Engaging Communities News Archive

Bronx News12 profiles the winter wonderland extravaganza that Save Our Streets recently held at its offices in Morrisania. Bronx Community Justice Center project director, Carmen J. Hernandez, is interviewed and explains the impact and history of the program as well as the plans to expand services throughout the borough. 

Josiah Bates of TIME Magazine gives a window into the day-in-the-life of a violence interrupter while spending time with the Center for Court Innovation's Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) teams. Noting the complicated dynamics that are at play in their interactions with both the police and the communities they serve, Rahson Johnson, associate director of community safety at S.O.S. Crown Heights, and Joshua Simon, a violence interrupter with S.O.S. Bed-Stuy, are interviewed and reflect on how to bring resources to help heal the community.

In an effort to bring the community together, over a dozen mothers, grandmothers, and other family members are creating more green space at their NYCHA development. Thanks to funding from the Mayor’s Action Plan and working along with Neighborhood Safety Initiatives, the “Harlem Garden Ladies” are expanding and adding more green space to the Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem. If you were to ask them, these women say "they are planting seeds and then watching the good in the community grow."

Many vulnerable individuals who are experiencing homelessness or are in need of other services are shuttled into the criminal justice system. In partnership with Fountain House, Breaking Ground, and the Times Square Alliance, a new community-led initiative in Times Square called Community First aims to interrupt this cycle by building trusting relationships, providing essentials, and learning more about the individual needs of our Midtown community members.

How can designers and advocates reckon with the uneasy history of safety in environmental design? This article explores how our Neighborhood Safety Initiatives, in partnership with the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice are working in public housing communities to build stronger, healthier public spaces.

New York City kicked off its Safe Summer NYC program Friday with the first of a series of anti-gun violence resource fairs, this one at the Polo Grounds Towers in Washington Heights. To mitigate the recent uptick in gun violence, the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety is partnering with public housing developments to engage city residents and deter gun violence with increased safety awareness.

"A recovery for all of us means every New Yorker is safe and feels safe in their neighborhood,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "Safe Summer NYC is the comprehensive roadmap to end gun violence and bring our city back stronger than ever.” Learn more about how this program is investing in neighborhoods.

An anti-violence fair was held Friday in Harlem in the same city housing complex where a little boy was killed in March. The event had the feel of a block party but with crucial information about resources for the community.

In a five-day public safety experiment in one Brooklyn precinct, police withdrew from their posts and local anti-violence groups stepped in. “Together we can come up with the right answer when we work as a collective,” said Hailey Nolasco, director of our RISE Project, adding that she believes public safety should be led by community members.

“Each of these safety interventions was created by residents for residents as innovative solutions to addressing community safety,” says Danielle Brutus of the Center for Court Innovation on The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice virtual summit. Bringing together NYCHA resident leaders, local government officials, and policymakers to discuss how safety interventions can influence policy, 400 registered attendees heard panels and discussions on the legacy of the stop-and-frisk policy and “Physical Space as an Innovative Design and Policy Opportunity.”