Rapid City's North Side is the target location for this Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) project. Indigenous American residents of the North Side make up an estimated 80 percent majority of the neighborhood. The neighborhood, also known as North Rapid, is primarily comprised of lower-income households, extended stay budget motels, and government-subsidized housing. This 7.5-square mile area is only a small piece of the 6253 square miles that make up Rapid City. However, the North Side accounts for a majority of the city's criminal activity, including substantial overrepresentation in calls for service, victimization, and arrest. Between 2016 and 2018, the North Side accounted for 55 percent of aggravated assaults, 51 percent of weapons violations, 54 percent of domestic assaults, 70 percent of homicides, 52 percent of drug arrests, 62 percent of methamphetamine arrests, 42 percent of sexual assaults, 56 percent of burglaries, and 49 percent of robberies.

The North Side of Rapid City is an economically distressed community with large segments of the neighborhood that are Federally Designated Qualified Opportunity Zones (FDQOZ). Three specific FDQOZ areas could benefit from collaborative policing strategies to deter the initiation and occurrence of criminal activity. These areas include the majority of extended stay motels and at-risk housing complexes known for the highest rates of violent crime victimization in the neighborhood.

BCJI planning efforts relied on existing and new cross-sector partnerships and input from the site's research partner to meet identified goals and objectives. Site practitioners depended on the articulated needs and priorities shared with the BCJI cross-sector management team to advance identified planning activities. Stakeholder participants on the cross-sector management team were identified through previous initiatives and community partnerships, including but not limited to the U.S. Attorney's Office's Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force (PSNTF) Rapid City's Council of Elders, and the Collective Healing Initiative Listening Sessions Working Group. Each of these collaborations are crucial for the planning and implementation of the BCJI initiative.

The planning effort included expansion of the Collective Healing Listening Session Working Group, developed through the Collective Healing Initiative (CHI) grant received in 2018 from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and funded by the Office of Victims of Crime. The object of this BCJI program is to expand the reach and focus of the CHI Working Group through the creation of a permanent Collective Healing Task Force in the Rapid City Mayor's Office. This task force held a prominent position on the BCJI cross-sector management team, insofar as most of the community-led responses to violent crime and victimization in the North Side neighborhood required Native community leadership. The BCJI project formalized Native American leadership positions on the Collective Healing Task Force. The aim was to address horizontal oppression and fractures within the Native American community that create barriers to community-wide collaboration and to expand the reach of the existing Native American community.

During the Planning Phase, the Rapid City BCJI site identified the following goals of the project: increase trust-building, collaboration, and responsiveness; support youth; enhance street outreach and victim services; and revamp the Crime-Free Multi-Housing program and institute Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) strategies. The Rapid City BCJI team aims to accomplish the Implementation Phase goals through the following implementation strategies:

• Increasing trust-building, collaboration, and responsiveness by continuing the work of Collective Healing Initiative (CHI) and partnering with the CHI Working Group to support community leaders, identify and respond to violent crime trends, and advance the recommendations laid out during CHI.
• Utilizing a Youth Outreach Team (YOT) model, which provides nonuniformed responses to social service and mental health needs.
• Enhancing street outreach and victim services by expanding the Rapid City Police Department’s Quality of Life Unit and developing outreach capacity for the native-led nonprofit Journey On.
• Revamping the Crime-Free Multi-Housing program and institute CPTED strategies by partnering with multi-unit residential developments to proactively address crime trends and collaborate with residents within through a neighborhood liaison. 

Collective Healing Working Group, United States Attorney's Office Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force, Rapid City Police Department's Quality of Life Team, Great Plans Tribal Chairman's Health Board, Rapid City Area Schools, Douglas School District, Pennington County Sheriff's Office, Children's Home Society, Lutheran Social Services, Juvenile Detention Center