Weed and Seed

Community Collaboratives

Weed and Seed

Overview

(Please note: as of July 1, 2011, state support for the Pennsylvania Weed and Seed Initiative ended. The information provided on this page and subsequent pages in this section of PCCD's website is for background and statistical purposes only.)

The Weed and Seed Initiative used collaboration among residents, law enforcement, community and faith-based organizations, government and the private sector to rid communities of the criminal element, while also addressing the root causes of crime and poverty in the target area.

The Pennsylvania Weed & Seed Initiative was a law enforcement and community revitalization effort, under the direction of the executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime & Delinquency and the Targeted Community Revitalization and Crime Prevention Advisory Committee.

With the approval of Act 2001-30, the state's Weed and Seed Initiative became a mission of state government through PCCD. Weed and Seed worked in partnership with members of a target area within a city, township or municipality to eliminate drug-related crime (the "Weed" effort) and to improve the community's social and economic vitality (the "Seed" effort). Target areas were selected for the Pennsylvania Weed & Seed Initiative based upon the presence of elevated risk factors of violent crime, juvenile crime, drug-related crime, and poverty.

Weed and Seed was a concept originally created by the federal government in 1991. The initiative attempted to demonstrate a means of mobilizing a large and varied array of resources in a comprehensive and coordinated effort to control drugs and crime and improve quality of life in targeted high crime neighborhoods.