CalGRIP Success Stories

program participants standing arm in armCITY OF SANTA BARBARA
Young Women’s Retreat

Santa Barbara’s CalGRIP project funds a comprehensive case management, education, and substance abuse prevention strategy that targets youth who have been involved in the juvenile justice system or are at risk of such involvement. A Youth Employment & Internship (YEI) program has been implemented to reduce gang activity through paid job experience, life skills education, and case management.

The team has been able to take groups of young girls on a Young Women’s Retreat. The retreat takes place in the Santa Barbara mountains. Girls must check their cell phones and separate from technology while they are there. Many of the girls report that it is the first time they have camped in nature and the first time they have done something for themselves.

 

 

CITY OF RICHMOND
Office of Neighborhood Safety, a CalGRIP grantee, recognized by Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, has recognized Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety as one of 100 national semifinalists in this year’s Innovations in American Government Awards competition. The Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) will compete to be named a Finalist in the competition and have the chance to be awarded the $100,000 grand prize in Cambridge this spring.

  • The ONS advanced from a pool of more than 500 applications from all 50 states, and was selected by the Innovations Award evaluators as an example of novel and effective action which has had significant impact, and which they believe can be replicated across the country and the world.

How does the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) work?  The ONS is a non-law enforcement department launched in late 2007 with the sole mission to reduce firearm assaults and associated injury and deaths.

  • Richmond hired formerly incarcerated individuals to serve as Neighborhood Change Agents (at the time a new city employee classification) to provide intensive street outreach, case management and life coaching in the city's most impacted neighborhoods.
  • Between the agency’s launch in 2007 and 2016, the Office of Neighborhood Safety has contributed to a 71% reduction in firearm assaults causing injury or death.

 

 

Boys and Girls Club of Pico RiveraCITY OF PICO RIVERA
Boys & Girls Club student, a CalGRIP program participant, selected as Boys & Girls Club 2017 Youth of the Year.

The Whittier Boys & Girls Club annual Youth of the Year Awards is a program that honors inspiring teens for leadership, service, academic excellence and dedication to living a healthy lifestyle. This year, Gabrielle Martinez of Pico Rivera, a student from “The Club at El Rancho” – a new chapter of the Boys & Girls Club supported by CalGRIP – was selected as the Boys & Girls Club 2017 Youth of the Year for her region. This is especially exciting, in light of the fact that this is only Pico Rivera’s second year as an official club. Gabrielle was presented a $3,300 scholarship check, an exciting swag bag, and a one week, all-inclusive educational travel trip to China.  Gabrielle will advance to the regional competition to be held at the El Capitan Theatre in April.

 

 

CITY OF LONG BEACH
White House Data Driven Justice Initiative

The City of Long Beach, a CalGRIP grantee, has joined the White House Data Driven Justice Initiative (DDJ), joining more than 100 cities seeking to disrupt the cycle of incarceration.

DDJ communities will bring together data from across criminal justice and health systems to identify the individuals with the highest number of contacts with police, ambulance, emergency departments, and other services, and link them to health, behavioral health, and social services in the community, with a goal of reducing overreliance on emergency healthcare and encounters with the criminal justice system.

The DDJ communities will implement the following strategies that have proven to be effective in reducing unnecessary incarceration in jails:

  • Creating or expanding local data exchanges that combine justice and health system information, with appropriate legal and privacy protections, to identify multiple system "super-utilizers;"
  • Diverting this population, as well as people who may be committing low-level crimes primarily due to mental illness, from the criminal justice system prior to arrest, where appropriate, and linking them to proper care management; and
  • Implementing data-driven risk assessment tools to ensure decisions on pre-trial release are informed by empirically validated methods of evaluating defendants' risk to the community, not ability to pay or other extraneous factors.

These innovative strategies, which have measurably reduced jail populations in several communities, help stabilize individuals and families, better serve communities, and often save money in the process.

 

 

CITY OF OAKLAND
Oakland’s Ceasefire Violence Reduction Strategy, funded in part by the CalGRIP grant, has seen tremendous success over the past two years.

Oakland’s Ceasefire Violence Reduction Strategy is a partnership between the local and regional law enforcement agencies, the Human Services Department, the Mayor’s Office and community-based organizations. CalGRIP grant funds have been used to increase the level of intensive case management support provided to high-risk individuals identified by law enforcement and street outreach teams. Since January 2015, the target area has seen:

  • 22% decrease in homicides
  • 14% decrease in shootings
  • 198 high-risk individuals targeted for outreach and support
  • 31 individuals trained to serve as mentors

CalGRIP funding also supports Procedural Justice Training for all Oakland Police Department officers and Ceasefire Awareness training for the community. Since January 2015:

  • 560 officers trained in Procedural Justice
  • 90 community members attended Ceasefire Awareness training