JUSTICE RECOGNIZES WHITE HOUSE'S REVITALIZATION OF NEIGHBORHOODS INITIATIVE

FROM: U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative Recogniced for Innovation
May 23rd, 2013 Posted by sratner

The following post appears courtesy of Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs Mary Lou Leary and Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Denise O’Donnell.

This month, the Ash Center for Democratic Government and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government recognized the White House-led Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) as one of the top 25 programs in this year’s Innovations in American Government Award competition. The recognition commends the Administration’s approach to helping disadvantaged neighborhoods deal with their social, economic and public safety challenges. The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), through its Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), plays a critical role in NRI by building neighborhood capacity to address crime, housing, health and other problems that contribute to community distress.

More than 10 million Americans live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Residents of those neighborhoods face an array of interconnected challenges, from failing schools and inadequate housing to low employment and poor health. The goal of NRI is to help create safe and healthy neighborhoods by breaking down barriers to collaborative problem-solving.

NRI provides federal resources to empower local action. It brings community stakeholders together to maximize the impact of their neighborhood resources. The Department of Justice works closely with the Departments of Treasury, Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development to share ideas and information. BJA plays a central role in its Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, which helps disadvantaged neighborhoods find and access critical resources, and its Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation program, a place-based initiative designed to address persistent crime problems.

NRI is a great example of government-supported innovation. Many of the programs recognized by the Ash Center this year focus on generating smart solutions to seemingly intractable public policy problems. For instance, the General Services Administration’s website, Challenge.gov, allows the government to solicit solutions through a series of contests, including a Body Armor Challenge managed by OJP’s National Institute of Justice. The Department of Justice is proud to join its federal partners in applying these innovations in the nation’s most troubled areas.

LABORATORY FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS RESEARCH

This photo and excerpt are from the U.S. Department of Defense Armed with Science website: 
Director of the Institute for Nanoscience at the NRL, Dr. Eric Snow, briefs Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John P. Holdren, during a tour of NRL prior to attending the opening of the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research. (U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released)

Advisor to President Barack Obama for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John P. Holdren visited the Navy’s corporate laboratory, March 16, to dedicate the opening of the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) and tour the sprawling 130-acre Washington, D.C., campus.
“For nearly 90 years NRL has served the Navy, Marine Corps and our Nation in ever evolving capacities,” said Dr. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This new facility, dedicated today, builds on a grand NRL tradition of military research and innovation.”

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), established through Congress in 1976, is mandated to advise the President and others within the Executive Office of the President on the effects of science and technology (S&T) on domestic and international affairs and lead interagency efforts to develop and implement sound S&T policies and budgets to provide the greatest benefit to society.

With the objective to enable continued scientific leadership in autonomy, the state-of-the-art laboratory will become the nerve center for autonomy research for the Department of Defense (DoD) and will provide specialized facilities to support highly innovative research in intelligent autonomy, sensor systems, power and energy systems, human-system interaction and network and communications platforms.

“Today, the Navy and Marine Corps rely on robotics and autonomous systems for a host of missions, including unmanned air vehicles providing intelligence in Afghanistan, robots that defeat improvised explosive devices, and submersibles that explore the depths of the ocean,” added Holdren.
To see a photo album form Dr. Holdren’s tour of the research facilities, visit the Naval Research Laboratory’s Facebook Page.