Press Releases

MONSE Issues RFP for FY ‘24 Grant Opportunities
MONSE | August 11, 2023

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for organizations to apply for Fiscal Year 2024 Anti-Human Trafficking and SideStep Youth Provider grant funding. Funding for these opportunities is made available through $575,000 of the agency's General Funds allocation for FY ‘24 for a funding term covering October 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. 

“The success of Baltimore’s comprehensive approach to public safety relies on our ability to support organizations working directly in our communities and integrate their efforts into the City’s broader strategy,” said MONSE Interim Director Stefanie Mavronis. “These grant opportunities are about calling on organizations working to combat human trafficking and empower Baltimore’s young people to partner with us to co-produce public safety and activate alternative supports for youth beyond the criminal legal system.”

FY24 Anti-Human Trafficking Grant Awards: MONSE will invest a total of $325,000, available in $50,000 or $25,000 awards, for selected organizations to support trauma-informed comprehensive services and programs that promote anti-human trafficking efforts and benefit survivors of trafficking in partnership with the Baltimore City Human Trafficking Collaboration. Proposals should demonstrate a real need and highlight the impact of the organization’s current programming. The proposal should clearly serve individuals who are sex trafficked and/or labor trafficked in Baltimore City. Three letters of community support are required. 

Grantees will be required to submit monthly invoices with supporting documentation, quarterly performance reports on results, outcomes, and impacts, and demonstrate a willingness to partner with MONSE and the City of Baltimore as part of a comprehensive, co-produced anti-human trafficking and violence prevention strategy. 

FY24 SideStep Provider Grant Awards: Additionally, $250,000 is available to support multiple service providers interested in partnering with the City of Baltimore’s pre-arrest youth diversion program, SideStep. MONSE is looking for a range of providers with the capacity to serve children and teens (between the ages of 8 and 18) with varied interests and needs/

Mayor Scott Announces Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Interim Director
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | June 28, 2023

Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the appointment of Stefanie Mavronis as the Interim Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). She will take over the role when Executive Director Shantay Jackson departs her position at MONSE on June 30, 2023.

“Stefanie has been at the forefront of MONSE’s mission since day one, and will be an incredibly effective interim leader while we actively search for a new Executive Director for MONSE,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “We look forward to expeditiously appointing a new Executive Director to build on the foundation laid by this team and forging ahead in the work that is so important to the wellbeing and future of our city.”

MONSE Announces Sixth Round of ARPA Allocations
MONSE | June 26, 2023

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced the 6th round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes. The awards – totaling around $13.4 million – are directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety in partnership with community-based organizations and nonprofits.

This funding is in addition to the $16.5 million already allocated to Baltimore community-based organizations and other institutional partners and is part of Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s violence prevention investment allocated to the public safety agency in 2021.

“Our ability to carry out Baltimore’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan is driven by organizations working in our communities and directly with our residents to make our city safer every single day,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “Investing in these organizations is a central pillar of my administration’s comprehensive approach to public safety, and communities across our city are seeing the positive outcomes they deliver on behalf of Baltimore.”

With this announcement, since FY ‘22, MONSE has allocated roughly $30 million in grants to organizations engaged in community violence intervention, victim services, youth justice, community healing, and re-entry work.

A Message from MONSE - What the Data on GVRS Says 
MONSE | June 7, 2023

At Monday night’s budget hearing, MONSE unintentionally generated some confusion while attempting to demonstrate the strong impact of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) in the 17 months since implementation in the Western District. 

Because we value transparency, we’d like to acknowledge the error and clear up any remaining uncertainty about the data presented at the hearing. Our calculation that resulted in the presented “25.2 percent reduction” was calculated by comparing two 17-month periods. The first data set examined January 2021 to May 2022, while the second examined January 2022 to May 2023 – these two data sets erroneously overlapped a 5-month period between January 2022 to May 2022.

Scott Administration Announces Summer Youth Engagement Strategy
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | May 24, 2023

Mayor Brandon M. Scott, Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Executive Director Shantay Jackson, and Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success (MOCFS) Executive Director Dr. Debra Brooks were joined by interagency, community, and institution-based partners to announce Baltimore’s B’More this Summer youth engagement strategy. 

“Our young people are Baltimore’s future and we must devote our resources, time, and energy into making sure that they have the opportunities they deserve to grow and develop into their best selves,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “This plan is a comprehensive strategy designed to ensure our young people are safe and connected throughout the summer months. We are providing opportunities for them to enjoy their time off from school while participating in activities that we know they want to be involved in and we will be engaging them through Baltimore’s curfew ordinances in ways that limit unnecessary interactions with law enforcement to ensure a safe, fulfilling summer for everyone.”

The plan, put together by Deputy Mayor for Equity, Health, and Human Services Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, MOCFS Executive Director Dr. Debra Brooks, and MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson under the guidance of City Administrator Faith Leach, integrates curfew engagement and a comprehensive schedule of programming opportunities especially tailored to

MONSE Issues RFA for Neighborhoods to Participate in Neighborhood Policing Plan Cohort
MONSE | May 15, 2023

The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for neighborhood associations across Baltimore to participate in the City’s upcoming Neighborhood Policing Plan (NPP) cohort for Fiscal Year 2024.

MONSE has set aside $250,000 through the agency's ARPA allocation for selected neighborhoods to implement individually-tailored public safety strategies in their respective communities. 

In alignment with the requirements of the consent decree, MONSE and the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) have committed to working with neighborhoods to create Neighborhood Policing Plans that address the challenges identified by residents in the neighborhoods in which they live. These plans connect residents to City and community-based resources to address both immediate violence in their neighborhoods and quality of life issues including blight, lack of resources in the community, and outstanding requests for City services. 

“The Neighborhood Policing Plan initiative is designed for residents to manage safety in partnership with local government and address quality of life issues related to public safety while simultaneously working to repair relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve,” said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson. “We are calling on neighborhoods throughout the city to apply and help us co-produce public safety because we know that the best solutions for a safer Baltimore are informed by the lived experiences of the people who call our city home.” 

Baltimore-based neighborhood organizations are encouraged to apply by 11:59 p.m. on June 14, 2023, through MONSE’s Grant Portal. Applicants must provide a proposal totaling no more than $250,000 for the NPP program they are interested in accomplishing, demonstrate that they are working in partnership with the community, and have the ability to implement the proposed strategies.

Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Executive Director Shantay Jackson Announces Departure
MONSE | May 11, 2023 

Mayor Brandon M. Scott and Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Executive Director Shantay Jackson announced the departure of Executive Director Jackson effective June 30, 2023. 

“On behalf of the entire City of Baltimore, I want to thank Executive Director Jackson for her service,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “She has been an integral part of my administration’s work to treat violence as a public health issue and carry out Baltimore’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. Together, we have built a strong team at MONSE that is well positioned to continue to move this work forward to improve public safety outcomes for all of Baltimore.”

At the beginning of his administration, Mayor Scott appointed Executive Director Jackson to lead the newly created Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement as part of his holistic approach to public safety that combines traditional law enforcement with Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) and Community Violence Intervention (CVI) ecosystem. 

“It is with mixed emotions that I have chosen to resign as the Executive Director of MONSE as I enter into my next chapter of service to our City,” said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson. “I do not take this decision lightly, and it has been an honor to serve the city I love. I have full faith that the team we have built over the past two-and-a-half years will be able to carry on this transformational work and deliver on our commitments to building a safer Baltimore. I will be working with Mayor Scott to ensure a smooth transition ahead of my departure on June 30.”

Mayor Scott, MONSE Celebrates Baltimore City Visitation Center 10 Year Anniversary
MONSE | May 10, 2023

Mayor Brandon M. Scott and Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Executive Director Shantay Jackson were joined by Baltimore City Visitation Center (BCVC) staff, MONSE’s Victim Services team, and community partners to celebrate the Center’s 10th Anniversary.

“For ten years, the Baltimore City Visitation Center has provided a safe location that promotes healthy interactions during the exchange of children between parents or during on-site visitation between parents with their children,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “This work is a vital part of our efforts through the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement’s Intimate Partner Violence Prevention team to address the web of trauma caused by domestic violence, prevent revictimization, and build a better, safer Baltimore for all of our residents.”

As one component of a larger community response to domestic violence and its associated crimes including sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and child sexual abuse, the BCVC has served as an access point for referring families to receive additional supportive services that help cofacilitate a path to healing since it was first opened in early 2013.

Mayor Scott Provides One-Year Comprehensive Update on Cultivation of Baltimore’s Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem
MONSE | April 25, 2023 

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott was joined by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), Safe Streets Baltimore, Challenge2Change, community-based partners, Baltimore-area hospital systems, Baltimore City Public Schools, and city leaders to provide a comprehensive public update on his strategy to expand Baltimore’s Community Violence Intervention (CVI) ecosystem. This update follows the release of Scott’s vision and commitment to CVI in Baltimore one year ago. 

“Building a CVI ecosystem is about understanding that an act of violence does not start or end when someone pulls a trigger,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “By bringing together and supporting public safety partners across our city, we can step in and address the root causes to prevent violence from occurring in the first place.” 

“Over the last year, this administration has demonstrated its commitment to cultivating a CVI network that is intentional about establishing support for those experiencing violence, and for those working on the ground to prevent it from occurring,” said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson. “The diversity of resources represented by our ecosystem truly reflects the residents that it serves and we look forward to the continued partnership and shared commitment to supporting Baltimoreans across the city.”

A detailed release and one-pager highlighting Baltimore’s CVI commitments and the progress being made to meet them can be found on MONSE’s website.

City Highlights Impact of Service Provision in Group Violence Reduction Strategy
MONSE | April 12, 2023

Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Executive Director Shantay Jackson was joined by Youth Advocate Programs Inc. (YAP) Assistant Program Director Irene Conway and Roca Vice President of Maryland Kurt Palermo to highlight the roles of community moral voice and service provision in the City’s focused-deterrence strategy. 

“Our Group Violence Reduction Strategy relies on a balance of positive and punitive consequences to ensure individuals most at-risk of being involved in gun violence – either as a perpetrator or victim – are able to step away from the life or face swift, certain, and legitimate accountability,” said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson. “Ultimately, we want those engaged by the Group Violence Reduction strategy to hear and understand the choice they are presented with, make the decision to accept the services offered through our partners YAP and ROCA, and benefit from the positive consequences to their lives, the lives of those they love and who love them, and to our community.” 

GVRS, also known as focused deterrence, is a nationally recognized approach that has the strongest formal evaluation record of any violence prevention initiative designed to reduce homicides and non-fatal shootings.

In partnership with the Baltimore Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s Office, MONSE launched the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) in January 2022. This proven strategy aims to address the norms perpetuating violence in Baltimore by focusing resources on individuals identified as being at the highest acute risk of involvement in non-fatal shootings and homicides. 

