Neighborhood Enhancement Program
The Cincinnati Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP) is the 90-day strategy focused on addressing neighborhood quality of life issues and has been successful in proactively revitalizing the City’s neighborhoods by creating long-term strategic partnerships in the community to address crime, blight, and building code violations. One of the key elements of the NEP is sustainability. In partnership with community and business leaders, the City works to develop neighborhood assets thereby transforming neighborhoods throughout the city. The initiative was designed by the City of Cincinnati to jumpstart long-term neighborhood revitalization and reinvestment and to build on the community initiatives already in place.
Through focused, integrated and concentrated city service delivery and community redevelopment efforts, partners (City departments, residents, and community organizations) seek to create a physical and economic “ripple effect” in the neighborhoods surrounding the focus area to build and sustain investor confidence; affect real and visible physical improvements of the area; reduce the number of vacated buildings and increase homeownership; reduce crime; increase property values; strengthen neighborhood business districts; and increase resident’s community pride and self sufficiency. The targeted area was identified through an analysis of building code violations, vacant buildings, disorder and drug calls for Police service and drug arrests, as well as incidence of graffiti, junk autos, litter and weeds.
Since 2008 the NEP has won numerous awards for excellence in public private partnerships, being nationally recognized by Neighborhoods USA as the 2008 National Program of the Year, recipient of the Ohio Conference of Community Development's President’s Award and locally by the Community Development Corporations Association of Greater Cincinnati for the Most Outstanding Collaborative Effort. Further, in 2009, the NEP won the Ohio City Managers Association’s (OCMA) Program Excellence in Community Partnership followed by being a National Finalist in the category of Community Development in the National Development Council’s 2009 Academy. Also, the NEP won a Keep America Beautiful award in 2009 placing second place in the nation.
Then, in 2013 the NEP was selected from a national competition to present at the Transforming Local Government's Cool Communities Conference in Atlanta, GA.
In 2017, the NEP partnered with the City’s Place Based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories (PIVOT) and won an international award from the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. The video produced about this first PIVOT/NEP collaboration was a 2018 Regional Emmy Nominee.
The PivotPoint from CitiCable on Vimeo.