Office of Justice Programs Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grants Awarded to the Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore, Maryland.

摘要

The Baltimore City Health Department is an agency of the City of Baltimore government. Its mission is to advocate, lead, and provide services that promote and protect the health of the residents of Baltimore. Baltimore established its Office of Youth Violence Prevention in October 2002 to combat an epidemic of violence among Baltimores youth and support traditional public safety strategies using a combination of public health and human service models to reduce violence. According to the grantee, the City of Baltimores homicide rate has proved intractable. After the number of homicides in the city jumped almost 7 percent between 2002 and 2003, the Office of Youth Violence Prevention began its Safe Streets initiative based on another program first implemented in Chicago called CeaseFire. A Northwestern University evaluation of Chicagos Ceasefire initiative concluded that it contributed to a significant decline in shootings and gang-related homicides.