2011 Year in Review for Safe & Sound Community Partners

In 2011 the Safe & Sound Community Partners Program worked to meet and exceed the programmatic goals, outcomes and objectives in their overall efforts to make Milwaukee neighborhoods safe places to work, live and raise families. The core programmatic objectives were to build community among youth, residents and law enforcement while reducing crime through community organizing and addressing criminal nuisance concerns and areas of blight.

A significant element of the Safe & Sound strategy is porch-to-porch outreach in neighborhoods that are afflicted with higher rates of crime and criminal nuisance activity. One porch at a time, Safe & Sound organizers have a conversation which seeks to identify family concerns and inform communities of local programs and resources. Repeat face-to-face interactions and collective problem solving creates a level of trust that allows a more involved conversation about the neighborhood. This leads to the strengthening of resident capacity, block watches and community building. In 2011 Safe & Sound staff visited with 7,946 residents on their front porches and provided information and took the initiative to follow-up on concerns with 5,525 families.

Referrals to local resources increase neighborhood quality of life by providing residents with the information necessary to access resources. Of the 5,525 referrals and follow-up contacts made, 1.8% were family referrals to Safe Place resources and Community Partner services, such as block club formation. Self-development resources, including employment assistance, free banking services, or GED programs which made up 4.2% of the total. Anti-crime and city services comprised 7.7% of referrals. Continued follow-up contacts with residents to address issues, develop relationships and create neighborhood leadership were 84.4% of the total. A total of 156,635 pieces of outreach resource and programmatic information were distributed in 2011 during outreach efforts. Of these materials, 27% were for Safe & Sound programming, such as Safe Place opportunities or assistance with crime issues. Crime reduction resource information made up 26% of the material discussed with residents door-to-door.

In addition to our impressive outreach efforts, Safe & Sound facilitated 23 neighborhood walks, and 72 community meetings with over 1,154 participants total. Four resource fairs with 200 participants and 13 anti-crime presentations with 224 participants were also planned and carried out. Lastly, Safe & Sound facilitated 28 community anti-crime events, such as the Safe Night Youth Crime Analysis event, involving a total of 2,359 participants and 471 collaborators including law enforcement, businesses, community and faith based organizations. Safe & Sound’s commitment to creating collaborations and ability to leverage existing community resources make these impressive outcomes possible. Ultimately, these neighborhood walks and meetings build community amongst all of these entities and residents with the goal of a safer neighborhood.

Safe & Sound Organizers are clearly effective at reaching residents in high-crime areas; however our best work is done in collaboration. Some of our strongest partners are our block clubs and block watches, working diligently in 2011 to establish 39 new community stakeholder groups. A total of 33 of these were block clubs and block watches while the remaining 6 were a combination of landlord, business and youth groups. Most groups meet on a regular basis offering Safe & Sound staff opportunitie to build group capacity through a variety of mailings, material resources, facilitation and community event planning. Resident leadership is instrumental in reducing crime and addressing blight to create long-term neighborhood stability and prosperity. In fact, Safe & Sound conducted a survey was conducted with many block clubs early in 2011 and data was analyzed by the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission and UW-Milwaukee. Although the mapped data was limited, it showed a statistical correlation with crime reduction consistent with strategies being employed and areas being served by block clubs.

An example of the residential leadership and empowerment involved Community Partner Organizer Talibah Mateen working with the 14th Street CARES Block Watch, one of many successful block watches Safe & Sound worked with in 2011. An additional strategy used to build resident and block watch capacity was through trainings. For example, Community Partner Roosevelt Pritchett wanted to introduce the many online resources to active residents in his Parklawn sector so they could more easily address crime issues in their own neighborhoods.

Safe & Sound and the Department of Neighborhood Services continued to build upon a strong collaborative relationship, improving the quality of life through existing projects, while piloting major new initiatives to address some of the most pressing concerns in Milwaukee. Safe & Sound Community Partner Organizers worked closely with DNS and law enforcement to resolve criminal nuisance properties. This involved block surveys for recording and reporting blighted properties in coordination with the Department of Neighborhood Services. In 2011, a total of 657 warning notifications including both housing code warnings and exterior blight warnings were issued, achieving an impressive overall compliance rate of 81.8%. This high level of success in gaining voluntary residential compliance is evidence of the support and resources provided by organizers.

Facilitating community improvement projects with the support of DNS is another significant component. An impressive 89 neighborhood improvement events were planned and executed with Safe Place youth and residents with a total of 2,648 participants, 2,396 of which were unduplicated participants. Additionally, a total of 639 collaborators participated in these events, including 263 law enforcement professionals and 157 community based organizations. A total of 5,686 community service hours were logged by community residents. Additional evidence of the impact is the 2,849 bags of garbage cleaned up and 487 alley identification garage numbers posted in this process. Safe & Sound organizers facilitated a range of events from small block events involving a hand full of residents beautifying a vacant property, to large scale events involving hundreds of people and multiple projects and locations.

