Social Capital and Community Engagement for Safe Communities

• In Event: Roundtable: Neighborhoods, Communities and Crime

Abstract

At the core of safe and healthy communities are the people who live, work, learn and play, and the relationships and networks that promote health and well-being. Social capital is a concept that has been described as key to safe and healthy communities, and involves reciprocal relationships and trust-based networks. Healthy communities take time to build and intentional effort to sustain. Social capital has been used to understand the levels of trust, types of relationships, and influence of social networks on the safety and well-being of communities. Understanding how to engage communities and build systems of trust is essential to promoting safe environments. Place-based initiatives, such as the DOJ Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation initiative, are promising approaches to organizing cross-sector partners and neighborhood residents to develop sustainable strategies for change on a continuum of solutions to address crime and the social drivers of crime. In this roundtable, the concepts of empowerment, social capital, engagement, systems of trust, and the overall civic economy will be explored in relation to their impact on crime, community health and well being in place-based initiatives. Strategies for engaging vulnerable communities and tools for measuring the impacts of community engagement efforts will be shared and discussed.

Author

• Mary Ellen Brown, Arizona State University