City of Baltimore Affirms Partnership with Roca to Service Baltimore’s At-Risk Youth Through the Group Violence Reduction Strategy
MONSE | April 5, 2023

Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Executive Director Shantay Jackson and Roca Maryland Executive Vice President Kurt Palermo released a statement following the Board of Estimates approval of Roca’s service provision contract with Baltimore City:

“MONSE and Roca stand proud to forge ahead in the service of young Baltimoreans through Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy. Today’s Board of Estimates outcome affirms the unwavering dedication of both Roca and the City of Baltimore to take a public health, community-centered approach to trauma reduction and violence intervention, especially amongst our highest risk young people. We look forward to continuing the work, alongside partner Youth Advocate Programs Inc. (YAP) to deliver Baltimoreans most at-risk of being either the perpetrators or victims of gun violence the opportunities they need to make the decision to step away from a life of violence and remain safe, alive, and free.”

MONSE Releases Statement on Johns Hopkins' Safe Streets Baltimore Evaluation
MONSE | March 30, 2023

Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Executive Director Shantay Jackson released the following statement in response to the release of an academic evaluation conducted by Daniel W. Webster, ScD, MPH on Safe Streets, Baltimore’s flagship violence intervention program:

“Safe Streets is an integral component of our city’s community violence intervention (CVI) ecosystem and has utilized a community-based approach to violence reduction in Baltimore since 2007. The evaluation conducted by Dr. Webster underscores the profound impact that Safe Streets has had on reducing homicides and nonfatal shootings across ten catchment zones throughout the city and cited the program to have reduced homicides by 32 percent and nonfatal shootings by 23 percent on average annually since its inception. Safe Streets staff members work tirelessly and selflessly to mediate conflicts in our communities and encourage peace. Accordingly, these results would not be possible without their commitment to our city and fellow neighbors.

Alongside our CVI strategic partners, Catholic Charities and LifeBridge Health Center for Hope, we are driven to deepen this work and continue to deliver improved public safety outcomes for all Baltimoreans. The Scott administration remains committed to supporting and investing in the violence prevention and intervention efforts that have proven effective by fostering a coordinated, interconnected ecosystem that includes victim services, hospital-based violence intervention, mental health, and life coaching supports.”

MONSE Announces Inaugural SideStep Pre-Arrest Youth Diversion Partners
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | March 16, 2023

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced a total of $375,000 in grant allocations for eight organizations who will serve as inaugural service providers for the SideStep pre-arrest youth diversion program. Awardees will provide services to youth and their families referred as part of the program. 

“SideStep is about ensuring that our young people grow up safe, alive, and free,” said Executive Director Shantay Jackson of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. “We have a responsibility to support young people in Baltimore as they learn and grow on their journey to adulthood. Together, with our community-based partners and thanks to Mayor Scott's commitment, we are taking on that work as a community.”

MONSE Calls Community-Based Organizations to Contribute to Baltimore Resource Landscape Analysis
MONSE | March 16, 2023

Today, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance (BNIA) are inviting community-based organizations in Baltimore City to complete a brief survey that will help identify strengths and gaps in the existing network of providers and organizations serving residents.

MONSE Seeks Applicants for Baltimore’s First Re-Entry Action Council 
MONSE | March 15, 2023

Today, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement announced a Request for Applications for Baltimore’s first-ever Re-Entry Action Council geared to coordinate government agencies and community-based organizations around Baltimore’s Re-Entry Continuum of Care  that will work to ensure seamless coordination of services to address and reduce barriers for Baltimoreans who have been incarcerated. Applications will be accepted through March 31, 2023. Individuals with lived experience are encouraged to apply. 

Mayor Scott Unveils Public Safety Accountability Dashboard 
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | February 28, 2023

Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the release of Baltimore's first-ever Public Safety Accountability Dashboard (PSAD) alongside Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Executive Director Shantay Jackson and members of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The Dashboard is a data tool designed to provide greater levels of transparency and allow the public to hold agencies accountable for executing agreed upon strategies and identifying best practices for measuring effectiveness of the administration's public safety efforts.

MONSE Announces Fifth Round of ARPA Allocations to CVI Ecosystem Partners
Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | February 17, 2023 

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced another round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations (CBOs). The awards, totaling $900,000, are directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety.

This funding is in addition to the $18.4 million already allocated to Baltimore community-based organizations and other institutional partners and is part of the $50 million ARPA investment that Mayor Brandon M. Scott allocated to the public safety agency in 2021.

MONSE Makes Top-of-Year Staffing Announcements
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | February 14, 2023

Today, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) is announcing top-of-year staffing additions and modifications for the team charged with continuing the work required to sustainably and equitably improve public safety outcomes for all Baltimoreans: Mark Mason, Victim Services Associate Director; Delancia Browning, Community Engagement and Opportunity Associate Director; Jonathan Hoffman, Policy and Research Associate Director; and Jack French, Strategic Communications Manager.  

MONSE Calls for Public Input on Public Safety Accountability Dashboard 
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | December 28, 2022 

Today, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) released a call to the public to offer feedback on Baltimore’s first-ever Public Safety Accountability Dashboard. MONSE will host four virtual focus groups of up to 25 people to review and offer feedback on the dashboard before it is made accessible to the public. 

Mayor Scott Announces Expansion of Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS)
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | December 6, 2022 

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the expansion of Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS). The strategy, which the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) has piloted in Baltimore’s Western Police District since January 2022, will expand to the Southwestern district in the first quarter of the 2023 calendar year. Later in 2023, the Central District and Eastern District will follow, before the strategy is ultimately scaled citywide by mid-2024.

MONSE’s SideStep Pre-Arrest Youth Diversion Pilot Seeks Service Provider Partners
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | December 5, 2022 

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE)  announced a Request for Applications (RFA) for Baltimore community-based organizations interested in partnering with the City of Baltimore as a  referral partner for the SideStep Pre-Arrest Youth Diversion Pilot. For this grant, MONSE will provide nine (9) $50,000 grants and one (1) $25,000 grant to community-based organizations to provide services to referred youth between 2/1/2023-6/30/2023.

MONSE Announces Recipients of Trauma-Informed Care Training Grant 
Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | November 15, 2022 

Today, Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Director Shantay Jackson announced the recipients of the Trauma-Informed Care Training grant. A single grant totaling $510,000 was awarded to Pride Center of Maryland who, in partnership with Black Men's Exchange and Black Mental Health Alliance, will conduct trauma-informed care training to residents, city agencies, and other organizations. This award was allocated from MONSE’s $50 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) investment.  

Director Jackson Announces Recipients of Social-Emotional Learning and Development Grant
Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | November 9, 2022 

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Director Shantay Jackson announced the recipients of the 2022-2023 Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Development grant. Two grants totaling $234,000 were awarded to community-based institutions focused on the development of elementary and middle school-aged youth. 

St. Francis Neighborhood Center has been awarded $189,400 and B-Theory has been awarded $45,000 for a grant term applicable from October 3, 2022, through June 30, 2023.

Director Jackson Announces Recipients of Anti-Human Trafficking Grant
Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | November 3, 2022 

Today, Director Jackson of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement announced the recipients of the 2023 Anti-Human Trafficking Grant. Eight grants totaling $300,000 were awarded to community-based institutions that support comprehensive trauma-informed services for victims of human trafficking, sex trafficking, and/or labor trafficking, including LGBTQ survivors. 

Mercy Medical Center, Araminta Freedom Initiative, the Salvation Army, and City of Refuge Baltimore will each receive one-time $50,000 awards. HER Resiliency Center, Drink at the Well, Lead4Life Inc., and Intercultural Counseling Connection will each receive a one-time $25,000 award.

MONSE Announces Fourth Round of ARPA Allocations to CVI Ecosystem 
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | October 5, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced another round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations (CBOs). The distribution of awards totaling $500,000 is directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety with the Baltimore community. This funding is in addition to the $17.9 million already allocated to Baltimore CBOs and other institutional partners and is part of the $50 million ARPA investment that Scott allocated to the public safety agency last year.  

City of Baltimore to Observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | October 4, 2022

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the City of Baltimore will be engaged in a variety of activities to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence.

Scott Administration Rolls out Second Round of ARPA Dollars to Support Violence Prevention in Baltimore
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | May 5, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced the second round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations (CBOs). The distribution of awards totaling $300,000 is directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety with the Baltimore community. In February, Mayor Scott announced the initial ARPA violence prevention grant recipients totaling over $17.6 million in funds. This funding is part of the $50 million ARPA dollars that Scott allocated to the public safety agency last year.

Mayor Scott Announces Next Steps in Cultivation of Baltimore’s CVI Ecosystem 
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | September 16, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the next steps in cultivating Baltimore’s first-ever Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Ecosystem. This includes a new operation model for Safe Streets, Baltimore’s flagship violence intervention program, and the addition of hospital violence intervention programming.  

Mayor Scott Announces Expanded Victim Services in Baltimore
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | August 12, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced his vision for the first-ever expansion of Victim Services in Baltimore. The interagency coordination efforts associated with victim services led by the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) are in direct alignment with the Mayor’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan’s emphasis on a public health approach to safety.

Social-Emotional Learning and Development Grant Request for Applications - Deadline 9/9
MONSE | August 10, 2022

Today, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) Director Shantay Jackson announced a Request for Applications (RFA) for Baltimore community-based organizations to receive funding for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Development programs. For this grant, MONSE will award up to three recipients focused on the development of elementary and middle school-aged youth.

Twelve Additional Community-Based Organizations to receive $600,000 in ARPA Dollars to Support Violence Prevention in Baltimore
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | July 29, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced another round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations (CBOs). The distribution of awards totaling $600,000 is directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety with the Baltimore community. This funding is in addition to the $17.9 million already allocated to Baltimore CBOs and is part of the $50 million ARPA investment that Scott allocated to the public safety agency last year. 

Mayor Scott Announces Vision for Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem in Baltimore 
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | April 13, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott stood as a national leader in the Community Violence Intervention (CVI) space to lay out his strategy to expand Baltimore’s CVI ecosystem. Mayor Scott was joined by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), White House Community Violence Intervention Collaborative (CVIC) technical advisors, the National Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform, The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention (HAVI), Safe Streets Baltimore, community-based organization partners, Baltimore-area hospital system partners, and community partners.

Director Shantay Jackson Announces Senior Lead Team for Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement
MONSE | February 15, 2022

The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement Director, Shantay Jackson, today announced members of her senior lead team charged with advancing the work of the agency and carrying out Baltimore’s Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. 

Scott Administration Rolls out Initial Round of ARPA Dollars to Support Violence Prevention in Baltimore
Mayor Brandon M. Scott | February 15, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced the initial recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations.

