Creating healthy and safe communities

Creating healthy and safe communities

Without a healthy and safe environment, families cannot thrive and children cannot realize their potential. Improving public safety, building trust between communities and police, and reforming the criminal justice system are essential to community well-being. Learn more about how to make communities healthier and safer. 

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Highlights

Four Lessons to Ensure an Equitable Recovery from the Pandemic in the DC Region

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to exacerbate racial and socioeconomic inequities in the DC area and nationwide, members of the Urban–Greater DC team convened with neighbors and resi
Youth STIs
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Youth STIs Are at an All-Time High. A DC Program Shows Community Engagement Is Key to Fighting This Trend.

Although young people make up about 25 percent of the sexually active po
DC skyline
Highlights

The Best of Urban–Greater DC in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic hit every corner of the country in 2020, and Washington, DC, was no exception.
Skyline of DC rowhouses
Highlights

The New DC Second Look Amendment Act Is a Step in the Right Direction, and Community Supports for Young Adults Can Build on This Progress

This week, the Council of the District of Columbia approved by an overwhelming majority a first-in-the-nation law allowing people in p
Teens at a festival
Highlights

When Teens Are Aware and Empowered, Healthy Dating Norms Prevail

Intimate partner violence (IPV)—which includes emotional, physical, and sexual dating violence—affected millions of Americans every year bef
Woman smiles
Highlights

How Can DC Reverse and Prevent Cultural Displacement of Black Latines?

Racist policies and practices have facilitated gentrification and displacement, which have disproportionat
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Highlights

A DC Sex Education Program Seeks to Change Teens’ Beliefs about Healthy Relationships

The #MeToo movement has changed the way we think about and understand consent and assault and continues to illuminate how society has normalized illegal and abusive behaviors.
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Highlights

The Best of Urban–Greater DC in 2019

Like nearly every year that preceded it, 2019 brought rapid growth and change for the Greater DC area.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, center, along with United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu, right, and D.C Police Chief Peter Newsham, speaks during a press conference .
Highlights

Harsher Penalties Won’t Stop Gun Violence in DC

Last month, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to partner with federal prosecutors to shift prosecution for certain “felon-in-possession” firearm offenses out of the local DC court system and into the federal justice system.
bikes
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Three ways bikeshare can counteract, not reinforce, DC's disparities

Bikesharing has gained popularity in US cities as concerns about health, congestion, and climate change have increased. In 2010, the DC Department of Transportation introduced the first city-operated bikesharing system in North America.
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Highlights

Urban–Greater DC’s best of 2018

The Urban Institute has strong roots in Washington, DC, our home base for the past 50 years.
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Highlights

How equitably dispersed is community development funding in the Greater DC area?

The Washington, DC, region is one of the nation’s most economically vibrant areas, but it contains striking levels of inequality.
Are Opportunity Zones in the Greater DC area targeted to communities in need of investment?
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Are Opportunity Zones in the Greater DC area targeted to communities in need of investment?

The Greater DC region has experienced significant economic growth. Although this growth has strengthened the region as an economic engine, it has also led to a housing affordability crisis and concerns of displacement layered over long-standing racial inequities.
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The effects of long-term and mass incarceration are felt from Milwaukee to Washington, DC

A recent documentary shares the stories of families living in a high-crime Milwaukee neighborhood.
Passengers waiting for Metro
Highlights

Event: Employment Prospects for People with Criminal Records in Washington, DC

A newly released report from the Urban Institute finds that one in seven Washingtonians have a criminal record in the court system, but only half of them have a conviction.