Graduate students in the Master’s Degree Programs in Criminal Justice, Forensic Science or Forensic Psychology with a minimum GPA of 3.5, may be eligible for the John A Reisenbach Master’s Scholarship. After graduation, the winning candidate will have to work in the New York City area to make the City safer and more secure. Through 2010, the Foundation has awarded 30 scholarships.
Grants range from $500 to $3,000 and are given to volunteer-led community groups in economically under-resourced neighborhoods across the city to work on community projects that bring neighbors together to improve their neighborhoods. Citizens Committee complements these grants with other support services: One-on-one project implementation assistance, and skills-building workshops.
Current recipients include Young Gents Society, East New York, Brooklyn, Young Changemakers of the Immigrant Center for Empowerment and Training, Flushing, New York, Bainbridge Street/Malcom X Block Association, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Dreams Deferred Decatur Street Block Association, Bushwick, Brooklyn and Friends of Gulick Park, Lower East Side, Manhattan.
To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Reisenbach Foundation, the Citizen's Committee has developed a program to invest in the ten most dangerous neighborhoods in New York City.
While crime in New York City has declined significantly since the 1980's and 1990's, violence and criminal activity continue to plague NYC's low income, under served neighborhoods. This initiative will support volunteer led watch groups in these communities with support from local Police precincts.
Safe Horizon established Streetwork in 1984 with a mission to offer homeless, runaway and heavily street-involved youth the opportunity to find safety and reclaim a sense of dignity and self-worth. The young people served are typically highly traumatized and have run away from or been kicked out of families or foster homes where they endured years of neglect and abuse.
One of the keys to Streetwork's success are their case managers who provide crisis intervention, case planning, referrals and immediate access to food, clothes, and hygiene supplies. They advocate for clients seeking public assistance, escort them to outside appointments, and serve as liaisons to other social service providers.
The Reisenbach Foundations funds Streetwork Case Managers. Each works with approximately 150 Streetwork “clients” each year. Each has an average of 50 outside referrals each month helping youth to find everything from mental health care to job preparation classes to housing.
For 25 years, Crime Stoppers has served as a model public-private partnership and an invaluable tool for the NYPD’s efforts to apprehend our city’s most dangerous criminals. Nearly 5,000 violent crimes have been solved through anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers. Rewards for these anonymous tips are funded solely by donations to the Police Foundation.
New York Cares’ Youth Service Club (YSC) program is the only one of its kind in New York City that brings a structured, award-winning community service and leadership building initiative to some of New York City’s most under-resourced public schools. Beginning in 2007, The John A. Reisenbach Foundation implemented a crime prevention curriculum into the program. This is a particularly important program enhancement since the majority of participating YSC schools are located in high-crime areas and students have expressed an interest in learning more about crime prevention. This year YSC’s Anti-Crime Initiative will involve 20 schools with over 200 youth volunteers participating.
During the past twenty-one years, CAPP has reached over 300,000 New York City school children and made them aware of their right to be safe. More than 24,000 school children attended the CAPP’s one-of-a-kind Child Safety Workshop.
One of the most tragic aspects of child abuse is that its victims are not able to help themselves because they are often manipulated to believe that they are somehow responsible for the abuse and remain silent allowing their victimization to escalate. The Workshop uses life-sized puppets to teach school children to recognize, resist and report instances of abuse and neglect. CAPP actively combats the misconception that abuse will go away if we pretend it does not exist. Veiling the problem in secrecy only permits the abusive behavior to fester. Eight workshops for approximately 700 students will take place this year.
The Clothes Closets stock clothing, pajamas, toiletries, toys and books. These items are placed in overnight bags that are given to children who need to be moved to a safer environment because of abuse in their homes. Children come into the center on the way to foster care with nothing but the clothing they are wearing. The children pick the items for the bag themselves; in this way they feel they have something of their own to take with them when they are moved. A new clothes closet will be opened this year at the Safe Horizon Childhood Advocacy Center in the Bronx and others continue to be re-supplied.
NYC’s detention centers are filled with young people who have not committed violent offenses and are not considered a public threat. 92% are delinquents remanded for non-violent offenses, misdemeanors and parole violations. 46% of youth released from NYC detention facilities are readmitted in the same year. 82% of Youth Link participants successfully completed their probation in 2008 and remained out of prison one year after.
PAL’s in-house internships are targeted towards participants between the ages of 14-15 years old. Most are from low-income households, and are in dire need of a job for themselves, and in some cases to help support their families. For many, this is their first job experience. With a criminal record and no prior experience, it is very difficult for these young people to find work in their communities. Youth Link provides opportunities to work as office assistants, custodial staff, or program aides within PAL Centers. Interested participants have to write an essay, fill out a job application, interview for the position, and provide letters of reference from school officials. They are also closely supervised by PAL staff and evaluated regularly on their performance. This is a great opportunity for participants to gain work experience, and to be mentored by caring adults in PAL who constantly reinforce the importance of remaining in school and developing strong work ethics.