Mayor Scott Recognizes Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Baltimore City 
Mayor Brandon M. Scott 10/06/2021

“We must do better,” said Shantay Jackson, Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

News Clips

‘It shouldn’t take a mass shooting’: Baltimore’s Brooklyn community thanks officials but pleads for more resources
Baltimore Sun | September 8, 2023

Alfreda Stewart’s youngest daughter was grazed by a bullet during the Brooklyn Homes mass shooting July 2. Her daughter’s friend was shot in her shoulder and thigh.

She learned the news in a “horrific” phone call from her oldest daughter, she told the mayor, acting police commissioner and a host of city officials at a Thursday night community meeting.

"I thank y’all for coming out and helping us,” Stewart said to the officials through tears, “but where was everybody before the shooting?”

“We needed help before people got killed. We needed help before people got shot,” she continued. “It shouldn’t take a mass shooting for us to get all the help that we need now. It’s not right.”

The Brooklyn community’s annual block party turned deadly shortly after midnight on July 2 when shots rang out, killing two people and wounding 28 others, the majority of whom were young people.

Dozens gathered Thursday, blocks from where the party became a crime scene, to go over the city’s recently released after-action report. Agency leaders from Baltimore Police, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Housing Authority of Baltimore City walked neighbors through what they’d learned about lapses leading up to and during the shootings.

Among them: Police failed to follow up on a social media flyer about Brooklyn Day. The Housing Authority was entirely unaware of the plans. Officers in the area failed to tell superiors as the party grew. Commanders didn’t call for backup to address the hundreds-large gathering once they learned of it.

The forum was an opportunity for residents to speak directly to those leaders. Questioning was at times pointed, but often speakers expressed gratitude for the assistance they’d gotten in the wake of the shooting.

Residents share gratitude, ask for more resources at Brooklyn Day shooting community forum
Baltimore Banner | September 7, 2023 

Anthony Wicks counts himself lucky to have only suffered a minor wound after he was grazed by a bullet at the Brooklyn Day mass shooting in early July, but he still faces challenges.

On Thursday evening, Wicks, 39, was one of several residents to share his experience with the mayor, police commissioner, other public officials and community members at a neighborhood forum discussing one of the worst mass shootings in the city’s history.

Wicks said he is still trying to convince his daughter, who was with him that night, to move back to the Brooklyn Homes community, where he has lived for 10 years.

But while public officials may have been bracing for challenging questions following the release of critical internal reviews by city agencies, Wicks wanted instead to share his gratitude, in particular for the victims’ services arm of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. He singled out Mark Mason, the associate director of victims’ services at the agency.

“He talked me through a lot of things, he calmed me down, to give me a better attitude on what’s going on and how to deal with things,” Wicks said. “I just want to come here to show my gratitude to let you know that I appreciate you, and there’s more to be done.”

Wicks’ sentiment was echoed by others at the meeting, including the mother of a shooting victim, who shared her appreciation for Safe Streets violence interrupters stationed in Brooklyn.

And while there was gratitude for the city resources that have poured into the community since the July 2 shooting, there was also a sense of frustration that those resources might have come too late.

“It shouldn’t take a mass shooting for all the help we’re getting now, it’s not right,” said another resident, who did not identify herself by name. “To me, it’s not right.”

New legislation proposed by city leaders focuses on recidivism
WMAR | August 21, 2023

BALTIMORE — On Monday Mayor Brandon Scott and other city leaders held a press conference highlighting legislation all about supporting people who’ve previously been incarcerated.

Recidivism is what it’s all about, helping people who have been recently incarcerated transition back into society. City leaders said if we want a better Baltimore, we have to provide people who’ve made mistakes a second chance to get it right.

In addition to Mayor Brandon Scott, Councilman James Torrence who runs district 7 , City Council President Nick Mosby, leaders of MONSE, other community advocates and more city council members were all in attendance Monday supporting this legislation.

Torrence introduced the legislation while sharing a personal story about the lack of services around recidivism and how it directly impacted his mother who was once incarcerated.

University of Baltimore to offer Safe Streets employees professional violence intervention training
Baltimore Sun | July 19, 2023

The Baltimore City Board of Estimates unanimously approved a contract for the University of Baltimore on Wednesday to create and deliver a violence intervention certificate program for Safe Streets employees.

The $134,433 contract is partially funded by a grant from the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance and the general fund of the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, known as MONSE. The contract will cover program development as well as pre-launch promotion.

As requested by MONSE, the university plans to use the expertise of the faculty at its Schaefer Center for Public Policy to instruct Safe Streets workers on conflict analysis and management to create a curriculum that supports the organization and the community it serves best, according to Board of Estimates agenda documents.

The program’s curriculum will be unique to similar conflict resolution programs at other universities because of its focus on community violence intervention in regards to gun violence, said Stefanie Mavronis, MONSE’s interim director.

Some traumatized residents of Baltimore’s Brooklyn Homes hope for more help after mass shooting. Others want to move.
Baltimore Sun | July 15, 2023

Tonya Williams wakes up with a lot on her mind. The Brooklyn Homes resident worries whether her 16-year-old son will be safe from gun violence at school. She wonders if the housing authority will install the screen door she requested in September to keep her 1-year-old grandson from wandering outside. She doesn’t know how she’ll afford the copay for her diabetes and blood pressure medications.

For nearly two weeks, a new anxiety has weighed on Williams: the image of a slain 18-year-old lying for four hours on the steps outside her town house in Gretna Court. “I can’t really look out my window without seeing the young boy, Kylis, and the young girl lying on the ground dead,” she said of the two people killed July 2 in a mass shooting in Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood.

Williams, 41, sought help from a psychiatrist and a therapist after the hail of gunfire killed her next-door neighbor, Kylis Fagbemi, 20, and Aaliyah Gonzalez, 18, and wounded 28 other people, most of them teenagers. The psychiatry appointment, although helpful, resulted in another prescription she needs to buy.

More than 90 people have asked city workers about moving out of Brooklyn Homes since the shooting, Stefanie Mavronis, interim head of the Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said Thursday during a City Council hearing. The last day for her agency’s representatives at the Brooklyn Homes Community Center was Wednesday.

Safe Streets returns to Brooklyn to provide outreach after mass shooting
WBALTV | July 7, 2023

Safe Streets returned to Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood on Friday to provide outreach in the wake of Sunday's mass shooting.

The violence-interruption group was at Brooklyn Homes for the Brooklyn Day block party on Sunday, but its members were not there at the time of the shootings that killed two people and injured 28 others.

Such responses are something Safe Streets does every time there's a shooting in the city. Its volunteers are recruited to help settle disputes and connect people to services.

The shooting response involves canvassing the community, talking to residents, offering mediation and showing they have a presence to try to make the community safer and at least help residents feel safe.

Stefanie Mavronis, interim director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, told 11 News that her team is going to continue its work to provide resources to the youth in the city.

"We know that in this community in particular, there were a lot of young people who were engaged in this incident -- not only who were potentially involved in the violence, but who also witnessed it -- and we know how traumatizing that can be. We have school communities impacted, we have families who were impacted," Mavronis said. "So, what my team is going to continue to do is make sure we have specific resources, specific outreach tailored to the youth. We also have to make sure we're hearing directly from young people about what they need from us."

Days after deadly shooting, residents of Brooklyn Homes help one another heal
Baltimore Banner | July 7, 2023

Five days after 30 were shot, two fatally, in Brooklyn Homes, bags of leeks arrived on 10th Street in front of the community center. So did cartons of lettuce, peppers and mushrooms, jars of baby food, 10-pound rolls of frozen ground beef, and bags of frozen chicken. Hot meals of curry chicken, stewed cabbage, beans and rice were served by the sidewalk.

City employees arrived, too. They brought a mobile employment office and a mobile clubhouse for kids equipped with video game consoles and a beanbag chair. Inside the Brooklyn Homes community center, residents found help getting a job, making rent, or just having someone to talk to.

Dozens of people march to Baltimore's Brooklyn Homes, call for end to gun violence
WJZ | July 7, 2023

As law enforcement officers continue their investigation into a mass shooting that took place at Brooklyn Homes on Sunday, community leaders are working to make the neighborhood safer.

Their goal is to prevent tragedy from striking again. 

Members of Safe Streets—Baltimore's flagship gun violence reduction program—marched from the intersection of 9th Street and Patapsco Avenue to the community center at Brooklyn Homes.

Less than a week ago two people were killed and 28 injured in a mass shooting that took place during a block party. 

"We just want to bring people out of their homes and let people walk with us march against violence," Safe Streets site director Corey Winfield said. "We stand on that."

Baltimore mayor, police commissioner lead crime walk through Brooklyn after mass shooting
WJZ | July 5, 2023

Baltimore leaders held a crime walk Wednesday evening days after a mass shooting rocked the Brooklyn Homes community.

Mayor Brandon Scott and Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley led the movement. They are spoke with residents about Sunday morning's mass shooting when 30 people were shot.

'Peace Mobile' brings resources to those affected by gun violence in Baltimore
WBALTV | July 5, 2023

City leaders are responding after Sunday's shooting in Brooklyn left 30 people wounded and two dead.

The city's new Peace Mobile brought resources to those impacted by the residual trauma of the tragedy.

"This is important for me to be here now, because this community went through a horrific, tragic, traumatic event. And I think everyone has to understand how important (and) how deep that is for this community," said Mayor Brandon Scott.

City leaders said they are approaching gun violence as a health problem, and the bus provides immediate resources to residents with trauma.

"Provide a proactive approach before things like this happen. We're in communities and then reactively, when we have incidents that are violent, that will impact our community, we bring the Peace Mobile as that sort of ambulance to service the community, repair it, and then leave a process behind that's sustainable," said Rick Leandry, manager of neighborhood stabilization and response.

Baltimoreans and legislators commemorate National Gun Violence Awareness Day
AFRO | June 9, 2023

According to Wear Orange, a gun violence prevention campaign, each year, June 2-4 is a time for Americans to honor the victims and survivors of gun violence and advocate for an end to the crisis.

...

On June 1, Mayor Brandon M. Scott unveiled Baltimore’s first Peace Mobile. It is inspired by LIFE Camp New York’s Peace Mobile, a city-owned RV with a recording studio, punching bag, snacks, toiletry kits and more. The city designed the peace mobile for residents experiencing trauma due to violence.

“Sheer innovation is turning the tide of public safety across our City and we are excited to add the Peace Mobile to our toolkit as we work to reduce violence in Baltimore,” said Scott. “The Peace Mobile embodies the spirit of our city. I look forward to our residents taking advantage of the resources and sense of community that will now literally meet them where they are to facilitate their healing and self-care.”

Current MONSE director says Baltimore is doing better compared to previous years
WBAL Radio | June 6, 2023

The Baltimore City Council heard from the head of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement last night, Shantay Jackson, regarding an update on what's been happening with the program.

Jackson told members that under her leadership at the Monse,  Baltimore is breaking years-long records when it comes to homicides and non-fatal shootings. 

