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Violent crime in many American communities remains
unacceptably high despite the significant accomplishments in crime
reduction that have been made during the past decade. The U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented Operation Weed and Seed
to address violent crime, gang activity, drug use, and drug trafficking
in neighborhoods hardest hit by violence and eroding social and
economic stability. Weed and Seed is designed to reduce the impact
of violent crime on communities; provide prevention, intervention,
and treatment services for substance abuse and other social problems;
and revitalize communities through housing and economic development.
In 1991, DOJ established Operation Weed and Seed
as a community-based multi-agency approach to law enforcement,
crime prevention, and neighborhood restoration. This initiative
is a comprehensive strategy - not simply a program - to assist
communities in bringing together people and resources to prevent
and control crime and improve the overall quality of life. The
Weed and Seed strategy stresses collaboration, coordination, and
community participation. This approach gives communities experiencing
high crime and social and economic decay a comprehensive structure,
critical planning tools, and access to a national network focused
on crime prevention, citizen safety and neighborhood revitalization.
This initiative is unique in that communities' use the Weed and
Seed strategy to develop and undertake efforts tailored to the
issues, needs, and concerns of each individual neighborhood.
Operation Weed and Seed began with three pilot sites
in 1991. It has quickly spread to designated high-crime neighborhoods
across the Nation. Presently there are 288 designated Weed and
Seed sites. The goal is to develop 350 designated sites.
Weed and Seed is managed and administered at the
national level through the Executive Office for Weed and Seed
(EOWS), a program office within DOJ's Office of Justice Programs.
EOWS provides various services, technical assistance, training
programs, and resources to support local Weed and Seed strategies.
The Weed and Seed strategy involves a two-pronged
approach:
1. Law enforcement agencies and criminal justice
officials cooperate to "weed out" criminals who are
violent or abuse drugs to prevent them from victimizing residents
in the designated area.
2. Social services and economic revitalization are brought in
to "seed" the area to ensure long-term change and a
higher quality of life for residents.
The Weed and Seed strategy recognizes the importance
of coordinating Federal, State, and local offices; law enforcement
agencies; and criminal justice initiatives with social service
providers and private-sector and community efforts to maximize
the impact of existing programs and resources and identify and
fill gaps in services. It also recognizes the importance of community
participation. Community residents must be centrally involved
and empowered to assist in solving problems in their neighborhoods.
In addition, the private sector is a pivotal partner in the Weed
and Seed strategy.
The purpose of Weed and Seed is to reduce violent
and drug-related crime from designated high-crime neighborhoods
across the Nation. A comprehensive approach is used to reduce
and prevent crime and improve residents' overall quality of life.
As a result, law-abiding citizens will be able to live, work,
and raise their families in a safer and more prosperous environment.
The primary objectives at each Weed and Seed site
are to:
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Develop a comprehensive community-based strategy
to control and prevent violent crime, gang activity, drug trafficking,
and drug-related crime.
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Coordinate existing and new government and
private-sector initiatives, criminal justice efforts, and human
services and concentrate those resources in designated neighborhoods
to maximize their impact.
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Mobilize community residents to assist law
enforcement in identifying and removing violent offenders and
drug traffickers from their neighborhoods, assist human service
agencies in identifying and responding to social services needs,
and participate more fully in neighborhood planning and decision
making processes.
The Weed and Seed strategy is a multi-level strategic
plan that includes four basic components: law enforcement; community
policing; prevention, intervention, and treatment; and, neighborhood
restoration. Law enforcement and community policing represent
the "weeding" aspect of the strategy. Prevention, intervention,
and treatment and neighborhood restoration represent the "seeding"
phase. Community policing is involved in both weeding and seeding
activities and serves as a bridge between the two components.
Four fundamental principles underlie the Weed and
Seed strategy. These principles set Weed and Seed apart from traditional
approaches and are key to the success of the strategy at the neighborhood
level.
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Collaboration. Government departments at the
Federal, State and local levels; social services agencies; community
organizations; the private sector; and residents play important
roles in community safety. Each has a responsibility to the
community and a stake in its future. Weed and Seed requires
communities to establish a collaborative process to capitalize
on the full potential that the systematic interaction of stakeholders
can provide. Collaboration leads to permanent channels of communication
among stakeholders, partnerships among organizations with similar
goals, and a strategic approach to effective crime prevention
and restoration. Furthermore, such efforts encourage innovation,
help build broad support for the Weed and Seed strategy, and
bring about significant pressure that may lead to the acquisition
of additional resources.
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Coordination. The number of government agencies
and community organizations providing services to citizens is
breathtaking. Stakeholders are probably not aware of the many
service providers in the area, the goals and objectives of each
organization, and whether there are overlapping and duplicative
services. Weed and Seed helps bring together the officials who
represent these organizations and assists in coordinating their
activities. This enables the Weed and Seed Steering Committee
to concentrate resources in designated neighborhoods, better
match services with community needs, eliminate overlap and duplication,
and get the maximum benefit from existing services and programs.
Both vertical coordination (across disciplines such as law enforcement,
social services, and economic development) and horizontal coordination
(across levels of government) are critical to the Weed and Seed
strategy.
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Community participation. Communities that are
empowered to solve their own problems function more effectively
than communities that depend on services provided by outsiders.
This is true for property owners who take better care of homes
than renters and for workers who own part of the company and
are more committed than those who simply collect a paycheck.
Therefore, it follows that initiatives that empower communities
to help themselves, involve residents in decision making processes,
and encourage broad citizen involvement will be more effective
than those designed to simply provide services to clients.
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Leveraging resources. EOWS disseminates funding
to local sites in support of their Weed and Seed strategies.
These funds are limited, however, and they support Weed and
Seed activities nationwide. This level of funding cannot provide
the entire amount of resources required to transform and revitalize
a neighborhood experiencing high crime and social and economic
decay. Therefore, the Weed and Seed strategy is an opportunity
for communities to leverage the available resources (e.g., funding,
organizational structures) that will enable them to tap into
additional funding streams and receive in-kind resources from
Federal, State and local agencies; foundations; corporations;
and other organizations. A Weed and Seed site is well placed
to capitalize on numerous funding sources in both the public
and private sectors. In fact, Weed and Seed sites are expected
to leverage all available resources to fully fund their strategies
for law enforcement, crime prevention, and neighborhood revitalization.
The process for developing a Weed and Seed strategy
requires a significant commitment from the community to engage
in strategic planning, collaborate with key stakeholders, and
coordinate programs and services. Strategic planning involves
a specific process that will assist the community with identifying
a future vision, managing change, and creating the best possible
future for residents. The end result of the strategic planning
process is a multi-year detailed plan for community action and
change.
Hillsborough County has two designated Weed and
Seed sites. USF was designated in 1995 and no longer receives
funding from DOJ. However, the USF site would take precedence
over an undesignated site in applying for grants and funding from
DOJ. The Palm River Weed and Seed site was designated in 2000
and receives funding from DOJ.
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