Despite major changes in California state criminal justice policies and practices — and big reductions in state incarceration — far too many communities still suffer from limited support for local safety solutions that work better than the failed prison-first approaches of the past.

With a 25% reduction in state imprisonment and a 22 % reduction in felony filings across the state, the opportunity to show what it looks like to build safety from the ground up is now.

To make the shift, local systems officials and community leaders need support and help. Innovation and collaboration happens everyday — but without the institutional and system-wide support needed to bring new safety solutions to scale.

We created the Blueprint for Shared Safety to provide guidance, best practices and support to local systems officials for growing new safety solutions rooted in community health and well-being. We conduct trainings, provide technical assistance and connect local leaders across jurisdictions to learn from each other on the best ways to advance local change.     

Shared Safety starts by asking government and community to come together to take joint responsibility for deepening our understanding of who is most vulnerable, advancing health and healing, and breaking the cycle of harm and to envision a world in which everyone can attain safety.

Since we launched the Blueprint for Shared Safety, Californians for Safety and Justice has done just that— bring government and community together— in Stockton, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Sacramento and elsewhere to re-envision a new framework for achieving safety. And while each community is unique, a set of core lessons and best practices began to emerge organically from the work. We have collected these practices and insights in a new series of publications that mirror the iterative and dynamic process that went into building each community’s new safety framework: Model Guidelines for a New Safety Framework. To learn more about these Model Guidelines, please begin with this Introduction, and learn more about the individuals — our Shared Safety California Champions — who were instrumental in developing the Shared Safety Framework and the Model Guidelines for a New Safety Framework in cities and counties across California.