About the Safe Blocks Program

What is Safe Blocks?

The Office of Violence Prevention's Safe Blocks program works to make Portland safer by transforming the spaces where people live, work, and gather. Safe Blocks partners with communities to assess environmental conditions that contribute to a lack of safety and implements community improvement projects. Examples of Safe Blocks projects include activating underutilized spaces with community building activities, community clean up opportunities, and installation of long-term community led art projects. These efforts to transform physical spaces play a key role in reducing opportunities for violence. Safe Blocks also provides Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)-based assessments, community safety trainings, and placemaking support, prioritizing neighborhoods most affected by violence and social vulnerability. Safe Blocks reflects a core OVP belief: that investing in the physical and social environment, and the community that inhabits it, is an investment in public safety.

Safe Blocks provides the following services:

• Community safety-focused workshops and trainings;
• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) security assessments;
• Expert guidance on community engagement;
• Event organization support; and
• Neighborhood improvement projects.

The Safe Blocks program provides these trainings and services to all Portlanders at no cost.

We believe that:

• The physical and social environment can be transformed to increase safety;
• Those closest to the problem are closest to the solution; and
• Equity and accessibility are foundational to how we approach this work.

We achieve this by:

• Community-driven placemaking interventions;
• Meeting people where they are; and
• Prioritizing our services & programs to those disproportionately impacted by violence.

We practice this by:

• Investing in community-led solutions to transform built environments;
• Facilitating connections between community and public safety agencies; and
• Listening and connecting people to public safety resources most needed.

History of the Safe Blocks Program (formerly Crime Prevention Program) 

The Safe Blocks program has evolved in name, structure, and focus for nearly forty years. The constant thread has always been to provide Portlanders with valuable resources and skills related to safety and crime prevention while also believing in the power of community to develop their own strategies.

Historically, Safe Blocks was known as the City's Crime Prevention Program and led many well-known community safety and prevention initiatives. Portlanders may remember us as overseeing National Night Out, Neighborhood Watch, Neighborhood Ready, prescription drug take back events, landlord trainings, the Enhanced Safety Properties program, the Neighbors Together program, and public safety action committee meetings. These programs inform the work we currently do today, and some are still actively part of our services.