NCJ Number
178930
Date Published
1998
Length
64 pages
Annotation
Baltimore's Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) is discussed in terms of the city's characteristics, its involvement as one of 16 sites invited by the Bureau of Justice Assistance to apply for planning and implementation funding for a crime control strategy, and the program components.
Abstract
The program began in 1995 and received funding through the end of 1997. The program and its core elements had their origins in Baltimore's attempt to interrupt a spiral of urban decay through community organizing around housing problems. The Baltimore CCP grantee was the Mayor's Coordinating Council on Criminal Justice, which administered the grant and subcontracts, served as facilitator for the CCP partner organizations, and handled outreach and coordination problems. CCP funds broadened existing institutional and community-based activities such as cleaning trash from illegal dumping sites and abandoned housing and the assignment of service crews from the drug court to help maintain neighborhoods. The CCP program included the implementation of community policing, community organizing, community-focused legal intervention, neighborhood inventories, and targeting of service delivery to drug abusers and youth. The CCP initiative involves a wide range of nonprofit neighborhood organizations, social service agencies, and city agencies working together as a network. The CCP has clearly succeeded in expanding and improving mechanisms through which residents of high-crime neighborhoods can mobilize resources and improve their quality of life. The impact on crime is not yet clear; program leaders and the Baltimore police are gathering information on this topic. Figures, appended additional results, and 9 references