David Weisburd, Distinguished Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS); Executive Director, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), received funding for: “Safer Stronger Together (SST) Initiative: An evaluation of the impact of a place-based social intervention on youth and their families.”
Weisburd will evaluate baseline behaviors and attitudes of clients in the recently launched Safer Stronger Together (SST) Initiative in Maryland. A future proposal will be geared toward gaining outcome data.
He will use a multi-government sector approach to collaborate and coordinate concentrated resources for young people (13-25) and their families who experience high systems involvement and are geographically clustered within neighborhoods (e.g., zip codes) and streets.
The SST Initiative is an unprecedented collaboration among three Maryland agencies - the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), representing Maryland’s statewide juvenile justice system; the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS), representing Maryland’s prisons, jails, adult probation and parole; and the Department of Human Services (DHS), representing the state’s child welfare, foster care, and public benefits system.
The Initiative seeks to re-engineer how government agencies serve those individuals, families, and communities. It provides a model approach to reducing administrative burdens which have become a major barrier to service receipt in minority and disadvantaged communities.
Via this proposal, Weisburd aims to increase understanding of the SST Initiative, a program seeking to reduce racial and economic inequalities among young people and their families.
Weisburd received $49,652 from the William T. Grant Foundation for this project. Funding began in Oct. 2024 and will end in late Dec. 2024.
###
ABOUT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls more than 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a one-billion-dollar comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and stewardship.Learn more at gmu.edu.