Jackson also said the group Safe Streets has mediated 751 potentially violent conflicts.

Mayor Scott, city leaders unveil Baltimore Peace Mobile
WJZ | June 1, 2023

In an effort to promote healing, city leaders have unveiled the first-ever Baltimore Peace Mobile. 

The vehicle will be deployed into communities, providing aid and resources to residents in the aftermath of traumatic events.

Mayor Scott expressed his excitement over the innovative concept, which took more than a year to come to fruition. "Which is why I'm excited to present the moment we have all been waiting for, the Baltimore Peace Mobile," said Scott.

The Peace Mobile aims to provide resources and support in response to traumatic incidents, particularly shootings and violent events, which often leave a significant impact on the community.

"We know that every shooting or violent incident leaves behind a web of trauma in our communities as a whole," Scott explained.

The Peace Mobile is designed to offer solace, peace, and a space for healing and reconciliation. MONSE Executive Director, Shantay Jackson, expressed gratitude for the grant that made the project possible.

"So, for 45 days we're going to be serving residents within the six square block of Bel Air Road, Park Side Drive, Moravia Park Drive, and Frankfort Road," Jackson said.

The interior of the Peace Mobile includes a professional sound room, four HD TVs, a coloring station for kids, and a PlayStation 5 video system. Jackson said the features were chosen based on data gathered from the community, indicating their specific needs.

Baltimore unveils city’s first Peace Mobile to mediate conflicts, provide resources
Baltimore Fishbowl | June 1, 2023 

Mayor Brandon Scott on Thursday unveiled Baltimore’s first-ever Peace Mobile, which aims to diffuse conflicts and bring resources to where community members are.

The Peace Mobile is a collaboration between the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and other community stakeholders.

MONSE’s executive director, Shantay Jackson, thanked the many partners that brought the vision of the Peace Mobile to fruition, including the Department of General Services (DGS) for outfitting what used to be the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development Mobile Unit “into a comprehensive resource hub that is representative of the communities that we serve.”

“Gratitude to the State of Maryland for providing us with the grant dollars to bring this vision to life,” Jackson said. “Special thank you to our partners to Life Camp in New York, because their Peace Mobile served as an inspiration for what you’re about to see today.”

Jackson acknowledged the hard work put in over years to accomplish this goal.

“Now let me be really clear when I say that the Peace Mobile isn’t a MONSE idea brought to life,” Jackson said. “For years, Baltimoreans all over our city have been talking about meeting people where they are, have been talking about bringing resources into neighborhoods. And we’ve seen our partner agencies do that time and time again, from the Health Department to the Enoch Pratt Free Library to the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and so many more partners.”

Baltimore's Safe Summer Program kicks off amid launch of youth curfew policy
WJZ | May 27, 2023

The city's strategy to keep youth safe turned a page on Saturday. Together with Safe Streets, the city kicked off the third annual Safe Summer Program.

This comes just as the city's updated curfew policy has gone into effect.

Lifelong Baltimorean April Grady noted that the past few months have been particularly difficult for the city and its young people.

"It's been way, way, way more violence lately, especially with our children," she said. "It seems it's targeted at our children."

So, when she heard about the Safe Summer Program's kickoff event at Druid Hill Park, she immediately wanted to bring her family.

"This is very needed," Grady said. "They are killing our children like it's nothing. Anything to keep the children off the streets, and keep them busy and keep them engaged and keep them out of trouble, is greatly welcomed." 

At the kickoff, families enjoyed music and face painting. They were also able to connect with some city resources and services.

Throughout the summer, Safe Streets will be putting on nearly a dozen more events like the one it hosted Saturday. They will all have the goal of keeping kids away from trouble and away from violence.

'These are all of our children': Baltimore leaders unveil summer youth engagement strategy
WBAL | May 24, 2025

Baltimore leaders on Wednesday announced details of the mayor's youth engagement strategy.

The plan, called "B'More This Summer," takes effect at the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Mayor Brandon Scott said the curfew is part of his broader vision to increase youth activities this summer.

"We all want our young people to have a safe and engaging summer, enjoy that time off from school and get connected and develop the best way possible. That's what this about," Scott said.

According to the mayor's office, this approach to the youth curfew has never been tried before in Baltimore. It's a combination of structured youth activities and social work, and the role of the police, officials emphasized, will be limited.

Baltimore's summer youth engagement strategy implemented ahead of citywide curfew
WJZ | May 24, 2023

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and other city leaders discussed on Wednesday their strategy to keep children off the streets and away from trouble.

A citywide curfew will begin at 11 p.m. on Friday, the start of Memorial weekend, following an uptick in youth disruptions and violence.

 The Baltimore Police Department laid out how it will enforce the juvenile curfew policy. You can read that policy here.

Those under 14 years old need to be off the streets by 9 p.m. Teens from 14 to 17 can stay out until 11 p.m.

 Enforcement will be in effect through Labor Day.

“It’s on the entire village”; Baltimore City summer curfew de-emphasizes police involvement.
WYPR | May 24, 2023 

On Friday, the highly anticipated Baltimore City summer curfew goes into effect for children 16 and younger. Police are not meant to play a leading role in that enforcement, say officials as they gave more details for the plan on Wednesday afternoon.

Trauma-informed city staff will monitor popular gathering spots in Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill. Teens can go home or take a ride in a rebranded school van to one of two Youth Connection centers, where they can play games and be connected with services while they wait for a parent. The department of social services will be called if parents cannot be reached.

Civilian engagement staff, and not the police, will be transporting teens to the curfew centers.

“Past curfew attempts have over emphasized the role of law enforcement in a way that alienated our young people and frame curfew engagement as punishment,” said Shantay Jackson with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), instead, she said it should be an opportunity to connect with children.

“This is not going to be police going around criminalizing Black children,” said Jackson.

Baltimore readies plan to enforce youth curfew using social workers over police in ‘communal parenting’ strategy
Baltimore Sun | May 24, 2023 

Two days before Baltimore City is set to begin enforcing a youth curfew, elected leaders, police and community partners unveiled a strategy labeled as “communal parenting” that aims to be non-punitive for young people.

Shantay Jackson, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said at a news conference Wednesday that although past curfew attempts have overemphasized the role of law enforcement, alienating young people, this summer’s attempt would emphasize support, safety and engagement.

The curfew, which will start being enforced Friday, is one facet of a larger summer youth engagement strategy, dubbed B’More this Summer, that will feature city-sponsored programming ranging from midnight basketball to pool parties and concerts, officials said at the news conference.

Celebrating 10 years of providing a safe space
WMAR | May 10, 2023

The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement is celebrating 10 years of the Baltimore Visitation Center.

It helps families impacted by domestic violence connect.

MONSE's Baltimore Visitation Center bridges the gap for families, providing a healthy interaction for everyone involved in a very unpleasant situation.

Every weekend, the Baltimore Visitors Center provides a free safe space for children, allowing for supervised and monitored visitations.

'End the disease of gun violence': Community violence intervention program helping drop homicide rate
WMAR | April 25, 2023 

It’s been one year since Mayor Brandon Scott announced plans to implement his community violence intervention ecosystem. 

Leaders of the community violence intervention ecosystem, otherwise known as CVI, said since the launch of this initiative one year ago, statistics show the work they’ve been doing has been effective.

However, now they’re focusing on expanding and trying every way possible to end the disease of gun violence especially infecting our youth.

“As a city, even as we stand here today with a year over year 19% reduction of homicides and 18% reduction in non-fatal shootings, we're still losing way too many people to violence but more specifically young people,” Scott said.

Tuesday multiple city agencies gathered to talk about CVI, its progress, and how they’re planning to expand it.

Community violence prevention strategies are working, says mayor. Programs will expand
WYPR | April 25, 2023 

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, is halfway through his first term in office which he began with a pledge to reduce gun violence by 15% every year. Standing cheek to jowl with dozens of other community leaders in the crowded mainroom of Challenge 2 Change, a non-profit men’s empowerment program based in Northeast Baltimore, he told members of the press that his strategies are working.

Last year, Scott used $10 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to launch the Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem– a network of 44 partner agencies with the mission of reducing gun violence throughout the city. The program uses Safe Streets, the city’s premier gun reduction program, as the anchor to connect victims of gun violence to the hospital systems, public health programs and other wraparound services.

Officials touted the program’s successes on Tuesday morning, citing that shootings are down compared to this time last year when the CVI ecosystem launched.

Group violence strategy offers ‘second chance’ in Baltimore. ‘I’m just grateful,’ participant says.
Baltimore Sun | April 12, 2023 

Keko Thompson was trying to cope with his cousin’s killing last September when he was approached by Youth Advocate Programs with an offer for services or connections — a “second chance to get myself together,” as Thompson put it.

Thompson, 36, is one of the dozens of people at high risk of being victims or perpetrators of violence to be connected to services through Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, with the assistance of community-based organizations Youth Advocate Programs and Roca. The strategy combines the “positive and punitive,” leaders said, by offering participants the choice to take advantage of opportunities, or risk consequences including law enforcement involvement.

Baltimore officials tout successful impact of Mayor's Group Violence Reduction Strategy
WYPR | April 12, 2023 

Standing inside the sanctuary of Doxa Ministries Church Without Walls, a Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) participant shared how the services provided have changed his life.

Keko Thompson’s testimony was part of Baltimore City officials press conference Wednesday that announced impacts of the 14-month program.

“I can do better things in my life than standing outside on the corners dedicating myself to the wrong things,” said Thompson.

MONSE recognizes Youth Advocate Programs Inc. impact in Baltimore
WMAR | April 12, 2023 

One program is proving second chances changes lives and hopefully saves lives as well.

On Wednesday the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, announced the latest results of their group violence reduction strategy.

The program aims to stop gun violence at it's core.

Group Violence Reduction Strategy reaches dozens of Baltimore residents at risk of violence
WJZ | April 12, 2023

Keko Thompson, 36, told WJZ he was struggling after his cousin was murdered last September.

"It was a hard pill for me to swallow, and to this day, it's still a hard pill for me to swallow," Thompson said. "They say God will take something from you and give you something in replacement."

Thompson said his life changed due to outreach from Youth Advocate Programs, which partners with the city to provide intensive outreach to those at risk of violent crime. 

It is part of Baltimore's Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a more holistic approach to the crime fight. 

Baltimore Safe Streets sites ‘clearly’ reduce homicides, shootings, Johns Hopkins evaluation finds
Baltimore Sun | March 30, 2023 

Baltimore’s flagship community violence intervention program, Safe Streets, has led to reductions in nonfatal shootings and homicides, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis of nearly 15 years of data.

In the neighborhoods served by the five Safe Streets sites that have been open four years or more, the analysis indicated there was an average of 22% fewer homicides than predicted. And across all sites, Safe Streets was associated with a 23% reduction in nonfatal shootings, researchers found.