Safe & Sound continued to facilitate Operation Payback, a graffiti wipe-out program that has been removing graffiti and other blight from the streets of Milwaukee for the past four years. Additionally, Safe & Sound Community Partners and Safe Places were integral in planning a series of four Community Action Projects. Collaborating with City on a Hill, Rock the Lakes, and multiple agencies and organizations, the effort focused hundreds of volunteers alongside community residents to make real change in the neighborhood. The projects were executed in four focus neighborhoods across the City of Milwaukee and were held in the months of July and August.

Safe & Sound continued a history of collaboration in 2011 with the District Attorney’s Office. Our teams worked together in MPD Districts 4, 5, and 7 to abate criminal nuisance properties and build communities. Working closely with residents and the Community Prosecution Unit Teams, 414 reports of 767 specific criminal issues were referred to law enforcement as a result of resident complaints. Some of the great successes had by the CPU Teams in 2011 include:

• Tracking and managing the process of criminal nuisance abatement for 576 properties while bringing the teamwork of the CPU to bear on problematic properties in targeted high-crime neighborhoods.
• Facilitating a total of 25 CPU Team meetings including 949 participants city-wide from the Milwaukee Police Department, Probation and Parole, City Attorney’s Office, Department of Neighborhood Services, Sojourner Family Peace Center, Safe & Sound Community Partners Organizers and other community based organizations.
• A total of 53 property owner meetings with 327 total participants were facilitated to discuss and create abatement plans to address specific problematic properties in the community.
• Utilizing tools to engage property owners, tenants and surrounding neighbors, over 232 criminal nuisance properties were successfully resolved in 2010 and an additional 305 properties abated in 2011 for a two year total of 537 criminal nuisance properties addressed and resolved.

Although there is still more to be done coordinating the CPU Teams, Milwaukee is leading the way in the Nation utilizing Community Prosecution Strategies and Safe & Sound will continue to play an important and valuable role on the teams. We are committed to continue outreach soliciting resident complaints, tracking, and coordinating team resources to abate criminal nuisances.

Safe & Sound distributed Community Impact Offense Alerts on a bi-monthly schedule to inform neighborhood stakeholders, such as block clubs, Safe Places, and youth leadership groups, about charged drug and/or gun cases. The Community Impact Statements received by the courts through this process help provide a broader understanding of the effect of crime on residents and the community as a whole. Unfortunately this effort stalled mid-year due to a lack of staffing at Safe & Sound and the DA’s Office but the information will be available regularly once again in 2012.

In addition, our offices continued a long standing collaboration implementing restorative justice conferences for Milwaukee graffiti and drug cases in the Community Conferencing Program. In 2011, 55 restorative justice conferences were held with 283 participants. Safe & Sound also planned and executed 8 restorative justice trainings for both 276 youth and 71adults participants. Restorative Justice Coordinator and AmeriCorps VISTA Lauren Thrift is coordinating a very exciting new initiative that began in 2011 with Children’s Court called Circles of Accountability. This program focuses on addressing juvenile burglaries utilizing restorative practices as a condition of the juveniles’ probation. A series of 5 trainings were held with youth and additional trainings for adults in November and December of 2011 in preparation for the first juvenile circle set to occur early in 2012. These trainings, conferences and circles not only provide participants with method and tools to hold a community conference, but also they help promote a better understanding of restorative practices in their daily lives.

The goal of reduced crime in the Safe & Sound neighborhoods was measured with City of Milwaukee COMPASS data. Over the three year period from 2007-2010 there was a 22% drop in group A offenses in Safe & Sound target areas. What this means is that despite a percentage increase in 2011, over the last four years there has still been an overall reduction in group A offenses.

While our strategies to address crime in neighborhoods are informed by crime data, resident perception of safety is also an important indicator of success. Our surveys indicated that nearly 68% of people believe their neighborhood is safe and that over 45% of people surveyed talk to their neighbors about crime concerns. The survey results and law enforcement referrals indicate, despite an increase in WIBR Group A offenses, the majority of residents feel safe in their neighborhood, many are engaging with one another to discuss crime concerns and Safe & Sound staff are addressing the concerns of resident through referrals to law enforcement. These same street surveys measure other quality of life indicators in addition to residential perceptions, knowledge about resources, and willingness to utilize service in the areas of neighborhood safety and crime. Out of 1,262 surveys conducted in the Safe & Sound target areas in 2011, the majority or 51.5% of residents responded positively. Almost 34% of residents indicated they were affected personally by issues facing their community and 50.1% of residents were aware of the resources to address problems, however, nearly 85% of people chose not to access those resources. The survey also found the top concerns for residents were drug dealing, disorderly conduct, as well as gun violence and shooting. Lower on the list of concerns cited were issues related to education and graffiti. The largest single category represented was drugs and drug dealing with almost 15% of respondents indicating it as a top concern.

In 2011 Safe & Sound Community Partners worked towards decreasing criminal activity and increasing the overall quality of life for residents in Milwaukee’s high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. Our daily presence in the neighborhoods we serve maintained collaborations and helped develop new relationships to make communities safer places to live, work, and raise a family. We look forward to 2012 and refining our strategies to have even greater impact through anti-crime community organizing and youth development.