ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE
We are a collective of experts dedicated to building neighborhood leadership and advancing community-based public safety. Every day, the organizations we support work on the front lines to mediate conflict, respond to crises, connect people to supportive services, and help young people find pathways away from violence and toward stability.
We represent and strengthen the dozens of small, nonprofit, community-led organizations that have spent decades building peace in neighborhoods across the country—often with little recognition or sustained investment from policymakers, elected officials, or traditional funding institutions. We believe that investing in these community-based public safety leaders is the key to reducing violence, ending cycles of incarceration, and creating a transformational public safety model rooted in healing, systems of care, and community self-determination.
The Collective brings together the nation's leading practitioners and experts in community-based public safety. United by decades of lived experience and proven practice, we are committed to preserving the integrity of the model, elevating the leadership of Black and Brown practitioners, and ensuring their knowledge informs the future of public safety. Together, we are building the infrastructure, organizational capacity, and long-term support necessary for community-based public safety to grow, thrive, and scale through sustainable public investment.
What We Believe
-
Safety is built through relationships. Trusted community leaders can reach people, mediate conflict, and intervene in ways traditional systems often cannot.
-
Communities closest to violence must help lead the solutions. Those with lived experience bring essential knowledge, credibility, and expertise to public safety.
-
Community-based public safety is a profession. Practitioners deserve rigorous training, sustainable careers, institutional support, and recognition for their expertise.
-
Strong organizations sustain safer communities. Lasting impact requires investment not only in programs, but in the infrastructure and capacity of the organizations delivering them.
-
Public safety should create pathways to healing and stability. Effective safety strategies should reduce violence without deepening cycles of incarceration and harm.