City leaders collaborate to end youth violence
WMAR | March 20, 2023 

There have been too many teens killed as a result of youth violence. Monday morning, Baltimore City leaders met to discuss ways they are collaborating to prevent it.

Monday morning, Scott met with leaders from Baltimore City Schools, Baltimore Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the health department to discuss how they can better collaborate to attack youth violence

Baltimore mayor's office announces $375K for partners in pre-arrest youth diversion program
WJZ | March 17, 2023 

The Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) on Friday announced $375,000 in funding for eight service providers for a program that aims to respond to the needs of the city's youth. 

The providers are Baltimore-based community organizations that will give services to youth and families referred by the SideStep pre-arrest youth diversion program.

AROUND BALTIMORE: LOCAL CONTROL, RENTER PROTECTIONS, AND A PUBLIC SAFETY DASHBOARD
Baltimore Beat | March 6, 2023 

On February 28, Mayor Brandon Scott, along with Shantay Jackson, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, unveiled a new public safety accountability dashboard. 

The portal tracks crime in the city by pulling data from a number of places, including local and state agencies, police districts, Safe Streets sites, hospital-based violence intervention programs, and information provided by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office

Baltimore City releases online dashboard with crime data for accountability, leaders say
WYPR | February 28, 2023

Anyone with access to the internet will now be able to hone in on any crime reported to the Baltimore City Police Department after the release of the city's Public Safety Accountability Dashboard. This online data tool provides a visual of crime — ranging from homicide, aggravated assault to robbery — throughout the city

MONSE Director Shantay Jackson, on curbing violent crime in the city
WYPR | February 28, 2023 

Tom's Midday Newsmaker guest today is Shantay Jackson, the director of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Director Jackson is in charge of implementing the Mayor’s plan to reduce violence in Baltimore City.

At the heart of that plan is the GVRS, or Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a pilot of which was begun last year in the Western District. MONSE has announced that it will be expanded to include other areas of the city soon

Edmondson Westside High students receive trauma and career resources
WBALTV | February 23, 2023 

Members of Mayor Brandon Scott's staff visited Edmondson Westside High School Thursday with much-needed resources to help students and staff members.

The visit came nearly two months after 16-year-old Deanta Dorsey was killed at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center near campus, as students continue to process the tragic loss of their classmate

Baltimore City seeks to curb intimate partner violence by leveraging public data online
WYPR | January 26, 2023 

Intimate Partner Violence, previously known as domestic abuse, accounts for 21% of all violent crime across Baltimore City, according to the Baltimore City Police Department.

It's an "overlooked public health crisis," according to advocates working for government agencies and community organizations that have been collaborating to tackle the issue.

“In 2022, women made up more than half of all victims of aggravated assault,” said Shantay Jackson, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement during a discussion during city council on Wednesday

Police confiscate ghost guns, arrest members of 'Wick Squad' gang selling fentanyl in West Baltimore
WJZ | January 23, 2023

Nine Baltimore men from the criminal organization known as "Wick Squad" have been indicted on charges of drug trafficking in West Baltimore, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced.

Baltimore leaders also said the operation is part of their Group Violence Reduction strategy, which reduced shootings and homicides in the Western District by 34 percent last year. 

More than 70 people have accepted the intensive support the program offers, said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson.

"The Western District has gone from being the most violent district in Baltimore City as it relates to gun violence, to being the least violent among our other chronically violent districts," Jackson said

City leaders bringing Peace Mobile to Baltimore to help heal communities
WMAR | December 28, 2022 

Healing communities is part of the main mission for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Now, WMAR is looking closer at how they plan to do that in the Baltimore community next year.

Organizers said their mission is helping communities heal from the trauma of gun violence. Shantay Jackson, who’s the director of MONSE, said expanding the way they respond to trauma is what they’ve been working all year to perfect, now we’re getting a closer look at the model they’re using to create and promote peace in Baltimore.

“The Peace Mobile is going to be the conduit through which we get into neighborhoods when the mayor decides to activate a coordinated neighborhood stabilization response,” Jackson said

Baltimore city leaders share improving crime data, citizens weigh in
WMAR | December 21, 2022 

New data suggests Baltimore police are making progress in the city's fight on crime; but, as that data rolls in, Baltimore's murder rate is rising. Gun seizures in the city are up 13 percent and arrests are up 19 percent. 

The director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement says that's not the only important metric.

"We should not just be talking about the arrests that we’re making but be more conscious of the narrative that we pour into our city," said Shauntay Jackson, Director of MONSE

Has group violence pilot pushed crime to other parts of Baltimore? Leaders say no; research finds no evidence of displacement.
Baltimore Sun | December 15, 2022

Officials have attributed a drop in shootings in Baltimore’s Western District to a group violence reduction pilot launched earlier this year to provide people most at-risk of shooting or being shot with services and social support.

Through the end of November, both fatal and nonfatal shootings were down more than 30% in the target area, according to the city agency overseeing the project

Baltimore outlines plan to take flagship anti-violence strategy citywide within two years
Baltimore Banner | December 6, 2022

Baltimore’s third experiment in a promising approach to violent crime, which officials say has provided much needed hope in the Western District over the past year, will now be expanded to other districts and eventually citywide

MONSE director Shantay Jackson, on strategies to curb gun violence
WYPR | November 28, 2022

A pilot program of GVRS has been in place for almost a year in the Western Police District. Has it been effective, and is it ready to be scaled up to other areas in the city?

The plan is overseen by Shantay Jackson, who directs the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE. Last June, a year after the plan was released, Ms. Jackson faced a frustrated Baltimore City Council, many of whose members expressed impatience with the pace of improvement.

As 2022 nears a close, we’ve invited Director Jackson to be with us today to explain what the Group Violence Reduction Strategy is, and to assess its value moving forward.

‘No one wants to be out on the corner every day.’ Community leaders work in Baltimore’s violence intervention program to attract participants.
Baltimore Sun | November 28, 2022 

Pastor Marvin McKenstry Jr. waited for more than an hour at his West Baltimore church, but the young man he was supposed to meet did not show.

McKenstry, who is pastor of the Victory House Worship Center, decided to go find the man in Penn North. McKenstry and two outreach workers from the nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs met with the man to encourage him not to engage in violence and instead to participate in the city’s violence intervention program, known as the Group Violence Reduction Strategy.

The young man has not been the victim of violence and has not been identified as a perpetrator of violence since that day in early 2022, McKenstry said. He also has a steady job working for the city’s Department of Public Works and stable housing.

It’s a result city officials hope to replicate under the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a centerpiece of the anti violence efforts of Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration. It targets individuals most at risk for violence, including would-be trigger-pullers and potential gunshot victims. The program works to offer them services in hopes of helping them avoid violence.

Baltimore City Council members discuss violence prevention initiatives and changing the landscape of Baltimore in quarterly public safety hearing
AFRO | November 13, 2022 

The City Council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee recently held its quarterly crime statistics and violence prevention plan hearing.The Baltimore Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and other collaborating partners provided their reports on their efforts to improve public safety.

MONSE has increased collaboration with agencies like the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works through MONSE’s Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) tactic.

CPTED attempts to improve community violence by improving the environment around possible offenders. As local government bodies band together to try climate improvements, they will come through things like better roads and cleaning up the streets.

Baltimore to Tackle Violence Via a School-Based Pilot
Conduit Street | November 2, 2022

Baltimore City is entering into a partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) to establish school-based violence intervention pilot programs in three Baltimore City public schools considered to be high-risk for pathways to violence: Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School, Carver Vocational Technical High School, and Digital Harbor High School

Violence prevention conference underway in Baltimore
WEAA | October 27, 2022 

Representatives from dozens of cities are meeting in Baltimore this week for the 9th Annual Cities United meeting. The conference brings together lawmakers from across the country to discuss ways to prevent the ongoing problem of gun violence while working to build safe communities

MONSE Announces Fourth Round of ARPA Allocations to CVI Ecosystem 
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | October 5, 2022

Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) announced another round of recipients of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars targeted at improving public safety outcomes to community-based organizations (CBOs). The distribution of awards totaling $500,000 is directly aligned with the Scott Administration's charge to co-produce public safety with the Baltimore community. This funding is in addition to the $17.9 million already allocated to Baltimore CBOs and other institutional partners and is part of the $50 million ARPA investment that Scott allocated to the public safety agency last year.  

City of Baltimore to Observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement | October 4, 2022

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the City of Baltimore will be engaged in a variety of activities to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence.

News Clips

Baltimoreans and legislators commemorate National Gun Violence Awareness Day
AFRO | June 9, 2023

According to Wear Orange, a gun violence prevention campaign, each year, June 2-4 is a time for Americans to honor the victims and survivors of gun violence and advocate for an end to the crisis.

...

On June 1, Mayor Brandon M. Scott unveiled Baltimore’s first Peace Mobile. It is inspired by LIFE Camp New York’s Peace Mobile, a city-owned RV with a recording studio, punching bag, snacks, toiletry kits and more. The city designed the peace mobile for residents experiencing trauma due to violence.

“Sheer innovation is turning the tide of public safety across our City and we are excited to add the Peace Mobile to our toolkit as we work to reduce violence in Baltimore,” said Scott. “The Peace Mobile embodies the spirit of our city. I look forward to our residents taking advantage of the resources and sense of community that will now literally meet them where they are to facilitate their healing and self-care.”

Current MONSE director says Baltimore is doing better compared to previous years
WBAL Radio | June 6, 2023

The Baltimore City Council heard from the head of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement last night, Shantay Jackson, regarding an update on what's been happening with the program.

Jackson told members that under her leadership at the Monse,  Baltimore is breaking years-long records when it comes to homicides and non-fatal shootings. 

Jackson also said the group Safe Streets has mediated 751 potentially violent conflicts.

Mayor Scott, city leaders unveil Baltimore Peace Mobile
WJZ | June 1, 2023

In an effort to promote healing, city leaders have unveiled the first-ever Baltimore Peace Mobile. 

The vehicle will be deployed into communities, providing aid and resources to residents in the aftermath of traumatic events.

Mayor Scott expressed his excitement over the innovative concept, which took more than a year to come to fruition. "Which is why I'm excited to present the moment we have all been waiting for, the Baltimore Peace Mobile," said Scott.

The Peace Mobile aims to provide resources and support in response to traumatic incidents, particularly shootings and violent events, which often leave a significant impact on the community.

"We know that every shooting or violent incident leaves behind a web of trauma in our communities as a whole," Scott explained.

The Peace Mobile is designed to offer solace, peace, and a space for healing and reconciliation. MONSE Executive Director, Shantay Jackson, expressed gratitude for the grant that made the project possible.

"So, for 45 days we're going to be serving residents within the six square block of Bel Air Road, Park Side Drive, Moravia Park Drive, and Frankfort Road," Jackson said.

