The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Criminal Justice is partnering with the City of Chattanooga on the Chattanooga United to Reduce Violence (CURV) initiative, funded by a $1,999,187 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance.
The CURV initiative, led by the city’s Office of Community Safety and Gun Violence Prevention, aims to reduce gun violence in high-crime, high-risk neighborhoods through evidence-based, community-focused strategies.
Christopher Sands, executive director of the Office of Community Safety and Gun Violence Prevention, and Deborah Maddox, community outreach coordinator for the Mayor’s Office, worked closely with UC Foundation Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Rick Dierenfeldt in securing the grant funding.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but our violence prevention work is showing promising early results, with crime down significantly across Chattanooga and in our key areas of focus,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “UTC’s data-driven research tackling pressing public safety challenges will be invaluable as we implement strategies to continue to reduce violence and improve lives across Chattanooga.”
As the city’s research partner on the initiative, the UTC criminal justice program will be responsible for assessing CURV’s “utility and effectiveness across multiple metrics,” Dierenfeldt explained.
“The research will be conducted through our in-house research center, the Violence Reduction Initiative, and will involve multiple faculty, graduate students and a post-doctoral scholar hired specifically for this project,” Dierenfeldt said. “It is an incredible opportunity to demonstrate our capacity for quality research, inform policy and practice, and stand united with the city of Chattanooga to reduce violence in our community.
“CURV is about creating opportunities and solutions that reduce violence and improve lives.”
Dierenfeldt said the three-year grant will allow UTC researchers to assess the impact of CURV’s strategies and provide data-driven insights to inform future violence prevention efforts.
The CURV initiative will expand structured after-school activities for youth, provide trauma-informed mental health services and offer wraparound support for families in resource-starved neighborhoods. Another essential feature is the use of violence interrupters–community members trained to identify and de-escalate potentially violent situations.
“Violence is often concentrated in specific neighborhoods and among young people who lack access to structured, supervised activities,” Dierenfeldt said. “By addressing these root causes and providing meaningful support, CURV aims to reduce opportunities for victimization and offending.”