The Injury and Violence Prevention Center (IVPC) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus recently partnered with the East Colfax Community Collective to support evaluation of its Security Ambassador Pilot Project. This community-driven initiative aims to improve safety in the East Colfax neighborhoods, such as domestic violence, property crimes, assaults, robberies, and sexual violence.
The East Colfax Community Collective (EC3) is dedicated to promoting community-led safety initiatives in a neighborhood with a history of violence and property crimes. To address these issues, EC3 launched the Security Ambassador Pilot Project, which involved volunteer security patrols collecting local data while patrolling the East Colfax corridor. Additionally, EC3 utilized data from the Colorado Department of Transportation and local law enforcement to investigate potential root causes of violence and criminal activity.
The Injury and Violence Prevention Center (IVPC) supports this initiative by providing data analysis and reporting services. This collaboration was led by Kate Little, research analyst with the Injury and Violence Prevention Center and the Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative at CU Anschutz. Using her expertise, she transformed raw data into actionable insights, resulting in a comprehensive report of the data.
"When I was approached to help interpret the data from the Security Ambassador Pilot Project with EC3, I saw right away that this reporting could be highly valuable for residents and business owners in the area," Little explained.
"One of the biggest barriers grassroots organizations like the East Colfax Community Collective face is that they understand the problems but may lack the time or resources to analyze the data to communicate their findings. My role was to analyze the data, identify patterns of unsafe behaviors, and present it in a way that would be useful not only to the public but also to potential funding agencies."
The comprehensive report generated from the initial patrols uncovered important trends, such as patterns of loitering and frequent sightings of non-customer vehicles linked to unsafe activities. The presence of security patrols appeared to reduce these activities. These findings suggest that interventions, such as enhanced security patrols and increased collaboration with law enforcement, could effectively deter crime and improve overall safety in the area.
These findings suggest that targeted interventions, such as enhanced security patrols and increased collaboration with local law enforcement, could effectively deter crime and improve overall safety in the neighborhood.
The partnership between the IVPC and EC3 highlights the importance of academic and community collaboration by strengthening grassroots organizations with essential public health expertise and resources. The IVPC was able to provide this support thanks to community-directed spending through congressional funding. Going forward, recently announced CDC funding will allow the IVPC to continue to provide technical assistance and evaluation support services to the community.
Ashley Brooks Russell, IVPC director shares the importance of this support, “One of our main goals of the community-led funding is to support community organizations, like the EC3, so they are better positioned to develop effective and sustainable violence prevention activities.”