GOAL: Greater Boston communities are vibrant, safe and affordable.

OBJECTIVE: Increase the livability, affordability and safety of Boston neighborhoods.

STRATEGY: Reduce the incidence of violence in Boston neighborhoods, especially among youth.

Problem & Key Data

• A subset of Boston neighborhoods are disproportionately and persistently affected by high rates of violent crime:
  • 70% of Boston’s gun violence is concentrated in only 5% of the city’s street corners and blocks.
    
    
• A small number of young people (aged 16-24) play a significant role in driving the vast majority of violence in Boston:
  • 1% of the City of Boston’s youth population aged 16-24 (1,400 – 2,200 people) drive more than 50% of gun violence citywide.
    
    
• These “proven-risk” youth – those who are involved in gangs or other criminally active groups engaged in violent behavior – are chronically isolated both socially and economically. This is, in part, due to their lack of adequate access to role models, programs and services that lead youth to positive pathways.
  
  
• Fear of violence is a significant cause of isolation for members of affected neighborhoods, who are often afraid to leave their homes, which impedes development of vibrant communities (see “Competing Under Fire,” Boston Globe, June 22, 2009).
  

Approach:

• The Foundation will design, resource and implement a sustained, multi-faceted effort to reduce violence through a targeted and coordinated initiative.
• The Foundation will convene and lead a wide array of public, private, nonprofit, and faith-based partners on two core approaches:
  
  1. Street-level gang intervention: Increase the number of highly trained and supported streetworkers, deployed to establish relationships with proven-risk youth and intervene in cycles of violence, resolve conflicts, and connect youth to services.
     • Based on successes in Boston, Chicago, Providence and other cities that have mounted similar interventions, effective and proactive street-level intervention is key to disrupting cycles of retaliatory gang violence.
       
  2. Neighborhood-based service delivery: Establish collaborative, multi-faceted neighborhood-based network of programming and social services for proven-risk youth.
     • Significant anecdotal evidence suggests that enabling access to positive pathways that make participation in violent criminal behavior less attractive leads to a reduction in youth violence.
       
       

Desired End State
Citywide and in the five neighborhoods that are the focus of StreetSafeBoston—the Dudley Square and Grove Hall neighborhoods in Roxbury; South End/Lower Roxbury; and the Morton/Norfolk and Bowdoin/Geneva areas in Dorchester:

• Decrease % of youth violent crime
• Decrease % of youth homicides

Download a PDF of the new strategic framework.