RESOURCES

Changing the Narrative

Comprehensive strategies, frameworks, and research that can help cities reimagine public safety and build safe, healthy, and hopeful communities
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2022
Preventing Black Male Suicide: A Roadmap for Action
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2022
Roadmap Academy Impact Analysis
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2022
Community Violence Intervention: A Summer Toolkit
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2022
A Guide to Investing in Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities: Part two
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2021
A Guide to Investing in Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities: Part One
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2020
COVID-19 Resources
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2020
Reimagining Public Safety: Moving to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities
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2018
A Strategic Resource for Mayors on Disrupting Community Violence and Preventing Homicides
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2017
Roadmap to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities
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2017
A Strategic Resource for Mayors on Police-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths
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2017
Interventions for Reducing Violence and its Consequences for Young Black Men and Boys
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2016
Four Proven Ways: Violence Reduction Strategies
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2016
Nine Solutions for Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities
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2016
Violence Trends, Patterns, and Consequences for Black Men in America: A Call to Action
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REIMAGINING

PUBLIC SAFETY

Moving to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities
Reimagining public safety means identifying community-led and -supported solutions and strategies that are grounded in justice, restoration, and healing, rather than punishment and control.
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Interrupt the Cycle of Violence
Reimagining public safety means leveraging political and financial capital to invest in solutions supported and led by community members and community-based organizations that represent and work directly with individuals most impacted by community and state violence. These solutions treat violence in the moment or within hours or days of the occurrence:
Violence Interuption
Street Outreach
Hospital-Based Violence Intervention
Diversion and Alternate Pathways
Coordinated Crisis Response Team
Collaborative Public Safety Funding Models
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Dismantle Systems of Inequity
Reimagining public safety is also defined as the recognition of historical and current systems of inequity that create conditions that negatively impact the overall quality of life in Black communities. This means investing in solutions and strategies that address the inequities that lead to community violence:
Boosting Education
Expanding Healing-Centered Engagement
Building an Inclusive Economy
Reshaping Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems
Bolstering Family Support
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Invest in Infrastructure
Reimagining public safety also involves investing in action planning, relationship management, information gathering, consistent evaluation, and effective communication and messaging platforms, with a specific focus on addressing the short-term and long-term variables related to community and police violence that disproportionately impact Black communities.
Estimating the Cost of Public Safety
Assessing City and Philanthropic Spending
Evaluating City Policies and Practices with a Racial Equity and Antiracist Lens
Implementing an Asset-Framed Communications Strategy
OUR APPROACH
Roadmap to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities
The Roadmap to Safe, Healthy, and Hopeful Communities guides our partner cities in charting a path forward. Every roadmap is different, and tailored for local needs.
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Prepare to Plan
Building the political will to change, creating a city-wide work group or local leadership team, engaging leaders in the areas most impacted by violence, building partnerships and relationships, raising awareness, and connecting city leaders to our national network
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Construct a Multi-Year Plan of Action
Developing an integrated response strategy, developing a balanced approach based on PIER (Prevention, Intervention, Enforcement, Re-entry) tactics, developing multi-layered SMART goals, aligning and identifying evidence-based activities, developing a communication plan, and creating a multi-year evaluation plan and data plan
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Implement a Multi-Year Plan of Action
Identifying and securing goal owners and activity leads, identifying and matching sustainable resources, implementing a multi-year evaluation plan and data plan, and communicating successes and activities
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Develop Continuous Improvement & Evaluation
Developing a community-wide integrated governance structure, implementing community feedback mechanisms, and annually reviewing and updating the multi-year plan of action
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Create a Sustainability Plan
Enhancing and growing organization capacity, securing sustainable funding streams, continuously engaging philanthropy, and identifying and moving the policy agenda
Cities United 2011–2021: Made for this Moment
A look back at the first ten years of Cities United’s history, featuring interviews with founders, partners, and network members
The Denver Story
Interviews with Michael B. Hancock, and other city officials, young leaders, and partners, talking about how Cities United has helped foster a public health approach to reducing gun violence in the city of Denver
Roadmap Academy
Interviews with Roadmap Academy participants about their experience working side by side with Cities United and one another in creating customized violence prevention plans for their cities
Founders’ Conversation
A 2018 discussion looking back on the founding of Cities United, featuring former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter, former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, Shawn Dove, and Dr. William Bell, moderated by Antoinette Malveaux

JOIN US AS WE
INTERRUPT VIOLENCE
DISMANTLE SYSTEMS &
INVEST IN COMMUNITIES

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Learn more about our approach to violence reduction, collaborative change-making, and building safe, healthy, and hopeful communities.

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