Community Safety Team: 2024 Year in Review

Springing on Summer Safety

The Community Safety Team is tasked annually with creating and distributing the Summer Safety Plan. The Community Safety Team hosted meetings at BCYF Centers across the City for residents to help build the 2024 Summer Safety Plan.

Over the course of the spring months, The Community Safety Team hosted almost 30 meetings throughout:

• East Boston,
• Charlestown,
• South Boston,
• Dorchester,
• Roxbury,
• Mattapan,
• Jamaica Plain and
• Hyde Park.

These meetings were broken up into three rounds of engagements. Each round focused on a different angle of building the plan - Preparing, Previewing and Publishing.

The first round of meetings to prepare the 2024 Summer Safety Plan was centered around 2023’s Summer Safety Plan. We asked residents where they thought we as a City could improve, and what they’d like to see prioritized in the upcoming Summer Safety Plan. We took notes from these meetings and brought them back to City Hall to begin forming the basis of 2024’s plan. We returned to the community to preview this plan - these meetings were focused on ensuring our plan accurately reflected the concerns raised by community members in our first round of meetings. We took any corrections or additions back to City Hall to revise and finalize our 2024 Plan for a Safe, Healthy and Active Summer.

We went back to the community once more to talk about how to publish this report. We explored what outlets have the most reach in the community and how best to reach the people that need the resources highlighted in the plan the most. 

Planting the Seed 

The Community Safety Team sponsored and hosted the inaugural cohort of Grassroots - a  job readiness and training program for systems-involved young adults. The program is a precursor to Operation EXIT and EXIT Renew. Three weeks of  classes focused around being job-ready included:

• voting registration,
• OSHA 30 Certification,
• civilian flagger certification, and
• partial licensure for a hoisting license.

Our inaugural cohort celebrated graduation in the Mayor’s Office with the Community Safety Team and their families.