Council on the Status of Men and Boys

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

In 2022, Leon County Government partnered with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Tallahassee, and the Leon County School Board to create the Tallahassee-Leon County Council on the Status of Men and Boys (CSMB). The CSMB is an agency dedicated to identifying actionable solutions addressing the underlying causes of violence among young men and boys in Leon County and developing a comprehensive, community-wide plan to reduce homicides and nonfatal shootings. The agency was developed by recommendation of the Leon County Sheriff as part of a research project called Anatomy of a Homicide, which analyzed murders in Leon County between 2015 and 2020 to develop an understanding of commonalities among the people, conditions, and circumstances contributing to homicides in the community. Since its creation, the CSMB has made significant progress toward unifying organizations throughout the community to coordinate resources, funding, and services, and to address the disparities and challenges that men and boys experience in violence, criminal justice, education, employment, and health. These initial successes include earning a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to support the CSMB’s community violence intervention efforts.