BCJI in Action

SITE OVERVIEW  ♦  EAST ST. LOUIS | ILLINOIS

Neighborhood Profile 

United Way of Greater St. Louis (UWGSL) is the backbone support organization for East Side Aligned (ESA), a cross-sector partnership working to improve outcomes for young people and build a thriving community in East St. Louis and three other adjacent municipalities in St. Clair County, Illinois. In ESA’s territory, one in three youth live in households with incomes of less than $15,000 per year, and 21 percent of the housing units are vacant. In 2015, fewer than 20 percent of elementary and middle school students within East St. Louis School District 189 met reading standards; only 5 percent of high school students were college ready.

The homicide rate in East St. Louis is 20 times greater than the national average. The Metro East Police Assistance Team, a group from the Illinois State Police assigned to combat violent crime within ESA’s footprint, estimates that over the past five years, approximately 80 percent of murders in the ESA footprint were linked to gang activity, and ESA’s “hot spots” are predominately associated with gang territories. Despite these extreme crime rates, law enforcement capacity in the footprint is insufficient. East St. Louis, for example, currently has a total of 44 officers, only 16 of whom are assigned to the patrol division. The lack of law enforcement resources leads to chronic underreporting of incidents of crime. At the center of the CBCR target area is the Roosevelt Homes, a public housing complex with 634 residents and persistent crime issues, and the target area also includes three prominent gang territories.

Planning Process

East Side Aligned partners will develop and implement a comprehensive, data-driven, place-based plan to reduce crime and support local revitalization. The process will focus on four goals:            

Enhance policing capacity and alignment: The East St. Louis Police Department and Washington Park Police Department will establish shared data collection and analysis systems and increase the capacity and effectiveness of the multi-jurisdictional Street Level Investigation Crime Enforcement unit.

Improve the physical environment: Led by East Side Health District, the team will engage with residents to identify Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) improvements to reduce crime. The team will train relevant city staff, community-based organizations and neighborhood groups and implement CPTED projects, employing residents, particularly youth, to implement the strategies in conjunction with municipalities and community organizations. 

Interrupt and deter crime: The ESA team will pilot the evidence-based Cure Violence Health Model, which uses the same three components as programs designed to stem epidemic disease outbreaks, and increase the use of Focused Deterrence practices for repeat gun and violent offenders.

Empower residents to engage and lead revitalization efforts: ESA stakeholders are committed to authentic, intentional engagement and building the capacity of residents to lead. The team will increase resident participation/completion in the Neighborhood Leadership Academy and pilot a youth organizing summer institute. 

Other Key Partners

St. Clair County Sherriff’s Department, Metro East Police District Commission, East St. Louis Police Department, Washington Park Police Department, St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s Office, East Side Aligned and East Side Health District

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