Summary of VBI Projects

Boston
Boston's VBI focuses primarily on prisoner re-entry. The Boston Police Department works with four faith-based partners in this collaborative effort: the Boston Ten Point Coalition, National of Islam, Ella J. Baker House, and Bruce Wall Ministries. VBI mentors meet with inmates while they are still in prison, then continue to work with them upon their release.

Broward County
The Broward County Sheriff's Office will expand its Man in the Mirror program. This program mentors young women and includes training in general life skills, job skills, drug abuse prevention, and academic training.

Chicago
The Chicago Police Department partnered with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to conduct a series of forums on race relations and improving the Chicago PD's relations with minority groups. Among other things, those discussions have resulted in the production of six training videos for police that highlight how to best engage and disengage with the public.

Fort Wayne
The Fort Wayne Police Department partners with Stop the Madness and the Fort Wayne Ministerial Alliance to focus on re-entering ex-offenders and on stopping youth violence. In addition, almost 200 ministers and community members have graduated from Fort Wayne's Ministerial Police Academy, which is also part of their Value Based Initiative.

Fort Worth
Fort Worth opened two VBI Centers in area churches that house its VBI/Ministers Against Crime program. These ministers are graduates of the Ministers Police Academy training program. Their responsibilities include assisting officers in calming tensions, offering victim assistance, patrolling area hot spots, and working with area youth through their schools and communities.

Kansas City Police Department
The Kansas City Police Department will expand its Kansas City Together initiative - designed to bridge barriers between the community and the police - by incorporating faith partners into the process. A specific focus will be the reduction of juvenile crime.

New Haven
The New Haven Police Department continues work on its Interracial Dialogue Project through partnerships with the Interfaith Cooperative Ministry and Community Mediation, Inc. of New Haven. The VBI effort will also include a violence prevention workshop for the faith community and an expanded partnership with STRIVE New Haven in order to reduce youth gun violence.

Portland
The Portland Police Bureau intends to build a model of collaborative dialogue between police officers and members of the faith community that can be replicated in other areas. The VBI effort will do this through developing and conducting a Dialogue Circles program that will examine the issues dividing area residents and work toward resolving them.

Redlands
One of the main goals of Redlands' VBI is to reduce juvenile delinquency. The central component of that effort is the collaborative program "Building a Generation." That program is housed at the VBI Community Training Center, which also houses the new Cyber Café - a safe place for teens to go after school and have access to computers, tutors, and job counselors. In addition, the COPS and Clergy network has resulted in the establishment of new faith and police partnerships in eight southern California cities.

Riverside
The Riverside Police Department, through its VBI program, will create six "safe havens" for at-risk youth at six faith-based organizations throughout the city. Each site will provide mentoring, life skills training, and tutoring, as well as classes for the parents of these students.

St. Bernard
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office will expand its Citizens Police Academy and develop a Ministers Police Academy and a Students Police Academy. The goal is to both advance community policing and build a bridge between groups that have not historically interacted productively.

San Bernardino
The San Bernardino Police Department plans to conduct several Citizen Training Academies and Minister Training Academies. This VBI will also focus on the homeless through Homeless Enriched Living Programs, and on juveniles through a Juvenile Mentoring program.

Washington, D.C.
The Metropolitan Police Department will work with local faith partners to establish a Clergy Response Team that will respond to the scene of traumatic incidents and provide services to victims, witnesses, and their families.