The western district of virginia (wdva or district) comprises approximately sixty percent of the land area in the commonwealth of virginia and 2.2 million of its citizens

This $115,382 Formula Grant award, provided by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under the Project Safe Neighborhoods (CFDA 16.609) program, aims to reduce gun and gang violence in the Western District of Virginia. The grant will fund a comprehensive, data-driven approach involving federal, state, and local law enforcement, prosecutors, and community partners. Key activities include targeted law enforcement operations, crime prevention initiatives, community engagement programs, gang intervention efforts, and analytical approaches to identify and mitigate violent crime drivers in high-crime areas of the district. The grant recipient, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, will serve as a fiscal agent and work with sub-grantees such as local law enforcement agencies, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions to implement these evidence-based strategies over the 3-year project period from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027.

The district covers a large geographic area. While the northern corner is less than fifty miles from washington, D.C., LEE county, the western tip of the district, is farther west than detroit and is closer to six other state capitols than IT is to richmond. The wdva encompasses seven separate federal divisions, including charlottesville, harrisonburg, lynchburg, roanoke, danville, abingdon, and big stone GAP. Although the western district of virginia is geographically large, the violence this district experiences is concentrated in a few localities. And while gun violence seems to be on the decline in each of those areas, the overall numbers are still troubling, particularly considering the relatively small population of each city. Fortunately, there is a federal courthouse in each of the target areas and our state and federal law enforcement partners are willing to assist in combatting the violence in these areas. Further, the wdva has started developing partnerships with area stakeholders, particularly with respect to prevention and intervention and community engagement. The primary goal of the fiscal year 2024 project safe neighborhoods (PSN) project for the wdva is to reduce gun and gang violence through deterrence efforts aimed at potential offenders, the implementation of evidence-based programs and proven enforcement strategies to prevent and reduce gun and gang crimes, and the prosecution of significant firearm, controlled substance, and violent crime offenses. The PSN program will harness the resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials throughout wdva. The PSN program will require intelligence-led approaches to identify the most violent offenders and neighborhoods in each division, and then deploy combined resources to prevent, interdict, and suppress violent criminal acts by targeted offenders in those areas.