Strategy and Framework



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STRATEGY AND FRAMEWORK

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People's Plan For Community Safety

Launched in December 2023, the People's Plan for Community Safety is a community-led initiative that unites Chicagoans from all walks of life to address historic disinvestment, work towards healing our communities, and make all of Chicago safe for everyone. Led by the Mayor's Office for Community Safety (MOCS), this work harnesses the full force of government, community organizations, businesses, philanthropy, and more to solve a decades-long problem in a new way.


Overview

The Community Safety Coordination Center (CSCC) works across City departments to implement a coordinated, community-led approach to address the root causes of community violence - trauma, lack of educational and job opportunity, and community blight. Our work is focused on the people and places most impacted by community violence and includes near- and long-term strategies to create safe spaces, support residents in addressing their individual and family needs, and promote a culture that leads towards community wellness and safety.

  • Community Engagement – Through the dedicated work of our community engagement managers, we foster vital connections, deliver essential resources, and facilitate community events and safe space activations. The managers serve as bridges between the community and the City government.
  • Rapid Response – We promptly allocate City resources and services to areas with a high risk of, or ongoing, gun violence. These efforts include resolving issues that pose a public safety threat such as street and alley lighting, graffiti removal, vacant lots, and abandoned buildings. We also coordinate City processes and resources like street closures, permits, lighting, and security.
  • Culture Building – Working closely with community stakeholders, we co-create and implement initiatives that advance a narrative that supports communities most impacted by violence, drives behavioral change toward individual and collective wellness, and create a culture of empowerment for building community safety.

Community Engagement

Through the dedicated work of our community engagement managers, we foster vital connections, coordinate essential resources, and facilitate community events and safe space activations. The managers act as intermediaries between the community and the City government, facilitating the development of customized solutions to address unique community safety issues in neighborhoods.

Rapid Response

Utilizing a community-led, data-supported model to identify emerging and acute community safety issues, we promptly triage City resources and services to those impacted areas. These efforts include coordinating with community safety stakeholders and working in partnership to resolve issues that pose a public safety threat such as street and alley lighting, graffiti removal, addressing vacant lots, and abandoned buildings.

Community Safety as a Public Health Framework

The CSCC is working with a broad range of City departments and sister agencies, many of which have existing programs or strategies to address community safety, to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach to violence prevention. The City developed a public health framework for community safety to implement a full force of government approach to violence prevention and ensure equitable investment in the communities with the highest levels of disinvestment and lack of opportunity. The framework was instrumental in understanding the wide array of violence prevention programs in the city of Chicago.

This graphic highlights the framework of the CSCC, discussing the levels of intervention utilized in our violence prevention response, starting with the largest populations impacted to the smallest. The levels include Systemic Transformation, Community Revitalization and Reinvestment, Support for Individuals and Families at Risk, and Crisis Response.

Origin

The CSCC was created to take the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and apply them to the City's most pressing epidemic, gun violence. This means coordinating a full force of government approach that is data-informed, evidence-based, and community-driven. In its early stage of development, the CSCC comprised of representatives from the City’s infrastructure, social services, and public safety departments. Currently, the CSCC is embedded within the Chicago Department of Public Health and works alongside the Office of Violence Prevention, and the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, to reduce violence through coordination, victim support, and intervention services.