These tenants are organizing to restore safety in their Nanaimo complex

Camden, N.J. disbanded its troubled police department in 2013. It was replaced with a community-oriented team that worked in partnership with surveillance technology, violence interruption programs, youth investment initiatives, and vacant housing rehabilitation efforts, which altogether contributed to an 82% drop in homicides since 2012, including the city's first homicide-free summer (2025) in 50 years.

Philadelphia’s city-funded Group Violence Intervention program identifies people who commit crimes together and offers them help to get a job, GED, or whatever assistance they need. The program brings together a variety of community members to conduct outreach, offer social services, and warn them of the consequences of continuing to participate in crimes.

Community members and local organizations on the South side of Chicago collaborate to reclaim their neighborhoods from crime, violence, and poverty by engaging in community conflict resolution, policing and networks of support. Groups like the Southwest Organizing Project and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network banded together to interrupt gang violence in the city, relying on the experience of former gang members and offenders to guide the organizations' missions for non-violence in their communities.

Sheriffs' offices can provide resources and encourage underserved communities and communities struck hard by disinvestment to grow their civic capacity. In Alameda County, California, the county sheriff’s office operates a non-profit organization, the Deputy Sheriff’s Activities League (DSAL). The non-profit champions a model of community engagement known as community capital policing, hosting community events and programs in Ashland and Cherryland.

The Kansas City neighborhood of Ivanhoe was once plagued by blight, illegal dumping, drug trade, gun violence, and neglect; neighbors lived in fear or moved away. Inspired by one compassionate and proactive family, the Youngs, the community stepped up, partnering with the local university and a charitable foundation to map out a tangible blueprint for sustainable change. They are working with police and the city council to tackle the blight and revive their neighborhood through affordable housing, park space, and a renewed sense of community.

In the face of gentrification in their South Bronx neighborhood, Mott Haven, residents responded by creating the Mott Haven Port Morris Community Land Trust. Inspired by the Cooper Square Committee land trust, Mott Haven’s land trust wants to be responsible for the area’s affordable housing, and it also hopes to facilitate community-building.

The recent revival of feminism, in tandem with increased awareness about violence and sexual abuse, and combined with the power of social media to organize activist groups, is helping various advocacy groups address the serious issues faced by women and minorities, specifically Latina women, in the Los Angeles area. Organizations from anti-gentrification cycling groups to rape crisis hotline dispatchers are combining resources to combat violence against women, provide more comprehensive legal and human services, help victims get a new start, and change the culture of abuse for good.

SHIELDS for Families works in one of the country's most notoriously dilapidated housing projects to revitalize the neighborhood by providing education, treatment and counseling services.

In Fayetteville, the Mayor and Police Chief have taken a personalized approach in seeking a solution for blighted, low-income neighborhoods and are working to increase the number of city staff on-hand to help address issues like decrepit buildings, as well as decrease the disparity in resources allocated to maintaining these neighborhoods. But many challenges remain, and the line between the government's role versus the private homeowner's responsibility remains difficult to define.

Civic leaders in the U.S. struggle to effectively help their distressed neighborhoods. East Lake, Atlanta, created a replicable model that mixes residents of differing socio-economic status, and focuses on education and health in the area.