Community Safety Dashboard

For in-depth information, please view "The State of Gun Violence in Charlottesville & Albemarle"

Problem:

The challenge is to improve community safety in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County, specifically addressing the issues of gun violence, school absenteeism, and the engagement of youth in preventive and intervention programs. The problem is exacerbated by the need for better coordination among community members, service providers, schools, and law enforcement, as well as the necessity to leverage existing resources and services to make a meaningful impact.

Inputs:

1. Creation of Protective Community Environments:
   • Coordination of crisis response teams like HART and ANCHOR.
   • Training law enforcement in Crisis Intervention Techniques (CIT) and ICAT.
   • Collaboration through Project Safe Neighborhoods to address violent crime.
2. Enhancing Place-Based Programming and Access to Care:
   • Support for community engagement events that positively impact persons who are adjacent to gun violence adjacent.
   • Educational programming in neighborhoods affected by gun violence.
   • Initiatives like the Youth Council program to empower youth in decision-making.
3. Improving Coordination and Information Flow:
   • Collaboration among local agencies for data sharing and analysis to inform evidence-based solutions.
   • Development of a regional Inclusive Community Profile to address issues contributing to gun violence.
4. Connecting Youth to Caring Adults and Activities:
   • Implementation of youth-centered prevention and intervention programming, including internships and mentoring.

Outputs:

1. Reduction in Violent Crime Rates:
   • Measured by the number of deaths and injuries from gun violence in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County.
2. Improvement in School Attendance:
   • Reduction in chronic absenteeism rates in schools within the region.

Outcomes:

1. Safer Communities:
   • A significant decrease in gun violence, leading to fewer deaths and injuries in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County.
2. Improved Educational Outcomes:
   • Decreased rates of chronic absenteeism, contributing to better academic performance and overall youth well-being.
3. Sustained Collaboration and Resource Utilization:
   • Ongoing partnerships between local governments, community organizations, and UVA that continuously improve community safety and well-being.

Key Community Safety Metrics

1. Number of injuries from gun violence, in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County. 

   • In 2020, the rate of firearm injuries peaked at 8.3, with 29 firearm injuries among 34,875 emergency department visits. However, 2020 also had the lowest number of emergency department visits which aligns with national trends of decreased emergency department use during the COVID-19 pandemic. After falling in 2021, the firearm injury rate began trending upward (Toet and Claibourn, 2024).

2. Number of deaths from gun violence in the Blue Ridge Health District.

   • The rate of firearm death is highest for individuals aged 18 and 19 years old, with a rate of 18.3 based on 8 confirmed firearm-related deaths between 2018 and 2022 in the Blue Ridge Health District. A rate of 18.3 means that for every 100,000 people aged 18-19, 18 individuals would have lost their lives to gun violence. While there are fewer than 100,000 residents aged 18-19, the rate helps compare risk of gun-related deaths across age ranges. The rate above 14 per 100k individuals for all ages between 18 and 44 years old. The age group with the second-highest percentage of gun-related deaths are individuals above the age of 75, with 16 deaths per 100,000 people. Given that suicide is the number one cause of firearm-related death in our region, we assume that a majority of the deaths for individuals 75 and older were suicide (Toet and Claibourn, 2024).

3. Rate of chronic absenteeism in Charlottesville City and Albemarle County schools.

   • Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% of more days of school. This amounts to 18 or more days, based in current 180 day calendars. The student body at Charlottesville High School has a chronic absenteeism rate of nearly 40% during the 2023-2024 school year.

2024 Recommendation Implementation Progress

Legend

Community Safety Implementation Group Quarter 4 Updates (December, 2024)

Accomplishments:

• Goal 1: Create Protective Communities
  • Educate and Inform: Community Engaged Coursework continues specifically with a class taught in Batten School of Leadership by Michele Claibourn. The class has produced two research briefs that aims to describe the nature scope, and dimensions of the problem of gun violence locally. 
  • Build Positive Relationships: The implementation group has worked to build out the prevention and intervention and community engagement arms of Project Safe Neighborhoods.  The emphasis here is on restorative justice, diversion programs, and community safety solutions, alongside innovative partnerships, sets this community’s approach to PSN apart as a holistic and inclusive approach to community safety in the region.  
    • We have workshopped the call-in protocol with many community partners and service providers in order. On Friday, December 6, the Community Safety Implementation Group held a meeting to review this protocol with additional community partners. 
• Goal 2: Enhance Place Based Programing and Access to Care 
  • The Hospital Based Intervention Program has been begun with UVA Health, and the Community Safety Implementation Group provided a letter of support in bringing this program to fruition. 
• Goal 3: Improve Coordination and Information Flow among community members, service providers, schools, and law enforcement. 
  • Data Sharing Systems:  Sam Toet, Data Scientist at the Equity Center has created a state of Gun Violence Overview that works with data and analysts across the region to provide foundational scope of the problem.  She is also working through the proposal process to access the Virginia Longitudinal Data System with the Department of Juvenile Justice as the partner.  Access to this data will allow us to better understand antecedents to youth who become in involved in gun violence by investigating services provided and other predictive outcomes. 

Ongoing Initiatives: 

• Goal 1: Create Protective Communities
  • The Communications committee led by Jessica Harris and Sydney Shuler have ben working to create an explainer video for the community safety working group and gun violence solutions project.  They are also working with communications leads across the region to create a communications plan to inform accurate information around Project Safe Neighborhoods. 
• Goal 3: Improve Coordination and Information Flow among community members, service providers, schools, and law enforcement. 
  • Information Hub: We are working with the Office of Youth Protection at UVA to update the Youth Opportunity Website with opportunities for youth for this upcoming summer. 
• Goal 4: Bolster Re-Entry Programs
  • Sherica Jones-Lewis and Jessica Harris provided a report that evaluated the One Stop Shop model here locally to deepen the understanding of the needs around service coordination and resource inventory, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, and data sharing.  
  • The Re-Entry Summit conducted by Equal Justice USA, the Fountain Fund, and Tom Tom Festival had their third summit this year on December 4.  

Upcoming Milestones: 

• Will be beginning call-in meetings in the new year to provide holistic support to community members. 
• Another 50 students will be added to Starr Hill Pathways (increase to 275 students) this upcoming summer to provide mentoring and college and career pathways support to youth. 
• Continued work on the community resource app will commence this upcoming spring.