The Violent Crime Reduction: Information Messaging and Engagement (VCRIME) program is made possible through a partnership between VCPI and the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the VALOR initiative.

VCPI has spent more than two decades working with public safety agencies and communities across the country to make our communities safer. Much of this work has been focused on violent crime reduction, and one of the things that we, like you, are most aware of is the difficulty in getting community members to actively engage in the effort. So, when VCPI had the opportunity to further these efforts through a partnership with the USDOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), we were more than excited… and now, we are thrilled to announce that VCPI has created a national messaging campaign to promote a sense of shared responsibility in our nation’s communities in the reduction of violent crime.

We spent a year conducting rigorous nationwide research to understand the reasons a community member may or may not choose to participate in violent crime reduction in their own community, the underlying tensions that may support or prohibit partnerships, the emotional responses that community members have when discussing violent crime reduction, and much more. That hard work paid off, and the findings directed VCPI to focus on addressing underlying influences that that might prevent a community member from participating in violent crime reduction efforts in their own backyard.

Our team has been hard at work infusing all that we learned into the development of messaging and outreach strategies that can effectively be used to promote community engagement in violent crime reduction.

Built as a national toolkit, VCPI is currently producing public safety announcements (video & audio), social media images, posters, creative templates, and much more centered on authentic, real-world stories that will resonate with audiences across the country. We’re developing a two-pronged outreach strategy based on national dissemination and local implementation to ensure that the right messages are delivered by the right people. Finally, we’re putting all of these resources into a comprehensive online resource center so that you and your community partners have access to the tools you need to implement an impactful campaign in your own community.

More details and content will be available soon, and we cannot wait to share this exciting new campaign with you! We hope you’ll sign up to receive a notification with it launches and that you’ll join us in spreading the word.