The interior of the Peace Mobile includes a professional sound room, four HD TVs, a coloring station for kids, and a PlayStation 5 video system. Jackson said the features were chosen based on data gathered from the community, indicating their specific needs.

Baltimore unveils city’s first Peace Mobile to mediate conflicts, provide resources
Baltimore Fishbowl | June 1, 2023 

Mayor Brandon Scott on Thursday unveiled Baltimore’s first-ever Peace Mobile, which aims to diffuse conflicts and bring resources to where community members are.

The Peace Mobile is a collaboration between the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and other community stakeholders.

MONSE’s executive director, Shantay Jackson, thanked the many partners that brought the vision of the Peace Mobile to fruition, including the Department of General Services (DGS) for outfitting what used to be the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development Mobile Unit “into a comprehensive resource hub that is representative of the communities that we serve.”

“Gratitude to the State of Maryland for providing us with the grant dollars to bring this vision to life,” Jackson said. “Special thank you to our partners to Life Camp in New York, because their Peace Mobile served as an inspiration for what you’re about to see today.”

Jackson acknowledged the hard work put in over years to accomplish this goal.

“Now let me be really clear when I say that the Peace Mobile isn’t a MONSE idea brought to life,” Jackson said. “For years, Baltimoreans all over our city have been talking about meeting people where they are, have been talking about bringing resources into neighborhoods. And we’ve seen our partner agencies do that time and time again, from the Health Department to the Enoch Pratt Free Library to the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and so many more partners.”

Baltimore's Safe Summer Program kicks off amid launch of youth curfew policy
WJZ | May 27, 2023

The city's strategy to keep youth safe turned a page on Saturday. Together with Safe Streets, the city kicked off the third annual Safe Summer Program.

This comes just as the city's updated curfew policy has gone into effect.

Lifelong Baltimorean April Grady noted that the past few months have been particularly difficult for the city and its young people.

"It's been way, way, way more violence lately, especially with our children," she said. "It seems it's targeted at our children."

So, when she heard about the Safe Summer Program's kickoff event at Druid Hill Park, she immediately wanted to bring her family.

"This is very needed," Grady said. "They are killing our children like it's nothing. Anything to keep the children off the streets, and keep them busy and keep them engaged and keep them out of trouble, is greatly welcomed." 

At the kickoff, families enjoyed music and face painting. They were also able to connect with some city resources and services.

Throughout the summer, Safe Streets will be putting on nearly a dozen more events like the one it hosted Saturday. They will all have the goal of keeping kids away from trouble and away from violence.

'These are all of our children': Baltimore leaders unveil summer youth engagement strategy
WBAL | May 24, 2023

Baltimore leaders on Wednesday announced details of the mayor's youth engagement strategy.

The plan, called "B'More This Summer," takes effect at the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Mayor Brandon Scott said the curfew is part of his broader vision to increase youth activities this summer.

"We all want our young people to have a safe and engaging summer, enjoy that time off from school and get connected and develop the best way possible. That's what this about," Scott said.

According to the mayor's office, this approach to the youth curfew has never been tried before in Baltimore. It's a combination of structured youth activities and social work, and the role of the police, officials emphasized, will be limited.

Baltimore's summer youth engagement strategy implemented ahead of citywide curfew
WJZ | May 24, 2023

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and other city leaders discussed on Wednesday their strategy to keep children off the streets and away from trouble.

A citywide curfew will begin at 11 p.m. on Friday, the start of Memorial weekend, following an uptick in youth disruptions and violence.

 The Baltimore Police Department laid out how it will enforce the juvenile curfew policy. You can read that policy here.

Those under 14 years old need to be off the streets by 9 p.m. Teens from 14 to 17 can stay out until 11 p.m.

 Enforcement will be in effect through Labor Day.

“It’s on the entire village”; Baltimore City summer curfew de-emphasizes police involvement.
WYPR | May 24, 2023 

On Friday, the highly anticipated Baltimore City summer curfew goes into effect for children 16 and younger. Police are not meant to play a leading role in that enforcement, say officials as they gave more details for the plan on Wednesday afternoon.

Trauma-informed city staff will monitor popular gathering spots in Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill. Teens can go home or take a ride in a rebranded school van to one of two Youth Connection centers, where they can play games and be connected with services while they wait for a parent. The department of social services will be called if parents cannot be reached.

Civilian engagement staff, and not the police, will be transporting teens to the curfew centers.

“Past curfew attempts have over emphasized the role of law enforcement in a way that alienated our young people and frame curfew engagement as punishment,” said Shantay Jackson with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE), instead, she said it should be an opportunity to connect with children.

“This is not going to be police going around criminalizing Black children,” said Jackson.

Baltimore readies plan to enforce youth curfew using social workers over police in ‘communal parenting’ strategy
Baltimore Sun | May 24, 2023 

Two days before Baltimore City is set to begin enforcing a youth curfew, elected leaders, police and community partners unveiled a strategy labeled as “communal parenting” that aims to be non-punitive for young people.

Shantay Jackson, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said at a news conference Wednesday that although past curfew attempts have overemphasized the role of law enforcement, alienating young people, this summer’s attempt would emphasize support, safety and engagement.

The curfew, which will start being enforced Friday, is one facet of a larger summer youth engagement strategy, dubbed B’More this Summer, that will feature city-sponsored programming ranging from midnight basketball to pool parties and concerts, officials said at the news conference.

Celebrating 10 years of providing a safe space
WMAR | May 10, 2023

The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement is celebrating 10 years of the Baltimore Visitation Center.

It helps families impacted by domestic violence connect.

MONSE's Baltimore Visitation Center bridges the gap for families, providing a healthy interaction for everyone involved in a very unpleasant situation.

Every weekend, the Baltimore Visitors Center provides a free safe space for children, allowing for supervised and monitored visitations.

'End the disease of gun violence': Community violence intervention program helping drop homicide rate
WMAR | April 25, 2023 

It’s been one year since Mayor Brandon Scott announced plans to implement his community violence intervention ecosystem. 

Leaders of the community violence intervention ecosystem, otherwise known as CVI, said since the launch of this initiative one year ago, statistics show the work they’ve been doing has been effective.

However, now they’re focusing on expanding and trying every way possible to end the disease of gun violence especially infecting our youth.

“As a city, even as we stand here today with a year over year 19% reduction of homicides and 18% reduction in non-fatal shootings, we're still losing way too many people to violence but more specifically young people,” Scott said.

Tuesday multiple city agencies gathered to talk about CVI, its progress, and how they’re planning to expand it.

Community violence prevention strategies are working, says mayor. Programs will expand
WYPR | April 25, 2023 

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, is halfway through his first term in office which he began with a pledge to reduce gun violence by 15% every year. Standing cheek to jowl with dozens of other community leaders in the crowded mainroom of Challenge 2 Change, a non-profit men’s empowerment program based in Northeast Baltimore, he told members of the press that his strategies are working.

Last year, Scott used $10 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding to launch the Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem– a network of 44 partner agencies with the mission of reducing gun violence throughout the city. The program uses Safe Streets, the city’s premier gun reduction program, as the anchor to connect victims of gun violence to the hospital systems, public health programs and other wraparound services.

Officials touted the program’s successes on Tuesday morning, citing that shootings are down compared to this time last year when the CVI ecosystem launched.

Group violence strategy offers ‘second chance’ in Baltimore. ‘I’m just grateful,’ participant says.
Baltimore Sun | April 12, 2023 

Keko Thompson was trying to cope with his cousin’s killing last September when he was approached by Youth Advocate Programs with an offer for services or connections — a “second chance to get myself together,” as Thompson put it.

Thompson, 36, is one of the dozens of people at high risk of being victims or perpetrators of violence to be connected to services through Baltimore’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, with the assistance of community-based organizations Youth Advocate Programs and Roca. The strategy combines the “positive and punitive,” leaders said, by offering participants the choice to take advantage of opportunities, or risk consequences including law enforcement involvement.

Baltimore officials tout successful impact of Mayor's Group Violence Reduction Strategy
WYPR | April 12, 2023 

Standing inside the sanctuary of Doxa Ministries Church Without Walls, a Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) participant shared how the services provided have changed his life.

Keko Thompson’s testimony was part of Baltimore City officials press conference Wednesday that announced impacts of the 14-month program.

“I can do better things in my life than standing outside on the corners dedicating myself to the wrong things,” said Thompson.

MONSE recognizes Youth Advocate Programs Inc. impact in Baltimore
WMAR | April 12, 2023 

One program is proving second chances changes lives and hopefully saves lives as well.

On Wednesday the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE, announced the latest results of their group violence reduction strategy.

The program aims to stop gun violence at it's core.

Group Violence Reduction Strategy reaches dozens of Baltimore residents at risk of violence
WJZ | April 12, 2023

Keko Thompson, 36, told WJZ he was struggling after his cousin was murdered last September.

"It was a hard pill for me to swallow, and to this day, it's still a hard pill for me to swallow," Thompson said. "They say God will take something from you and give you something in replacement."

Thompson said his life changed due to outreach from Youth Advocate Programs, which partners with the city to provide intensive outreach to those at risk of violent crime. 

It is part of Baltimore's Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a more holistic approach to the crime fight. 

Baltimore Safe Streets sites ‘clearly’ reduce homicides, shootings, Johns Hopkins evaluation finds
Baltimore Sun | March 30, 2023 

Baltimore’s flagship community violence intervention program, Safe Streets, has led to reductions in nonfatal shootings and homicides, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis of nearly 15 years of data.

In the neighborhoods served by the five Safe Streets sites that have been open four years or more, the analysis indicated there was an average of 22% fewer homicides than predicted. And across all sites, Safe Streets was associated with a 23% reduction in nonfatal shootings, researchers found.

City leaders collaborate to end youth violence
WMAR | March 20, 2023 

There have been too many teens killed as a result of youth violence. Monday morning, Baltimore City leaders met to discuss ways they are collaborating to prevent it.

Monday morning, Scott met with leaders from Baltimore City Schools, Baltimore Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the health department to discuss how they can better collaborate to attack youth violence

Baltimore mayor's office announces $375K for partners in pre-arrest youth diversion program
WJZ | March 17, 2023 

The Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) on Friday announced $375,000 in funding for eight service providers for a program that aims to respond to the needs of the city's youth. 

The providers are Baltimore-based community organizations that will give services to youth and families referred by the SideStep pre-arrest youth diversion program.

AROUND BALTIMORE: LOCAL CONTROL, RENTER PROTECTIONS, AND A PUBLIC SAFETY DASHBOARD
Baltimore Beat | March 6, 2023 

On February 28, Mayor Brandon Scott, along with Shantay Jackson, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, unveiled a new public safety accountability dashboard. 

