Job Summary

The Building Opportunities for Lasting Dreams program, funded by the Byrne Criminal Justice Initiative at the US Department of Justice, is a community-led violence prevention coalition in Mantua. The West Philadelphia Promise Zone followed a common urban development pattern of initial settlement and growth, piecemeal integration of African-American families migrating up from the South, white flight, depopulation and divestment, and spiking crime and continued population loss spurred by persistent structural barriers to adequate education, jobs, and other socio-economic amenities. Most recently, these neighborhoods have experienced significant housing price appreciation and demographic change led by the expansion of nearby universities and commercial corridors. In 2010, following high-visibility shootings, Mt. Vernon Manor, Inc. (MVM), a trusted provider of affordable housing opportunities in West Philadelphia’s Mantua neighborhood for over 50 years, revisited its mission and reorganized its operations, becoming a full-spectrum community development corporation. That same year, MVM was awarded a Choice Neighborhoods planning grant to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive community plan in partnership with residents and other local stakeholders. In 2012, MVM was awarded a BCJI grant to implement some of the public safety action priorities identified in the “We Are Mantua!” plan, including building resident leadership capacity through block captain training and eliminating blight and targeting major crime hotspots using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (“CPTED”) principals such as improving street lighting, engaging local artists to beautiful problem intersections and encourage pedestrianization, and strategically enhancing law enforcement presence in key areas in coordination with nonprofit and civic leaders. During the three-year BCJI grant period and, to a lesser extent, in the two years following the project’s conclusion, the target area saw sustained reductions in drug and violent crime. The BOLD project builds on these prior community-led successes and address the growing violence the Mantua neighborhood has experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic began, by facilitating a community planning process for the implementation of a comprehensive public safety program. This will include: 1) advancing a culture of cooperation, collaboration, and coordination among vested violence prevention stakeholder groups and residents; and 2) enhancing the social networks and social capital of residents and civic leaders by leveraging city and nonprofit workforce development programming to benefit populations at high risk of experiencing violence.

As MVM’s research partner, Drexel School of Public Health provides baseline population-level and available resident-reported data to inform the one-year planning process, develops performance measures and methods tied to each of the goals and strategies in the final community-created Implementation Plan, and collects, analyzes, and disseminates among all project stakeholders each of these pieces of information to inform collective reflection, implementation improvements, and to evaluate the project’s impacts on violence in Mantua.

Essential Functions

• Compile geospatial gun violence crime incident data for mapping hot spots and tract-level rates. This position will update baseline data.
• Create change metrics from baseline to the current time period.
• Create a process for updating data at the end of the BOLD implementation period.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public health or related field
• At least 1 year of relevant experience
• Proficiency in ArcGIS
• Experience with geospatial crime and social determinants of health data

Location

• University City – Philadelphia, PA

Additional Information

This is a part-time per diem position classified as non-exempt.  The pay offered is based on the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience, department budget, and an internal equity review. 

For information about benefits, please review Drexel’s Per Diem/Casual/Temporary Benefit Fact Sheet.

Special Instructions to the Applicant

Please make sure you upload your CV/resume and cover letter when submitting your application.

A review of applicants will begin once a suitable candidate pool is identified.

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