全球智库信息集成服务系统

Strategic Planning, Building a Community Coalition Are Essential

• A strategic plan that includes knowledge sharing with other funders and community representatives is essential.
• Residents, community stakeholders, and government officials cited inadequate family and community support; a lack of economic opportunities; government failures; and failing schools, outmigration, and urban decay as contributing to crime.
• Dozens of research-based programs and strategies address the problems faced in the Mississippi Delta.
• In general, programs that reduce crime and violence rely on strong partnerships with law enforcement and other government entities. Approaches to prevent crime have more diverse partnerships.
• Building a community coalition is the first step in a successful crime prevention initiative.

This research project explored how foundations approach funding public safety projects, focusing on two counties (Phillips County, Arkansas, and Coahoma County, Mississippi) in the Mississippi Delta. We conducted a needs assessment of the affected communities, identified and reviewed evidence-based strategies for addressing community problems, and provided a roadmap for developing a comprehensive public safety strategy for these counties. The project began with interviews with representatives of peer philanthropic foundations to learn how these foundations approach community public safety, make funding decisions, and measure their impact; in addition, interviewers gathered advice on working as a newcomer to public safety projects. We also conducted a needs assessment of the priority counties to understand specific crime problems and their causes and correlates. We conducted multiple site visits, dozens of interviews, and two focus groups in each community and reviewed available crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and local police departments. Next, we searched the research literature to identify a variety of evidence-based approaches to reducing crime, violence, and its causes and correlates that match the needs identified in the Mississippi Delta. The project concluded with the development of a framework for how to think through the various options for selecting and implementing community-level violence prevention and intervention.

• Chapter One

  Purpose and Methodology

• Chapter Two

  Philanthropic Approaches to Addressing Community Crime and Violence

• Chapter Three

  Crime and Violence in the Mississippi Delta

• Chapter Four

  Research-Based Approaches to Addressing Community Crime and Violence

• Chapter Five

  Framework for Developing a Crime and Violence Reduction Funding Portfolio