Internationals Network for Public Schools serves recently arrived immigrant English language learners in NYC. The 2008 4-year graduation rate for ELL students in New York City was 40%. Internationals graduation rate over the same period was 72% with a 91% acceptance rate to college. The Internationals Network Summer Institute is a two-day event that will train a minimum of 120 ELL educators. Ongoing support for Summer Institute participants, both Internationals teachers and teachers in other district schools, will begin with a follow up survey within 2-3 months after the Institute to gather evidence and examples of ways the workshops had an impact on their thinking and practice.
Park Hill, Staten Island, has been a neighborhood plagued by crime and drug activity. With its collaborative approach to problem solving, Citizens Committee for New York City acted as a mediator between the community and police establishing consensus on tactics for fighting crime and supporting positive community and youth development.
In a model partnership between the Reisenbach Foundation, the New York City Police Department and the Citizens Committee for New York City, Neighborhood Safety Awards were established to mobilize residents of targeted blocks and buildings into community improvement programs. Residents are recruited and trained in collaborative problem-solving efforts, given workbooks, tip sheets, resource guides and other forums to contribute to a reduction of crime in the area.
Graduates of the program were eligible for JAR Neighborhood Safety Award grants of up to $1,000. More than 35 grants were given out to help residents analyze and respond to a specific drug, crime or quality of life condition on their block.
In 1998, the first John A. Reisenbach Awards were given to 16 members of the New York City Police Department who demonstrated exemplary conduct in dealing with both the public and other members of the service. In cooperation with the Department's own Courtesy Professionalism and Respect programs, candidates were chosen by their commanding officers from police units citywide.
Each officer received a certificate and a $500 cash award.
While awards to police officers are typically given for crime-fighting acts above and beyond the call of duty, the NYC Police Foundation believes that cops who have a consistent regard for CPR can often help prevent community encounters from escalating to more severe violence. These awards were developed in conjunction with the NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Community Affairs Yolanda Jimenez and then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir.
JAR funding helped seed the development of CABWATCH, a program which provided cell phones and training to over 9500 cab drivers, creating additional "eyes and ears" for the NYPD in fighting crime at a time when cell phones were not pervasive. The Foundation is continued its support by providing funding for the special training of livery drivers, extending "Livery Watch" into neighborhoods where yellow taxis seldom go.
A pilot program to teach individual CERT teams to coordinate and integrate as first responders at the community level. The program focused on lower Manhattan and involved 3 CERT teams in a series of workshops and exercises. This program served as model for citywide training.
The John Jay College conference in the spring of 2007 made available the the most up to date research on offender profiling to criminal justice and media professionals. Profiling is a set of techniques and tools that utilizes psychological theory and methodology to improve criminal investigations. It is an especially useful means of investigating violent crime such as homicide and rape. John Jay College of Criminal Justice houses two of the most prominent leaders in the field, Professor Louis Schlesinger and Dr. C. Gabrielle Salfati. Participants were from a range of interested criminal justice agencies, including particular high ranking police officials, crime investigators, crime analysts, police training professionals, forensic scientists, public prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, clinicians, media professionals, and other interested professionals in the field.
Hosted by Patrick Collins, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Art, Music & Philosophy, John Jay College
24 30-minute discussions with leading criminal justice practitioners and opinion makers Topics included: Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Organized Crime, Safety in the Transit System, DNA Testing, The Trial Process, Drug Enforcement, Emerging Trends in Terrorism, Youth Violence, and Gun Control. Guests included: Past President of Center for Prevention of Handgun Violence Richard Aborn, Chief Counsel Joseph Armao/Mollen Commission, NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton, Congress of Racial Equality Chairman Roy Innis, and John Jay College President Gerald W. Lynch.
TLP One was opened on the Lower East Side for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade students from around the five boroughs. Although economically disadvantaged, these students range in ability from "gifted and talented" to "special needs." In addition to a strong academic program, TLP's curriculum promoted and emphasized public safety and community service. Students developed a garden in an area that had been a drug dealers haven, formed the Peace Squad to help solve conflicts peacefully, launched a recycling program, created a relationship with residents of a nearby nursing home, met with local police officers and created a video about non-violent resolution to conflict.
TLP students maintained an attendance rate of 93% and an on-time rate of 94%. Over 40 students participated in the National Junior High School Chess Championship, traveling to Phoenix to become division champions. In 1995, the Reisenbach Foundation funded The Learning project's inaugural summer school program in Washington Heights, known as Project Chill. Kids were given a chance to learn conflict resolution options other than violence, and produced a film about life in the ghetto called "The Heights."
Wash and Learn was a start-up literacy program designed to reach students of low socio-economic populations and diverse cultures in Laundromats in NYC. Clean Rite, an operator of Laundromats provided space and resources.
