“We must no longer subscribe to the thinking that police alone can stem the tide of violence. While the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) will be part of holding our law enforcement agencies accountable, we must ask what every agency and institution that interacts with our residents can do to stop the violence. Under my leadership and in partnership with MONSE, Baltimore will embody what it means to treat violence as a public health epidemic.”

- Mayor Brandon M. Scott

Mission

As the agency responsible for the implementation of the City’s public health approach to safety through Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan, MONSE partners with Baltimore’s residents, community-based organizations, institutions, businesses, and agencies to stem the tide of violence, while simultaneously unearthing its root causes. MONSE’s portfolio includes Baltimore’s community violence intervention ecosystem, funding allocations for community-based organizations directly involved in the co-production of public safety, the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS), and victim services work.

Guiding Values

In everything that it does, MONSE is committed to upholding its core values of being:

• Equity-based. Focused on promoting justice in reducing disproportionate negative impacts of current and future policies and practices.
• Healing-centered. Preventing violence must be paired with repairing harm.
• Trauma-informed. Based on understanding and integrating knowledge about the causes and consequences of trauma.
• Justice-oriented. Real justice is about more than punishment; it is also about restoration, renewal, and healing from past harms.
• Partnership-based. Just as violence is intersectional, so must the solutions, relying on cross-system partners and partnerships.
• Transparent. Strong partnerships require trust, and trust demands transparency and accountability.  
• Data- and research-driven. Relying on data and the best available experimental and experiential evidence to guide decision-making.
• Results-oriented. Devoted to delivering impact.

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