2010 Outcomes for Safe & Sound Community Partners Program
During 2010, the Safe & Sound Community Partners program exceeded program goals and objectives in efforts to make Milwaukee neighborhoods safe places to live, work, and raise families. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done and strategic planning is in full swing for 2011.
Starting with the true heart of the Community Partners’ approach—porch-to-porch, face-to-face outreach interactions with residents in high crime areas—organizers learned about families’ needs as well as residents’ concerns about ongoing criminal activity, and neighborhood blight issues. The Community Partners provided follow-up referrals and information and, through repeated interactions, cultivated trust and relationships with residents that allowed them to delve deeper into difficult and often intransigent neighborhood crime and blight issues. Community Partners worked collaboratively with residents to bring local law enforcement attention to these issues and also to develop the skills, knowledge, and relationships to enable residents and neighborhoods to respond to these issues effectively in the future.
The Community Partners program incorporated a number of “strategic outreach initiatives” into their door-to-door outreach work in 2010, delivering high-quality referrals and information to residents on particular anti-crime topics over a several week period in targeted geographic areas. Organizing staff worked with local resource providers to design effective outreach materials, identify target areas, and train organizers. In addition to delivering this information in door-to-door outreach, Community Partners staff presented these materials across the city at community meetings and Safe & Sound Safe Places and conducted resident surveys that helped organizers to develop a deeper understanding of these issues from the community’s perspective. Examples of these strategic outreach initiatives included Traffick Jam, a campaign against illegal guns, Reality Check (Reducing Youth Access to Alcohol and other Drugs), and TABS (Truancy Abatement and Burglary Suppression). Through these initiatives and other outreach, Community Partners made direct contact with 11,504 residents and were able to make 2,457 referrals to community resources and law enforcement to address residents expressed needs and concerns. Safe & Sound Community Prosecution Unit Coordinators facilitated 58 property owner meetings and 20 Community Prosecution Unit Target Team meetings to discuss concerns surrounding criminal nuisance properties then apply the most efficient resources for the best outcomes and resolutions.
Organizing community building meetings and events is another significant objecitve of Safe & Sound. In total, there were 11 neighborhood walks, 8 resource fairs, and 150 community meetings. There were also 74 neighborhood improvement events with 3,239 participants and 762 collaborating organizations, businesses, and members of law enforcement and 20 anti-crime neighborhood events with 1,951 participants and 390 participants from collaborating organizations.
Safe & Sound Community Partners take pride in developing neighborhood leadership and organizing capacity for the long-term. Often building directly upon relationships forged at initial door-to-door conversations, in 2010, the Community Partners worked with residents to establish 66 new block clubs and block watches across Milwaukee’s highest crime neighborhoods. Developing resident leaders and neighbor-to-neighbor relationships is critical to growing a neighborhood’s ability to continue to address crime and blight issues as time progresses, contributing to long-term neighborhood stability and prosperity. Community Partners engaged new resident groups to mobilize together in actions such as recording and reporting blighted and vacant properties to the Department of Neighborhood Services, working with law enforcement and Community Prosecution Units to close down nuisance drug houses, and working with resident groups so they are able to provide input at Common Council Licenses Committee meetings in regards to problem taverns.
Community improvement events were another means by which Safe & Sound Community Partners mobilized resources and residents in high-crime neighborhoods to beautify conditions, build relationships between neighbors and with law enforcement, and fortify the foundations of nascent neighborhood and block groups. Safe & Sound Community Partners planned and carried out an impressive 74 neighborhood improvement events in 2010 which leveraged 3,573 hours volunteered by local residents in various projects to better their blocks and surrounding communities. Events ranged from localized block and vacant property cleanups to larger events such as the Basura Bash, in its third year, which drew more than 500 participants to 32 cleanup and beautification project sites on Milwaukee’s south side in May.