The portal tracks crime in the city by pulling data from a number of places, including local and state agencies, police districts, Safe Streets sites, hospital-based violence intervention programs, and information provided by the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office

Baltimore City releases online dashboard with crime data for accountability, leaders say
WYPR | February 28, 2023

Anyone with access to the internet will now be able to hone in on any crime reported to the Baltimore City Police Department after the release of the city's Public Safety Accountability Dashboard. This online data tool provides a visual of crime — ranging from homicide, aggravated assault to robbery — throughout the city

MONSE Director Shantay Jackson, on curbing violent crime in the city
WYPR | February 28, 2023 

Tom's Midday Newsmaker guest today is Shantay Jackson, the director of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Director Jackson is in charge of implementing the Mayor’s plan to reduce violence in Baltimore City.

At the heart of that plan is the GVRS, or Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a pilot of which was begun last year in the Western District. MONSE has announced that it will be expanded to include other areas of the city soon

Edmondson Westside High students receive trauma and career resources
WBALTV | February 23, 2023 

Members of Mayor Brandon Scott's staff visited Edmondson Westside High School Thursday with much-needed resources to help students and staff members.

The visit came nearly two months after 16-year-old Deanta Dorsey was killed at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center near campus, as students continue to process the tragic loss of their classmate

Baltimore City seeks to curb intimate partner violence by leveraging public data online
WYPR | January 26, 2023 

Intimate Partner Violence, previously known as domestic abuse, accounts for 21% of all violent crime across Baltimore City, according to the Baltimore City Police Department.

It's an "overlooked public health crisis," according to advocates working for government agencies and community organizations that have been collaborating to tackle the issue.

“In 2022, women made up more than half of all victims of aggravated assault,” said Shantay Jackson, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement during a discussion during city council on Wednesday

Police confiscate ghost guns, arrest members of 'Wick Squad' gang selling fentanyl in West Baltimore
WJZ | January 23, 2023

Nine Baltimore men from the criminal organization known as "Wick Squad" have been indicted on charges of drug trafficking in West Baltimore, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown announced.

Baltimore leaders also said the operation is part of their Group Violence Reduction strategy, which reduced shootings and homicides in the Western District by 34 percent last year. 

More than 70 people have accepted the intensive support the program offers, said MONSE Executive Director Shantay Jackson.

"The Western District has gone from being the most violent district in Baltimore City as it relates to gun violence, to being the least violent among our other chronically violent districts," Jackson said

City leaders bringing Peace Mobile to Baltimore to help heal communities
WMAR | December 28, 2022 

Healing communities is part of the main mission for the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Now, WMAR is looking closer at how they plan to do that in the Baltimore community next year.

Organizers said their mission is helping communities heal from the trauma of gun violence. Shantay Jackson, who’s the director of MONSE, said expanding the way they respond to trauma is what they’ve been working all year to perfect, now we’re getting a closer look at the model they’re using to create and promote peace in Baltimore.

“The Peace Mobile is going to be the conduit through which we get into neighborhoods when the mayor decides to activate a coordinated neighborhood stabilization response,” Jackson said

Baltimore city leaders share improving crime data, citizens weigh in
WMAR | December 21, 2022 

New data suggests Baltimore police are making progress in the city's fight on crime; but, as that data rolls in, Baltimore's murder rate is rising. Gun seizures in the city are up 13 percent and arrests are up 19 percent. 

The director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement says that's not the only important metric.

"We should not just be talking about the arrests that we’re making but be more conscious of the narrative that we pour into our city," said Shauntay Jackson, Director of MONSE

Has group violence pilot pushed crime to other parts of Baltimore? Leaders say no; research finds no evidence of displacement.
Baltimore Sun | December 15, 2022

Officials have attributed a drop in shootings in Baltimore’s Western District to a group violence reduction pilot launched earlier this year to provide people most at-risk of shooting or being shot with services and social support.

Through the end of November, both fatal and nonfatal shootings were down more than 30% in the target area, according to the city agency overseeing the project

Baltimore outlines plan to take flagship anti-violence strategy citywide within two years
Baltimore Banner | December 6, 2022

Baltimore’s third experiment in a promising approach to violent crime, which officials say has provided much needed hope in the Western District over the past year, will now be expanded to other districts and eventually citywide

MONSE director Shantay Jackson, on strategies to curb gun violence
WYPR | November 28, 2022

A pilot program of GVRS has been in place for almost a year in the Western Police District. Has it been effective, and is it ready to be scaled up to other areas in the city?

The plan is overseen by Shantay Jackson, who directs the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE. Last June, a year after the plan was released, Ms. Jackson faced a frustrated Baltimore City Council, many of whose members expressed impatience with the pace of improvement.

As 2022 nears a close, we’ve invited Director Jackson to be with us today to explain what the Group Violence Reduction Strategy is, and to assess its value moving forward.

‘No one wants to be out on the corner every day.’ Community leaders work in Baltimore’s violence intervention program to attract participants.
Baltimore Sun | November 28, 2022 

Pastor Marvin McKenstry Jr. waited for more than an hour at his West Baltimore church, but the young man he was supposed to meet did not show.

McKenstry, who is pastor of the Victory House Worship Center, decided to go find the man in Penn North. McKenstry and two outreach workers from the nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs met with the man to encourage him not to engage in violence and instead to participate in the city’s violence intervention program, known as the Group Violence Reduction Strategy.

The young man has not been the victim of violence and has not been identified as a perpetrator of violence since that day in early 2022, McKenstry said. He also has a steady job working for the city’s Department of Public Works and stable housing.

It’s a result city officials hope to replicate under the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a centerpiece of the anti violence efforts of Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration. It targets individuals most at risk for violence, including would-be trigger-pullers and potential gunshot victims. The program works to offer them services in hopes of helping them avoid violence.

Baltimore City Council members discuss violence prevention initiatives and changing the landscape of Baltimore in quarterly public safety hearing
AFRO | November 13, 2022 

The City Council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee recently held its quarterly crime statistics and violence prevention plan hearing.The Baltimore Police Department, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE) and other collaborating partners provided their reports on their efforts to improve public safety.

MONSE has increased collaboration with agencies like the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works through MONSE’s Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) tactic.

CPTED attempts to improve community violence by improving the environment around possible offenders. As local government bodies band together to try climate improvements, they will come through things like better roads and cleaning up the streets.

Baltimore to Tackle Violence Via a School-Based Pilot
Conduit Street | November 2, 2022

Baltimore City is entering into a partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) to establish school-based violence intervention pilot programs in three Baltimore City public schools considered to be high-risk for pathways to violence: Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School, Carver Vocational Technical High School, and Digital Harbor High School

Violence prevention conference underway in Baltimore
WEAA | October 27, 2022 

Representatives from dozens of cities are meeting in Baltimore this week for the 9th Annual Cities United meeting. The conference brings together lawmakers from across the country to discuss ways to prevent the ongoing problem of gun violence while working to build safe communities

Changes coming to Baltimore’s Safe Streets anti-violence program, along with more victim services at hospitals
Baltimore Sun | September 16, 2022 

The city of Baltimore is working to expand and centralize its core anti-violence programs — steps that officials say will curb future bloodshed as the city remains on pace to record more than 300 homicides for the eighth year in a row.

On Friday, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement announced changes in two areas: providing expanded services to gunshot victims during their hospital stays and consolidating operation of the city’s Safe Streets program, which employs and trains so-called “violence interrupters,” often people with knowledge of the streets and criminal histories, to mediate disputes before they become violent

Public safety took center stage during Baltimore's National Night Out
WYPR | August 2, 2022

National Night Out is an example of the partnership to improve public safety in the city, said Shantay Jackson, director of the mayor’s office of neighborhood safety and engagement.

“To me, this is one of the most significant events that our city hosts every year, because of the way that we show up as a village, united, working together to reimagine public safety across our city,” Jackson said.

The event helps bridge the gap between law enforcement and key community members. She said her office works daily with the Baltimore Police Department on the group violence reduction strategy, neighborhood policing plan pilot program, the side-step pre-arrest diversion pilot and their victim’s services program that invests in resources for victims of gun violence.

Youth Advocate Programs holds community gun violence prevention fair
WJZ-13 | July 16, 2022

Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. hosted a Community Gun Violence Prevention Resource Fair in West Baltimore on Saturday to bring attention to its violence prevention efforts.

The event is one of the many tactics that the youth-justice group uses to create a sense of togetherness.

10 people shot, one killed, in three separate incidents across Baltimore on a violent Tuesday
Baltimore Sun | May 10, 2022

In response to Tuesday’s shooting, Jackson said the office will lead its first-ever “coordinated neighborhood stabilization response,” which will bring the office, other city agencies, and community-based organizations “to be out in this community in droves to provide resources, to provide a stabilization-effect, to make sure folks know we are not tolerating gun violence anymore.”

Center for Hope opens to serve Baltimore's abuse, trauma survivors
WBAL TV | May 4, 2022

A new facility opened Wednesday in northwest Baltimore to serve abuse and trauma survivors. LifeBridge Health's Center for Hope comprises one facet of Mayor Brandon Scott's community violence intervention ecosystem.

Officials broke ground in November 2020 at the campus of Sinai Hospital. The facility is the region's only comprehensive violence intervention and prevention center.

Scott announces plans for a Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem
WYPR | April 14, 2022

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced Wednesday he will invest more than $10 million of American Rescue Plan Act money in a public health and community-based approach to reducing violence.

Scott said the program, which he’s calling a “Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Ecosystem,” will connect Safe Streets, the city’s flagship gun violence reduction program, with hospital partners, community organizations and wraparound services.

The investment is part of $50 million in federal funds that Scott announced last fall for public safety efforts.

Review finds Safe Streets program lacks oversight; Baltimore mayor pledges $10 million to expand ‘violence intervention ecosystem’ 
Baltimore Sun | April 13, 2022

An internal review of Baltimore’s Safe Streets anti-violence initiative found the program lacked oversight, and half of the workers described their training as inadequate. City officials announced the findings Wednesday, along with a $10 million investment to improve program operations and establish a “community violence intervention ecosystem.”

Baltimore pledges more money for anti-violence program 
Associated Press | April 13, 2022

Baltimore officials are planning to boost funding for an anti-violence program that a recent review found lacked oversight. City officials announced the findings of the Safe Streets review Wednesday, also rolling out plans to spend $10 million in federal funding to shore up operations and establish a “community violence intervention ecosystem,” the Baltimore Sun reported.

“We know that it works, but they haven’t had the support they needed,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said.

Baltimore To Invest Over $10 Million Into Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem 
WJZ 13 | April 13, 2022

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday announced the city will spend $10 million on expanding its community violence intervention ecosystem, in which violence is prevented through community and grassroots efforts.

The mayor was joined by the White House Community Violence Intervention Collaborative, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, Safe Streets Baltimore, Baltimore-area hospital system partners, and other community partners in making the announcement.

