Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield has officially launched the city’s Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety, which she said Monday will bring together non-law enforcement efforts to reduce violence.
Sheffield and others said the office will not provide direct services to residents. Rather, it will support the organizations that already do neighborhood-based work to interrupt cycles of violence.
Sheffield named Teferi Brent the as the office’s first director. He’s a co-founder of Dignity 4 Detroit, which has been associated with a broader coalition of community violence intervention groups called ShotStoppers. Sheffield and other Detroit officials credit the groups as a key factor behind dramatic declines in violent crime over the past two years.
Brent said the office will function as a collaboration space for those groups, and others involved in what he calls a “holistic” approach to violence prevention. “All of the above will be done through a public health lens, with the intention of moving beyond intervention to supporting organizations and efforts that are primarily focused on prevention and community transformation,” he said.
Negus Vu, head of another CVI group called The People’s Action, said the office “will serve as a hub for collaboration between community organizations, public health professionals, advocates, city officials and residents. We will focus on prevention, intervention, accountability, and most importantly, healing. We will use real data, real partnerships, and real-life experience to drive our work.”
Vu said the office will also expand the scope of the current work to include domestic and intimate partner violence. “Violence is not inevitable,” he added. “It’s preventable.”
