About | My Voice Our Community

Background

Program Partners

My Voice. Our Community. is the product of a partnership between the National Center for Policing Innovation (NCPI) and the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). It was developed over several years through grant funding and involved the contributions of the Community Safety Collaborative, dozens of community-based leaders and public safety practitioners who were part of the program research.

The mission of the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal law enforcement in achieving safer communities.

The mission of the National Center for Policing Innovation (NCPI) is to provide innovative learning opportunities and powerful resources that improve public safety, one person at a time. Since 1997, NCPI has worked with public safety and community leaders in every state to provide the world class training and technical assistance they need to overcome evolving challenges and continue making an impact.

Backed By Extensive Research

Overcoming Cynical Resignation

NCPI conducted extensive research at the beginning of this initiative to uncover what motivates people to become involved in violence reduction, what concerns they have about violence in their communities, and what messaging and strategies would likely be effective.

The research spanned 2019-2020 and leveraged a variety of tools including the development of a national advisory board, the dissemination of a nationwide public safety poll among key constituencies, and in-depth market research on target audience behaviors and preferences.

A lot of important findings were made during the research, but the key takeaway was that people across the nation—regardless of socioeconomic background, race, gender, ethnicity, etc.— are affected by a trifecta of underinformed viewpoints, ideological defensiveness, and emotional fatigue which combine to create a pervasive public mindset of “cynical resignation.”

This mindset can cause people to misinterpret positive messages or reject them outright, making it very difficult for public safety initiatives to break through. As such, any campaign that seeks to reach people about these issues must:

come from trusted voices within the community;
not over promise on what is possible; and
not ask people to do too much—only what is within their individual capacity.

My Voice. Our Community. has been designed with this understanding in mind and was specifically created to provide community leaders and public safety professionals with tools that can help them break through the cynical resignation and effectively reach people in their communities.

Learn more about the research in the Community Toolkit.

Meet the Voices Behind the Campaign

Community Safety Collaborative

In 2019, NCPI convened a national advisory board to provide guidance on the creation of this campaign to ensure that the messaging was based on real-world experiences and resonated effectively with a diverse cross-section of American communities. The Community Safety Collaborative consists of community leaders, activists, law enforcement professionals, policymakers, and academics dedicated to reducing violence and who offered their experience, expertise, and insight to make this campaign possible. NCPI would like to thank each of them for their contributions to the program.