Baltimore to expand community violence intervention ‘ecosystem’ with more support for Safe Streets, hospitals, other partners
Baltimore Fishbowl | April 13, 2022

Baltimore will invest more than $10 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds over the next four years into community violence intervention programs to address violence in the city.

Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday laid out a plan to bolster existing relationships and expand programming under conflict mediation, violence intervention, life coaching, and victim services.

Mayor: Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem aims to help reduce violent crimes
WBAL TV | April 13, 2022

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Wednesday afternoon he has a new comprehensive plan for making the city safer called the Community Violence Intervention Ecosystem.

This program will roll out in May, and when it does, Baltimore hospitals will play an important role in preventing violence.

After killings of 3 workers, Baltimore’s Safe Streets anti-violence program at a crossroads: ‘We have to continue to evolve’ 
Baltimore Sun | April 12, 2022

Beloved Safe Streets leader Dante Barksdale was gunned down in 2021, leaving the city reeling without the heart and soul of its anti-violence program.

Since then, two more workers have been killed on the job — prompting alarm, safety concerns and questions about whether Baltimore needs to rethink its approach to curbing gun violence.

Baltimore city official discusses Safe Streets program 
WBAL Radio | April 5, 2022

The city agency that oversees Safe Streets said certain parts of Baltimore have seen a reduction in violence, but others have not.

Shantay Jackson is the director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and spoke with C4 and Bryan Nehman on Tuesday morning.

 "We have seen reductions in some posts and fluctuations in other posts," Jackson said.

'We’re really grateful for this': Baltimore City announces initial round of funding to support violence prevention
WMAR | February 16, 2022

Baltimore City announced the initial round of funding for organizations working to reduce violence in the city. The funding, which comes from the American Rescue Plan dollars, will support a dozen organizations and its work in the community as part of the city’s comprehensive violence prevention plan to address the root causes of violence. 

Baltimore leaders want to use ShotSpotter technology to address trauma
WBAL | November 3, 2021

Baltimore officials approved a contract extension for the shot-spotter system during the city's Board of Estimates meeting Wednesday.

A path to funding for violence interrupters in Baltimore City
WMAR | November 2, 2021

Those on the front lines battling violence every day across Baltimore are anticipating a shot in the arm in the form of funding.

Council passes bill requiring monthly ARPA spending hearings from Scott administration
WYPR | November 1, 2021

The Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a bill from Council President Nick Mosby that mandates monthly reports from the Scott administration on federal relief spending during a Monday meeting.

Experts: Sustained funding required to see drop in crime from programs like Safe Streets 
WBFF | October 29, 2021

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced $50 million of the city’s $641 million allocation of American Rescue Plan money will be spent in the next three years for victim services and community-based violence intervention programs. 

Baltimore earmarks $50 million in federal relief funding for violence prevention
Baltimore Sun 10/27/2021

Shantay Jackson, director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, highlighted the work of the Rebuild, Overcome, ...

American Rescue Plan money to assist in violence intervention
WBAL TV 10/27/2021

It's where we are able to deliver the most direct services and ultimately the most impact," Shantay Jackson, director of the Mayor's Office of ...

Baltimore’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council begins again with new goals of collaboration
Baltimore Sun 10/12/2021 

Four years after it was de-funded by the governor, a new Baltimore Criminal Justice Coordinating Council convened its first meeting Tuesday with hopes for increasing collaboration among law enforcement agencies.

Baltimore On Pace To Experience At Least 300 Homicides For Seventh Year In A Row 
WYPR 09/30/2021

Shantay Jackson, the Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, who oversees GVRS, told the council that community, grassroots...

Baltimore leaders discuss their latest violence prevention effort, focusing on outreach over policing
Baltimore Sun  09/21/ 2021

Mayor Brandon Scott, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and Police Commissioner ... director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement...

Mayor Scott Attends First Group Violence Reduction Strategy Meeting in Baltimore 
Fox Baltimore 09/20/2021

... State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore City State's Attorney, and Shantay Jackson, Director, Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Federal recovery money should fund Safe Streets and other anti-violence programs, advocates say
Baltimore Sun  08/11/ 2021

Shantay Jackson, director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said that Mayor Brandon Scott's administration is also ...

Baltimore's Safe Streets tries to grow, change, live up to its name
The Washington Post 07/30/2021

Safe Streets is now in its 14th year and operating in 10 neighborhoods, ... who heads the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, ...

Safe Streets: Perspectives On The Mayor's Violence Prevention Plan
WYPR 07/28/ 2021

Shantay Jackson directs the new Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which is responsible for implementing the Violence ...

As violence prevention takes a central role in the new Baltimore crime plan, Safe Streets tries to grow, change and live up to its name
Baltimore Sun 07/26/2021 

For (Steve) Diggs and other violence interrupters for Baltimore’s Safe Streets program, who typically are ex-offenders themselves, the goal is to mediate and resolve even trivial-seeming conflicts before they turn into something more serious or even fatal… on Friday, Mayor Brandon Scott unveiled a five-year crime-fighting plan that calls for tripling the number of violence prevention programs, but also revamping the current model into what he called “Safe Streets 2.”

Cautious Optimism Over Baltimore Mayor Scott's New Crime Plan
Fox45 07/25/2021

Fox45 News is digging deeper into the mayor’s plan to reduce violence in the city… Experts are cautiously optimistic right now. With almost 400 people shot this year and almost 200 killed in Baltimore, it's a concerning level of violence.

But former federal prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah says now is the time for optimism. "We've got to give the mayor a chance to deliver on this campaign promise and now this administration promise," he says.

Mayor unveils 3 pillar Baltimore City Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan
WBAL 07/23/2021

Reducing Baltimore's violence was one of Mayor Brandon Scott's priorities when taking office. He announced his multi-year crime plan in three parts throughout the day Friday.

While he is not the first mayor of Baltimore to talk about the need for a holistic approach to this issue, Scott said he is the first one to actually implement a comprehensive plan to prevent and reduce violent crime. The goal is to reduce violent crime by 15% in five years.

The Mayor's Office said it will mark the beginning of a five-year process toward building a better, safer Baltimore.

READ IT: Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott Releases 3-Pillar City Crime Plan Friday
WJZ 07/23/2021

Mayor Brandon Scott unveiled his three-pillar city crime plan Friday morning.

Scott rolled out a new Baltimore City Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan in three events across the city, featuring the three “pillars” of the plan.

It’s the “first-of-its-kind public safety strategy” and the final product of Scott’s Draft Violence Prevention Framework and Plan that received feedback from hundreds of residents in more than 36 public community sessions.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott reveals crime plan; residents speak out
Fox 45 07/23/2021

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott reveals a crime plan with a goal of reducing violent crime by 15% for the next five years. 

"This plan is not just my plan, it's Baltimore's plan. It's our plan to deal with the disease of gun violence," said Scott. The mayor describes the plan as a holistic approach to a public health crisis. 

Five takeaways from Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s new crime plan
Baltimore Sun 07/23/2021

The five-year crime plan announced by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott Friday is the culmination of months of public meetings and campaign pledges on the part of Scott to tackle gun violence and crime in Baltimore City.

Here are the main policies and goals laid out in the plan:

• A historic reduction in gun violence rates
• Alternatives to policing mental health and overdose emergencies
• An acknowledgment of institutional racism
• Advocacy for safe injection sites
• An unknown price tag

Political leaders back Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s crime plan during announcement tour 
Baltimore Sun 07/23/2021

Baltimore’s political and community leaders rallied behind Mayor Brandon Scott’s newly released crime plan Friday during a day-long series of public events to promote the plan… The proposal also calls for the city to reintroduce a group violence reduction strategy, to provide more comprehensive re-entry services for those returning from incarceration, and to better cooperate with federal officials to investigate gun traffickers and illegal gun purchases.

Crowding behind the first-term Democratic mayor outside the Rose Street Community Center in East Baltimore Friday morning, federal, state, and local officials clamored to share their praise for the yet untested plan.

AFRO Exclusive: Mayor Brandon Scott unveils new plan to combat violent crime 
AFRO 07/23/2021

Mayor Brandon Scott believes building a better and brighter Baltimore requires a new approach, especially in tackling the city’s top threats. In an exclusive interview with the AFRO, Mayor Scott and Shantay Jackson, director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, detailed their partnerships with residents and community organizations to create the city’s new first-ever holistic public safety plan.  

The Baltimore City Comprehensive Violence Prevention Program is a five-year plan that offers a sustainable solution to gun violence by treating it as a matter of public health. By strategically addressing the needs of the individuals pulling the trigger, the city could see a 50% reduction in shootings, which would be a welcomed change for residents.   

“What we see Mayor Scott doing is being innovative and thoughtful about what the reimagination of our city is going to take,” Jackson said. “We are facing adaptive challenges, not technical ones as it relates to violence prevention.”

Baltimore unveils ‘holistic’ five-year plan to reduce and prevent violence
Baltimore Fishbowl 07/23/2021

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Friday unveiled a five-year plan to address causes of violence in the city, emphasizing that community voices helped build the plan and that its success will depend on support from all of Baltimore and its partners. Scott said the city will strive to reduce violent crime by 15% each year over the plan’s five years, though he acknowledged the goal will be difficult to reach.

“We understand that no single policy or initiative serves as a cure-all for the long legacy of violence that Baltimore has endured,” he said. “However, I believe wholeheartedly that this transformative approach can move the needle and make every neighborhood in Baltimore a safer place to live.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott rolls out multi-year violence reduction plan
WMAR 07/23/2021 

Mayor Brandon Scott on Friday joined other local, state, and federal leaders at three different events to roll out Baltimore's crime reduction plan. It's made up of three pillars set over five years.

Newsmaker: Shantay Jackson, Heading The New Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety & Engagement
WYPR Midday with Tom Hall 05/18/2021

A central tenet of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s approach to crime reduction in our city is the certainty that the traditional strategies that Baltimore has employed for decades have come up short, and that public safety must be re-imagined if the levels of violent crime are to be brought down. Murders and non-fatal shootings have for so long been a part of the landscape of certain neighborhoods. Scott’s vision for a safer city is tied to his vision for a more equitable, more inclusive, and more trauma-informed city, as well.

Tom's guest today has been charged by the Mayor to gather community input and implement the Mayor’s vision for a safer city. Last December, Shantay Jackson was appointed to be the head of a new agency established by Mayor Scott, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

A lifelong Baltimorean, Shantay Jackson has experience in the private and public sector, with community groups and conflict mediation and resolution.

The word “engagement” is in the name of her office, and we invite you to engage with Shantay Jackson here on Midday. What do you think we should be doing as a matter of public policy and individual responsibility to stem the tide of violence that has been particularly acute over the last several years?

Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement plan | VIDEO 
Baltimore Sun 03/15/2021

Shantay Jackson, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement talks about the new Draft Violence Reduction Framework and Plan.

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