Community Capacity Development and Weed & Seed

These Office of Justice Programs share the mission of working with local communities to design strategies to deter crime, promote growth and enhance the quality of life of the residents in partnered neighborhoods.  The partnership enables communities to help themselves.

What Is Weed and Seed?

A comprehensive strategy designed to create partnerships to benefit the community and create a sustainable program.  Weed and Seed is foremost a strategy designed to help build the momentum needed for the residents of a community to establish themselves and to steer their community in the direction that they want.  There is grant money available, but this funding is not indefinite and it is a modest amount.  The grant money is not designed to replace funding but rather to help create partnerships and move the community toward a self sustaining program.

How Does Weed and Seed Benefit Communities?

Funding - Officially Recognized Weed and Seed Sites are eligible to apply for a Weed and Seed Grant.
Officially Recognized Sites can also use their status to leverage other resources for the needs of the community.

Technical Assistance - Although Official Recognition does not necessarily guarantee funding, it does provide the basis to apply for support.  Resources and experienced personnel are available to the site at no charge on an as needed and as available basis.

Organization - It takes a great deal of work to apply for Official Recognition.  Even if a site does not obtain OR, this information has potential value.  The process requires partnerships between residents, community groups, government groups and police agencies.  It compiles the raw data necessary for a neighborhood to examine its resources, gaps in services and problems that affect the residents.  This information can be utilized for other efforts by the community.  It is not necessary to become an Officially Recognized Weed and Seed Site to make a positive change in your community.

Partnerships - Everything happens faster, when you work together.  The importance of mutually beneficial partnerships cannot be stressed enough.  Your service agencies need clients, your residents need services and someone needs to help the two meet.  Your residents want to have a voice in how their community grows and develops, help provide that to them and they can be a vast resource of manpower and time. 

Network of Experience - You will not be the first Weed and Seed Community.  You will not even be the first Connecticut Weed and Seed community.  There are many neighborhoods that have gone through this process and as such there is much to learn from their communities and those that were instrumental in instituting their Strategies.  They are more than willing to assist your community through the hurdles that you will encounter, which they have cleared in the past.

Does Your Community Have What It Takes To Become A Weed and Seed Site?

Is there a problem?  Do the numbers demonstrate the problem?  Does the community feel that there is a problem? - A large part of becoming a Weed and Seed community is having a problem large enough to require federal assistance.  In today's competitive bid for a finite number of resources, the data can make all the difference.  Is there a disproportionate amount of crime in your neighborhood.  Is it demonstrated in your area's crime stats?

Does the community (residents, local business, local organizations) want to make a change? - Do the members of your community feel strong enough about the problem to get involved?  Everyone would like their problems to disappear at the snap of a finger, but there is no solution without dedication and hard work.  The program begins with and ultimately ends with the neighborhood.  The responsibility for developing and employing your sites strategy will ultimately reside with the Steering Committee and the Community.  There will be partners to assist you in accomplishing your goals and that is what this program is about.

Can the community be organized to create a strategy that can be implemented? - As stated above, it all begins with your community.  Someone will have to spearhead the application and the creation of the core of the program, which is the steering committee.  With neighborhood input, they will identify the resources and problems of the community and create and employ the strategy for improving your neighborhood.

What resources already exist within your community? - As the problems that face your community provide the impetus for organizing, it is the available resources already within your community that can make or break a Weed and Seed Site.  Your available resources provide a foundation for progress and are a good start towards making partnerships that will last through your community's development.

Steps to becoming...

    Organize - Key community leaders, residents, public officials, police department - The first step is finding interested persons, who can bring something to the table.  This will provide the base for your steering committee.  This is made of residents, your coordinator (the key organizer), your police representatives, business leaders and so on.

    Research - Crime Statistics, quality of life issues, available resources, past attempts, existing infrastructure - After you have decided to organize, it is time to start identifying problems, issues, resources and service gaps.  Involve the Police Department, they can track crime stats, residents can provide you with in depth information to what they view as neighborhood problems, other sites can tell you their story.  Look for past attempts to improve the neighborhood, find those who still look to better the neighborhood, lots of people want to help, not everyone can help.

    Compile - Organize your findings into a report, which will be used to gain Official Recognition - Your findings will be reviewed by your committee, your city officials, and the United States Attorney's Office and when it is finalized it will be sent to Washington for their approval.

    Apply - After receiving Official Recognition, you are eligible to apply for funding - This is the part where money is made available to your site.  It is not a large amount, but it is enough to create some programming and assist in Law Enforcement in your target area.

    Implement - After you have organized, begin to implement your plan.  Bring services to those who need them.  Hire a coordinator.  Form Partnerships. - After you have made it this far, the rest is up to you.  A successful site will have a proactive steering committee with a motivated coordinator.  This will help to form partnerships, identify resources, apply for additional grants, work with area residents and youth and bring services to the needy.

How To?

Find Partners....

Community Capacity Development Office - www.ojp.gov/ccdo/

INSites Magazine - www.ncjrs.org/ccdo/in-sites/welcome.html

Contact Us...

If you are interested in applying for a site in Connecticut please contact Lori Potter, LECC - lori.vernali@usdoj.gov at the US Attorneys office.