Implementation and Impact of Summer Community-Building Events

• In Event: Implementing Comprehensive Strategies to Prevent Violence in Oakland, CA

Abstract

The Town Nights events are large community gatherings in multiple parks and community centers in Oakland on Friday nights during the summer. Town Nights provides a safe and prosocial activity in neighborhoods with high levels of shootings during hours when the risk of violence is higher. The events may affect levels of crime and violence by increasing guardianship, informal social control, and resident cohesion. We examine the impact of Town Nights through the combined use of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference estimation. Additionally, based on interviews with community-based organizations that led the Town Nights events and resident surveys at the events, we identify key themes in implementation challenges and successes, as well as residents’ awareness about issues of violence and available resources to address them, to contextualize results from the impact analysis. We discuss implications for other jurisdictions interested in large-scale community events.

Authors

• Ashlin Oglesby-Neal, Urban Institute

• KiDeuk Kim, Urban Institute