Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Mayor's Fellow, Jaylen Antoine (left) stands with Mayor Harrell and the other 2024 fellowship participants at City Hall.

This summer, Mayor Harrell welcomed five graduate students to participate in a fellowship program supporting the Mayor’s One Seattle Safety Framework, a comprehensive plan to tackle public safety issues across Seattle. The fellows came from a broad range of study areas and schools in recognition of the diversity of services the City provides. Through the course of the fellowship, they worked closely with and learned from City leaders and key policymakers at the Seattle Police Department, Office of Emergency Management, Seattle Fire Department, Community Assisted Response and Engagement, and the Department of Neighborhoods.

The Department of Neighborhoods (DON) had the honor of working with Jaylen Antoine, a recent graduate of the University of Puget Sound who is continuing his education at the University of Washington studying Public Policy/Administration and Urban Planning. Jaylen’s fellowship work focused on studying and helping to improve our community safety coordinator contracts.

Through partnerships with community-based organizations, DON contracts with community members to serve as community safety coordinators. These individuals are liaisons between their communities and the City and help raise awareness about public safety issues, advocate for resources, and implement safety initiatives in their neighborhood. Partner organizations include Friends of Little Saigon, Chinatown International District Business Improvement Association, Ballard Alliance, and Seattle Neighborhood Group (South Park).

During his time at DON, Jaylen helped evaluate our community safety coordinator contracts and make recommendations for ensuring they are efficient, equitable, and accomplish deliverables derived from the One Seattle Plan for safety.  Jaylen met with public safety coordinators and surveyed them about their work including involvement in contract negotiations, roles and responsibilities, communications with the City, and how their areas of focus aligned with the One Seattle Safety Framework.

Upon the conclusion of his research, Jaylen provided recommendations for areas where improvements can be made to the contracts themselves, the internal processes for communication and accountability, and relationship building with community. To view Jaylen’s full briefing visit the Community Safety Contracts Report.

We would like to thank Jaylen for this hard work and dedication to helping us improve our processes and empower communities to address issues of public safety!