The Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative, implemented July 1, 2014, is a key component of New York’s shooting and homicide reduction strategy. GIVE is an evidence based program involving the integrated efforts of the key criminal justice agencies and some vital support and service organizations in each funded jurisdiction.
A critical element of this initiative is the involvement of agency crime analysts and regional crime analysis centers to provide relevant data and analysis. Together, the agencies, organizations and analysts implement coordinated evidence based approaches to address the issues associated with shootings and homicides in their areas through strategies that include four core elements:
- People – Key individuals and groups, known as the “top offenders,” responsible for most gun violence;
- Places – Key locations, or “hot spots,” where most violence is occurring;
- Alignment – Coordination of strategies with other local violence-prevention efforts and programs; and
- Engagement – Organized outreach to key stakeholders and the community at large, communicating and coordinating with them to ensure wide-ranging support of violence reduction efforts.
The initial GIVE Initiative program required that applicants submit responses that addressed these four core elements and discussed a series of designated evidence based strategies and the extent to which each would be incorporated into their jurisdiction’s approach to reducing shootings and homicides. A review of the implementation and effectiveness of this prior plan is critical. Applicants responding to this program must conduct an assessment of their previous GIVE strategy. The information obtained from this assessment should be utilized by the applicant to help guide the jurisdiction’s plan for the upcoming cycle to begin on or around July 1, 2015.
Responses must specifically demonstrate how the various evidence-based strategies will be aligned to form a comprehensive shooting and homicide reduction plan.
An important element of the jurisdictional assessment is to identify specific areas where technical assistance/training may be helpful in order to properly implement the evidence- based strategies in the jurisdiction’s comprehensive plan. Applicants are encouraged to submit a proposal that outlines the technical assistance needs that have been identified.
Jurisdictions should consider technical assistance offerings already attended, the evidence-based strategies chosen, as well as gaps identified in the initial problem- analysis when submitting a proposal for ongoing jurisdiction/agency specific technical assistance requests.
The initial step in formulating a response to this program must be to utilize the Problem-Oriented Policing SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) Model.