BALTIMORE, MD. (Tuesday, October 26, 2021) – This morning in Park Heights, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced his administration’s second American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) priority investment: $50 million over the next three years to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) to fund violence prevention efforts, including community violence intervention, victim services, youth justice, re-entry services, and community healing. This investment will support key components of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, expand Baltimore’s community violence intervention ecosystem and victim services, and fund re-entry programs and trauma-informed practices.
Mayor Scott’s second priority ARPA investment funds key elements of the Mayor's Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. The approach is divided into three key pillars: Public Health Approach to Violence, Community Engagement and Inter-Agency Collaboration, and Evaluation and Accountability.
“As Baltimore continues to contend with dual public health crises — the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing violence epidemic — I am proud to make this investment in significantly increasing our capacity to reduce the violence occurring on our streets and to activate community-based organizations as part of our Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “Curing Baltimore of violence is my top priority as Mayor, and the dollars we invest today in this vision based in equity, healing, public health, and trauma-informed practices will build safer neighborhoods today, while paying dividends in the future.”
ARPA funding will be used for gun violence prevention. These dollars will support the intensive case management, emergency housing and relocation assistance for people at imminent risk of being the victim of violence, and transitional employment programming – all part of the City’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS). This investment will also increase Baltimore’s capacity to provide mental health services and victim services to survivors of gun violence.
In June 2021, the Biden-Harris administration asked Baltimore to join a collaborative, along with 14 other jurisdictions, to expand evidence-based, community violence interventions (CVIs). Mayor Scott committed to growing Baltimore’s on-the-ground capacity to directly intervene in conflicts and disputes before they escalate to violence. Over the next five years, MONSE will issue more than 30 grants and contracts to community-based organizations to administer evidence-based CVI programming. CVIs are effective because they utilize credible messengers to directly resolve conflicts, intervene before violence occurs, and connect people to needed resources.
“The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement is excited about this unprecedented investment in community-based organizations to partner in co-producing public safety. This is exactly what Baltimore needs,” said Shantay Jackson, Director of MONSE. “The streets, our residents, and our neighborhoods are depending on us. We are more powerful when we work together.”
In alignment with its charge to co-produce public safety with the Baltimore community, MONSE will use this investment to issue grants and contracts to community-based organizations supporting the coordinated neighborhood stabilization response (CNSR) effort. This effort joins multidisciplinary and community partners to provide interagency, coordinated responses to traumatic neighborhood events, such as major law enforcement takedowns, police-involved shootings, and acts of violence.
It will also support the creation of neighborhood policing plans, strategies tailored to specific neighborhoods that give residents more input over how police respond to calls for service, as well as the development of a capacity building plan targeted at better supporting traditional and non-traditional community-based organizations.
Recognizing that coordinated, trauma-informed victim services must be a priority in any public safety strategy, the Mayor committed to enhancing victim services. MONSE will provide approximately $1 million in grants to community-based organizations for domestic violence prevention and support human trafficking investigations. This investment will also support the expansion of hours and staff supporting parents and children at the Baltimore City Visitation Center.
Additionally, today's investment will fund a new initiative being developed by the Mayor and MONSE, in partnership with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS), that will begin working with people behind bars in the months prior to their release. In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, Department of Public Works, Department of Transportation, Department of General Services, and Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, the Returning Citizens Behind the Wall program will provide training and paid employment for nearly 3,000 people preparing to transition back into their communities, along with providing wraparound supports before and upon their return.
To further support the successful re-entry of people returning home from prison, MONSE will use ARPA funds to issue more than 40 grants and contracts to community-based organizations providing direct re-entry services.
Increasing supports for young people and bringing a trauma-informed, harm reduction approach to City government operations also factor into the investment announced today. MONSE will allocate funding toward implementing agency-level changes that shift long-term youth outcomes and prevent future fatalities; community-based organizations doing work related to juvenile justice, social-emotional learning, and harm reduction for residents managing active addiction; and trauma-informed care training for Baltimore residents.
“The American Rescue Plan Act allows us to fund evidence-based community violence intervention programs to mitigate the increase in violence across America’s cities,” said Shamiah Kerney, Baltimore’s Chief Recovery Officer. “This ARPA Investment with MONSE represents the beginning of transformational change in Baltimore City.”
Community-based organizations engaged in community violence intervention, victim services, youth justice, community healing, and re-entry work may learn more and submit a letter of interest at the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement's Funding Portal. Grant applications in all project categories will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis based on funding availability.
About the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided $641 million to the City of Baltimore in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency and its negative economic impacts. Mayor Brandon M. Scott has established the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs to transparently and effectively administer this funding on behalf of the City.
The Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs continues to collect information from their public feedback form on their website. For additional information, visit the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs website at arp.baltimorecity.gov. This page is updated frequently with the latest ARPA-related information.
As a reminder, Baltimore nonprofits can apply to receive American Rescue Plan Act funds. Review resources and complete the application, which closes on December 31st, at arp.baltimorecity.gov.
