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Thursday, June 23, 2016
In late 2015, Youngstown was one of 14 sites awarded the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation grant through the US Department of Justice.
The purpose of the grant is to provide communities with resources to analyze crime data and engage residents in order to develop crime reduction strategies for a specific area of the city suffering from prolonged, disproportionately high crime rates. The project partners, including YNDC, Youngstown Police Department, and researchers from Youngstown State University, selected a large portion of the South Side as the target area. YSU researchers analyzed crime reports in the target area from 2005-2015 to identify hotspots where repeated offenses are occurring. Many of the hotspots are located along South Ave., Market St., Midlothian Blvd. and Hillman St., as well as some of the residential side streets, such as E. Florida Ave. and E. Boston Ave. The project team will analyze environmental factors that may be influencing crime at these locations, such as inadequate lighting and visibility, overgrown trees and bushes, and nearby vacant properties.
The project also engages community residents and stakeholders in the planning process. Grant funds were used to hire three neighborhood canvassers who have been gathering input from residents through door-to-door conversations regarding neighborhood issues and potential solutions. Residents and stakeholders are invited to attend a public meeting on Wednesday, July 13 at 6pm at the Newport Library to discuss strategies to address issues that are driving crime in the neighborhood. Input from residents and stakeholders will be used along with the data analysis to develop an implementation plan that utilizes a cross-sector partnership approach to reduce crime in the target area. Once complete, the implementation plan will allow YNDC, YPD, and YSU to apply for additional resources through US DOJ and other sources to fund specific strategies identified in the plan.