ther birthday and who fill our city with life every single day. This is critical, life-saving work, and we are committed to deepening and expanding our investments in the preventative approaches that all of you need. 

The city will work with nonprofit organizations The Wick Against Violence, Living Redemption and Grow Up Grow Out Jr. to do outreach and repair efforts.

The programming operates under the umbrella of the Office of Community Safety, which the administration launched as a pared-down, preliminary step toward building a city department of the same name.

Alex Vitale, a public safety expert and sociology professor at Brooklyn College, applauded the program's expansion, saying it  signals the administration's commitment to building out the Office, and hopefully Department, of Community Safety. 

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who helped first establish the program more than 10 years ago, emphasized the importance of non-police public safety approaches, but told New Yorkers those solutions wouldn't come quickly.

 We're asking New Yorkers to walk with us on this journey,  Williams said,  because changing the way we've done public safety is not going to take one day. It's not going to take one week. It's not going to take a month. It's going to take time. 

The news of the initiative's expansion also comes a day after Mamdani announced a slate of new appointees to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent police oversight body - booting members including Pat Smith, an ex-journalist who had the support of the Police Benevolent Association, the city's main police union.