We must resource communities most impacted by violence in order to advance safety

Marcus* stood outside the doors of the Brenda Glass Multipurpose Trauma Center in Cleveland, Ohio, hesitating on a promise he made to Ms. Glass who had visited him in the hospital as he recovered from a gunshot wound. At a crossroads in his life, part of him wanted to walk back to his neighborhood to retaliate against the person who shot him, while the other part recalled his promise to come to this spot immediately after being released from the hospital.

The cycle of violence luring him home was well known, while the unknown behind those doors felt intimidating. But the internal debate ended when, through an open window, he smelled grits and bacon cooking inside. He opened those doors because the smells felt familiar.

Once inside, Marcus was offered a host of supports and services that would help with his own healing and safety, and help to stop the cycle of retaliatory violence that far too often spirals out of control. He was set up with transitional housing outside of his neighborhood, received counseling and other services, enrolled in a Commercial Driver License program and, after graduating with his license, now lives a life free from violence.

I met Marcus in April of last year, along with some colleagues from the Office of Justice Programs. OJP is the largest grantmaking component of the U.S. Department of Justice, distributing more than $4 billion in grant funding to support public safety interventions, reentry programming, law enforcement, courts and corrections, juvenile justice, criminal justice research, statistics and evaluation, and services and assistance for victims of crime. 

Under the leadership of my predecessor, former Assistant Attorney General Amy Solomon, and through our collective vision, OJP made an intentional choice to open greater access and opportunities to our funding for communities hardest hit by violence, because we recognized that these communities should be an active and integral part of our public safety solutions. And I firmly believe that those partnerships significantly contributed to the recent downward trajectory of violence in a majority of our cities and communities throughout our country,  including two years of record-breaking national declines in homicides. 

Solutions that are developed and implemented in partnership with the communities experiencing the highest levels of violence improve safety for us all. I know that to be true, because I have seen the results through our Community Violence Prevention and Intervention Initiative, which provides funding, training and assistance to support partnerships among community residents and organizations, victim services agencies, local government, law enforcement, hospitals and other stakeholders to prevent and reduce gun violence; our reentry programming supported by the Second Chance Act which has led to historic drops in the recidivism rates on the state-level; our Continuum of Care framework that prioritizes both youth and community safety and focuses on early intervention for youth who are at-risk for juvenile justice involvement; our 10 years supporting the National Public Safety Partnership program which has augmented the ability to reduce crime and violence around the country – with success stories from Camden, New Jersey, to Compton, California; our funding that provides training and technical assistance through the Safer Together program which enhances officer safety and wellness and strengthens the link between that wellness and community trust and crime reduction; and the over $1.1 billion that OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime awards each fiscal year to help improve victim services throughout the nation and provide assistance to victims of crime. 

It is a well-known reality that throughout our country, communities of color have suffered from disinvestment and experienced disproportionate levels of violence and trauma. Ensuring there are programs available for people at greatest risk of harm, violence and victimization – places where they feel welcomed, places they can trust – saves lives, changes lives and improves safety outcomes for everyone, not just the one person who walks through the same doors that Marcus walked through. The lesson for all of us who work in criminal justice and public safety is that a culturally specific response can be an effective public safety intervention. The lure of the familiar smells, the credibility of leaders who’ve walked a similar path and the support of those organizations directly working in Marcus’s community, likely saved the life of the person who shot Marcus, and most certainly kept Marcus from getting back into the criminal justice system, and potentially saved his life, too.

At OJP, we have worked these last few years to remove barriers and increase access and opportunities for greater support for culturally specific and community-based organizations directly working in communities disproportionately impacted by crime, violence and victimization. Our goal was to ensure that those critical public safety interventions are there, are supported and are valued, because doing so supports greater safety and justice for us all. 

 It can be as simple as grits and bacon, but as impactful as interrupting the cycle of violence, and ultimately, saving lives.

*Name has been changed