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Wilmington Street Team reports first-quarter outreach: hubs, encounters and calls tracked; council asks for comparative data
Summary
Dr. Deborah Mason presented the Community Public Safety Initiative’s first-quarter report on the Wilmington Street Team’s hubs and outreach activity, reporting daily encounter tracking, hub services and dispatch comparisons; council members requested comparative before-and-after data to support expansion.
Dr. Deborah Mason, the Community Public Safety Initiative coordinator, presented a first-quarter report on the Wilmington Street Team’s outreach hubs and street-level intervention work in Wilmington.
Mason said the program divides service areas into zones to protect individuals’ privacy and to track activity instead of collecting full addresses. She described daily tracking of police dispatch calls and team community encounters, noting the program’s goal to produce roughly three times as many community encounters as dispatch calls. Mason reported district-level trends through March 31: District 11 was down 29% year to date, while District 13 was up about 10% and is a newer service area with growing hub usage.
Mason and partner organizations Network Connect and the Center for Structural Equity described hub activity and services: the Eastside hub at 914 North Pine Street provided 20 bus passes, clothing to 109 people, more than 600 meals, 21 showers and about 60 loads of laundry in the first 90 days; the Northside hub at 2214 North Market Street provided 578 meals and seven showers in the same period. The team said Narcan kits, diapers and referrals to other agencies were also provided.
Councilmember Oliver pressed for examples of outreach after shootings and asked whether teams do follow-up; Mason said teams conduct follow-up and go to incidents when needed and that team members often live in the neighborhoods they serve. Mason emphasized that some helpful, safety‑sensitive data are scrubbed before reaching CPSI coordinators so individuals’ identifying information is not retained at the coordinator level.
Representatives from Network Connect and the Center for Structural Equity described interventions, staffing and data practices. Sierra Hall Hippkins said partner organizations keep internal, identifying data to protect families and conduct weekly neighborhood interventions; Daryl Wolfie Chambers described hiring people with “social capital,” lived experience and “sweat equity” to build trust and operate in high‑risk areas.
Councilmembers asked for comparative reports showing pre‑ and post‑CPSI dispatch and encounter trends and for clearer, non‑identifying metrics that demonstrate program impact so the city can consider expansion. Mason agreed to provide before‑and‑after data and noted the programs rely heavily on donations and in‑kind support; partners said the Hub on Woodlawn is donated through 2026 and the city pays utilities for hub locations.
No formal committee action was taken; council members said they plan to follow up with administration on funding and potential program expansion.
