South Bend Joins Operation Weed And Seed
The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP) has announced that South Bend, Indiana is the newest member of Operation Weed and Seed. The city will receive $225,000 to implement a comprehensive strategy to root out crime and seed economic development and community revitalization.
The award, administered by OJP’s Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS), will allow the Weed and Seed site to undertake several law enforcement initiatives, including addressing drug trafficking in neighborhoods and increasing residents’ participation in community policing efforts.
The award and strategy will also be used to enhance residents’ awareness of different forms of assistance available through social service agencies. The total award includes $50,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist in the investigation, prosecution, and prevention of violent crimes and drug offenses in public and federally assisted low-income housing.
South Bend is Indiana’s tenth Weed and Seed site. The other sites are Evansville, Gary, Fort Wayne, and Indianapolis, which has six different Weed and Seed sites. Including South Bend, seven Indiana sites are currently receiving funds through EOWS, including Evansville, Gary, Ft. Wayne, and three Indianapolis sites.
Since the inception of Operation Weed and Seed in 1991, EOWS has provided $7,544,806 to Indiana’s Weed and Seed sites. Overall, since 1991, EOWS has provided nearly $340 million to 315 communities to further the community crime prevention and community revitalization goals of Operation Weed and Seed.
Operation Weed and Seed is a program administered by the Office of Justice Programs’ Executive Office for Weed and Seed. Operation Weed and Seed is foremost a strategy–rather than a grant program — that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods across the country.
Under the leadership of U.S. Attorneys, the strategy brings together federal, state, and local crime-fighting agencies, social service providers, representatives of public and private sectors, business owners, and neighborhood residents and links them in a shared goal of weeding out violent crime and gang activity while seeding the community with social services and economic revitalization.
In order to receive funds, a site must first become “Officially Recognized” through the development and approval of a comprehensive strategy that focuses on reducing a target neighborhood’s crime problems, as well as providing economic development opportunities and social services.
The Weed and Seed approach emphasizes four principles: aggressive law enforcement strategies, community policing, the provision of crime prevention, intervention, and treatment services, and neighborhood restoration and revitalization activities.
