December 2009 Safe & Sound has established Operation Payback, an anti-graffiti initiatives in three Milwaukee Police Districts. Other police districts are now interested and inspired by the successes of bringing together offenders and community. The Milwaukee Police Department, Community Prosecutors, the city Anti-Graffiti program, and Probation and Parole have consistently supported this collaboration and it would not have been possible or have been incorporated into other districts without everyone working together.
This year alone, Operation Payback has removed 674 incidences totaling 10,914 square feet of tagging and gang graffiti. Of these incidences, 184 were a result of gang graffiti while 490 instances were from tagging. A total of 399 vandalized properties were painted over and 275 had to be removed with chemicals. An additional 59 properties were reported to the City of Milwaukee for removal with professional removal equipment. These accomplishments were made possible through year-round weekly graffiti removal, community meetings and events which numbered over 40.
Since January of 2009, our staff of Community Partner organizers created 32 new block clubs, maintaining a total of 128 clubs or block watches through 911 contacts. Staff also facilitated 119 block club and community meetings, anti-crime presentations and neighborhood walks with a cumulative total of 1,811 participants, 1,160 of which represent unduplicated participants. In addition, Partners worked extensively with other organizations participating in 1,072 meetings and through 2,248 contacts with community based organizations and Safe Places.
In addition, 39 restorative justice conferences were held with 412 participants. Also, 8 neighborhood walks, and 83 community meetings with over 943 participants total. Two resource fairs with 417 participants and 21 anti-crime presentations with 384 participants were also facilitated. Lastly, 23 youth led meetings and 6 youth led community events involved 654 participants were held by Safe Place youth leadership groups.
All together, 285 meetings and events were facilitated with 10,009 participants! Safe & Sound’s hard work and ability to leverage existing community resource and develop successful collaborative efforts have made these impressive outcomes possible.
Other activities related to the CDBG goals included the compilation and distribution of 10 Community Impact Offense Alerts. This is an ongoing collaborative effort between the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and Safe & Sound. The alert is distributed on a bi-monthly basis to community stakeholders through a variety of means and provides specific information on charged drug and/or weapons offenses, including the case number, name, charges, offense address and the defendant’s next court date. Block clubs, youth leadership groups, public officials, law enforcement and a host of other community stakeholders receive the alert. Moreover, a form is provided to submit a community impact statement to the courts, enabling a voice not otherwise heard for the indirect victims of drug and gun crimes. Individual community members can describe in detail how the offender or offense has personally affected them, their block, and the community as a whole. When submitted to the courts, it provides a broader picture of the harm caused by drug and gun crimes.
The goal to reduce crime in the Safe & Sound neighborhoods was tracked utilizing COMPASS data. The available crime data shows a considerable drop in crime in all categories in the 21 Safe & Sound neighborhoods except arson, which saw a 12% increase. There was an overall drop of 12% in Wisconsin Incident Based Report for specific Group A Offenses from 2008 to 2009. Most significantly, only 38 homicides were recorded in the Safe & Sound Neighborhoods in 2009 compared to 52 in 2008, representing a 27% decrease. In summary, according to COMPASS data the goal of reducing crime in the categories specified for 2009 was very successful.
Other quality of life indicators were measured through the use of street surveys on such topics as graffiti, blight, deteriorated housing, police response and city services. Safe & Sound also measured general resident perceptions of neighborhood safety, crime and community assets. A total of 1280 surveys were conducted by Safe & Sound. Of these, the results showed: 656 people or 40% of those living over 5 years in neighborhood chose community values as an asset; 222 people or 31% of those less than 1 year in neighborhood chose housing as asset, while 29% chose youth and family services; 359 people or 59% of residents had lived less than 5 years in their community and of these, 30.7% felt housing was the top neighborhood asset; 72% of those feeling that “public safety” is a top community asset want to continue living in the neighborhood; 79% of those feeling that “community values” is a top community asset want to continue living in the neighborhood. Notably, economic development and employment were not viewed as community assets by 79% of all people surveyed.
Safe & Sound Community Partners is working towards decreasing criminal activity, increasing property values, and increasing the overall quality of life for residents in Milwaukee’s high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. We look forward to 2010 and refining our strategies to have even greater impact through anti-crime community organizing and youth development.