In an effort to wipe out neighborhood blight, 2010 saw the third year of Community Partners’ “Operation Payback” project, operating in Police Districts 5 and 2 on Milwaukee’s north and south sides. Through this program, offenders with community service hours as well as resident volunteers worked alongside Community Partners and law enforcement officers, Probation Agents and Community Prosecutors to remove graffiti, clean up litter and brush, and provide alley address numbering for garages. In addition, organizers make contact with residents door-to-door, providing information on reporting graffiti, crime and blight issues. A total of 1,046 hours volunteered through this program by offenders with court-ordered community service or those from minimum security facilities such as Felmers Chaney Correctional Center, offering offenders the opportunity to give back to the communities they harmed in positive and constructive ways.
2010 also saw Safe & Sound continue our strong collaborative relationship with the Department of Neighborhood Services, working to improve quality of life through existing projects as well as piloting major initiatives to address some of Milwaukee’s most pressing neighborhood concerns. Safe & Sound Community Partners achieved a 56% compliance rate on exterior housing code warning notifications to property owners asking for remedy of clear and obvious code problems, such as broken windows or peeling paint, resulting in significant property repairs being made to 140 Milwaukee properties, improving the safety as well as appearance of neighborhood housing stock. Community Partners also achieved 79% compliance for external nuisance notifications, asking property owners to clean up garbage, junk cars, yard waste, graffiti, or other non-structural blight issues, resulting in spruced up conditions at 478 properties in high-need neighborhoods across Milwaukee. Community Partners worked with property owners to improve awareness of and make referrals to local home repair and improvement programs and resources available through the City of Milwaukee and local organizations.
Safe & Sound also coordinated with DNS to respond to the crisis-level proliferation of vacant properties resulting from the foreclosure crisis by assisting in the enforcement of Milwaukee’s new Vacant Building Registry ordinance in those neighborhoods hardest hit. Working with DNS, Safe & Sound developed a community resource flyer to provide residents with accurate information outlining how best to respond to nearby vacant property problems, as well as a vacant property inspection survey to be used by organizers and residents in identifying and cataloguing vacant buildings and any associated problems to share with DNS. DNS would then follow up, having open buildings secured and entering properties into their new Vacant Building Registry for ongoing monitoring and the enforcement of required maintenance tasks by property owners. Neighborhood canvassing efforts this summer by Safe & Sound Community Partners identified and reported 1,164 vacant properties to DNS. Over 90% were new vacant property files for the City, according to DNS.
In July, Safe & Sound organizers sprang into action when called upon by the City for help in reaching residents hit by that month’s flooding that devastated many north side neighborhoods. Over 2 full days, Safe & Sound deployed its full organizing staff to collect resident affidavits certifying damage to sleeping spaces, a critical component in the City’s successful appeal of a denial of FEMA assistance, which subsequently provided more than 2,000 Milwaukee residents access to millions of dollars in relief funds to repair their flood-damaged homes.
Safe & Sound also continued its valuable collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office this year, adding three new Community Prosecution Unit Coordinators to our staff in the spring, serving Police Districts 4, 5, and 7, respectively. Having these coordinators on staff bolstered our ability to bring resolution to criminal nuisance properties complaints from residents in these districts by facilitating improved relationships and communication between the community and law enforcement. Safe & Sound also distributed six bi-monthly Community Impact Offense Alerts to inform residents, stakeholders, block clubs, Safe Places, and youth leadership groups of recent filings of charged cases for drug and/or gun crimes that have occurred in their neighborhoods. These alerts also provide recipients with the information necessary in order to submit impact statements from the community regarding the crime’s effects for judges to consider during sentencing. Finally, Safe & Sound continued its long-standing participation in the DA’s Office Community Conferencing Program, facilitating restorative justice community conferences that bring usually young, first-time graffiti and drug offenders together with victims and the community around the table to discuss the harm that occurred and how that harm to the community and individuals may be repaired. This year Safe & Sound also held eight restorative justice trainings for youth and adults interested in serving as community representatives or facilitators for these conferences.
Safe & Sound is proud of the positive community building efforts across the Milwaukee neighborhoods we serve. Chief Flynn has recognized repeatedly the importance of community involvement in crime reduction efforts. He emphasized that “Community engagement is fundamental to our mission…Cops count, but cops and the community win.” Safe & Sound looks forward to 2011 and more collaborative efforts that bring residents, youth and law enforcement together to build safer neighborhoods and achieve the “win” for everyone.
