Community Based Initiatives
Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney
Marcus A.Christian, Executive Assistant United States Attorney
James D. Smith, Law Enforcement Community Coordinator (LECC)
One of the primary missions of the United States Attorney's Office is to ensure that federal crimes affecting the people in the Southern District of Florida are investigated and that the perpetrators are prosecuted, convicted and punished. Common sense and experience have taught us however that we cannot prosecute, arrest and punish our way out of the problems that illegal drug use, violent crime and criminal gangs visit upon our community. Prosecution alone will not eliminate the threat they pose to our way of life. Each and every sector of our community has an important role to play in our efforts to put an end to these scourges. We all know that we need fair, vigorous and effective law enforcement. At the same time, before we can live in a crime free safe community, we must address the demographic challenges facing our community that are closely associated with criminal activity.
To this end the Justice Department has implemented several special emphasis initiatives. These initiatives are aimed at empowering neighborhoods by strengthening partnerships, coordination and collaborations between and among law enforcement agencies, government agencies, non-profit community groups, faith-based organizations, and the people who live and work in our neighborhoods. The idea is simple: working together we as a community, have the power to make South Florida a better, safer place to live.
This is the United States Attorney's Office information regarding our community based initiatives. Our primary initiatives are briefly described below with links to separate pages for more detailed information. Each page also contains links to the relevant service and information components of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (Main Justice). Contact: J.D. Smith (Law Enforcement Community Coordinator); Marcus A. Christian (Executive Assistant United States Attorney) (305) 961-9001.
- The Weed and Seed Initiative
- The Public Housing Safety Initiative
- Project Safe Neighborhoods
- Southern District of Florida Reentry Initiative
- Project Sentry
- Project Safe Childhood
- Victim Services Program
- Community Based Partnerships
Weed and Seed is a community empowerment anti-crime initiative funded through the Office of Community Capacity (OCCDP) Development and the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. There are currently eleven Weed and Seed sites in the Southern District of Florida. Learn more
The Public Housing Safety Initiative or PHSI is a law enforcement, prevention, intervention, and community empowerment initiative focusing on improving living conditions in public housing developments throughout the United States. The initiative is funded by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The initiative has been active in cities across the country including: Miami, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; San Juan Puerto Rico; Houston, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles, California and others. Learn more
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) began in 2002 as an outgrowth of Weed and Seed. The focus of PSN is to bring together law enforcement and prevention and intervention resources to effect reductions in firearms crimes and gang related violence. PSN is also focused on preventing juvenile crime and facilitating successful ex-offender reentry. Learn more
In 2003, President Bush's State of the Union Address identified the challenge of ex-offender reentry. At that time it was estimated that close to 600,000 persons would be released each year from state and federal prisons for return to our communities. The challenge was, and is, to afford them successful avenues for reentry which will protect our communities from the consequences of their return to a life of crime. Learn more
Project Sentry is the two-fold violent gun crimes prevention aspect of Project Safe Neighborhoods. Law enforcement works with community groups, including Weed and Seed sites to promote educational and recreational alternative activities for young people in our most challenged communities. The goals are to graphically demonstrate the negative consequences of involvement with firearms violence from the standpoint of exposure to physical bodily harm and imprisonment and from the standpoint of the havoc it visits upon families, neighborhoods and the lives of everyone involved. Project Sentry focuses on young people through anti-gang and anti-gun violence presentations at schools, community groups, youth summits and summer camps. Since 2005, PSN Project Sentry has reached over 10,000 young people from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties with its important anti-gang, anti-violence message.
Project Sentry targets 6th graders in Miami-Dade County and Broward County schools. The 90-minute multi-media presentation is comprised of speakers from the United States Attorney’s Office, State Attorney’s Office, and medical professions, who teach youth the importance of staying away from guns, violence, and gangs.Learn more
Project Safe Childhood is the Justice Department's primary initiative aimed at preventing, investigating and prosecuting violations of child sexual exploitation and related obscenity laws.
Project Safe Childhood’s middle school outreach program is a 90-minute multi-media presentation designed for 6th grade students which empowers them from (1) committing acts of bullying, cyber-bullying, and electronic predation and (2) from becoming the victims of bullies and internet predators. Project Safe Childhood’s middle school outreach program concentrates on Miami-Dade and Broward County schools.Learn more
The Victim Services Program is focused on assisting victims through the court system process by providing timely information, logistical assistance (for victim-witnesses) and referrals to providers of medical care, counseling services, psychological treatment, financial and other victim centered resources and services. Learn more
The United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida have worked with hundreds of agencies and organizations in connection with its community empowerment initiatives. Our major partners in the Project Safe Neighborhoods, Weed and Seed and Public Housing Safety Initiatives include: Learn more