As just about anyone in the community development world knows, places where residents have abundant opportunities and resources are also the safest—the least likely to be plagued by crime, violence and disorder.

Which is why people working in the trenches of community safety and justice in underinvested places do so much more than intervene in potentially violent situations, as crucial as that work is. The leaders of grassroots community organizations addressing violence know that to stem crime, their neighborhoods need the same positive determinants of safety as wealthier neighborhoods.

To promote safety and wellbeing, then, these groups have to cover many bases and be relentless problem solvers. They help fellow residents connect with job training and housing and health care resources; they organize conflict resolution trainings, sports events, safe passage and after-school programs, food distribution—even trash collection—and so many of the other requisites of quality of life that people in well-off communities take for granted.

But in spite of how critical their work is, these groups usually do their jobs with few employees and extremely limited capital, and have little to no time to devote to organizational growth and capacity building. They are mostly trying to keep up with their communities' needs, which makes it hard to chase after the resources to keep the work going.

That’s exactly why LISC created the Community Justice Accelerator (CJA), an initiative to get funding, technical guidance and networking opportunities to the grassroots organizations that are “the first responders of community challenges,” as LeVar Michael of LISC’s Safety + Justice team describes them. LISC’s first cohort of Accelerator participants, representing six groups from rural and urban communities across the country, just finished six, concentrated months of trainings, mentorship and peer networking that make up part of the program. And they recently gathered in New York City, in person, to share the hurdles they face and the imperative of a support system like what the Community Justice Accelerator aims to help build.

Read the full article about community justice and safety at LISC.