WEED AND SEED INITIATIVE
The City of Hartford and the Hartford Housing Authority, working in partnership with the Hartford Police Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office for Connecticut were fortunate to receive "Weed and Seed" designation.
Weed and Seed is a program developed by the Department of Justice to combat crime with a comprehensive and intensive focus on a particular neighborhood in a city. Hartford is one of only a few cities in the country to win this designation. Furthermore, the Hartford venue for the first year was unique because it focused exclusively on just a public housing development - Stowe Village.
The picture captures the mood of the residents at Stowe Village. The residents reclaimed their neighborhood. The picture shows the community attending a health fair sponsored by the Family Investment Center, St Francis Health Clinic and many other service providers. |
Weed and Seed has done wonders at its prime site. The crime statistics went down by 1/3 each year. Whereas residents were intimidated to leave their units because of "open air" drug markets a year ago, they have now reclaimed their sidewalks and streets. see evaluation
It should also be noted that overall crime in the City of Hartford has decreased, some say because "as public housing goes, so goes the city". In the past, public housing seemed to be relegated to the fringes of community policing and rigorous enforcement practices. With Weed and Seed, one public housing development - Stowe Village - received intensive attention by both law enforcement entities and family support structures. The results indicate that positive gains can be made for the families involved, their immediate public housing neighborhood, as well as the city as a whole.
The thesis of Weed and Seed is that crime suppression, alone, will not work.
Weed and Seed does support "weeding" by making possible extra policing, Community Service Officers, horse and bike patrols, etc. It brought in the FBI and others for undercover surveillance, reverse stings and major "busts".
Equally or more important, Weed and Seed, on the "seeding side", helped to fund a Computer Learning Lab, a youth program to develop self-esteem and to provide counseling to sexually active teenagers, case workers and mental health professionals. All of these complement the work of the Family Investment Center, and other youth programs and initiatives that have had success in Stowe Village.
What has been learned from the Weed and Seed program at Stowe Village is that policing, alone, cannot stabilize a neighborhood. The balance of human services and crime suppression is now being duplicated in other housing authority developments in other parts of the city.
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