Maryland launches safer, stronger, together summer kickoff in District Heights

State agencies used District Heights Day to turn a street festival crowd at 6417 Marlboro Pike into the public face of a new public-safety push for Capitol Heights and District Heights. The Safe Summer Kickoff ran June 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and paired entertainment, a parade, food, activities and a raffle with the launch of Safer, Stronger, Together in Prince George’s County.

The initiative is a collaboration among the Maryland Department of Human Services, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Officials describe it as a cross-agency, place-based model focused on investing in young people, strengthening families, empowering communities and improving public safety, with special attention on about 2,000 Maryland families who interact with more than one public system.

Those are the families state agencies say are most likely to live in neighborhoods marked by poverty, violent crime and high mortality. Under the new approach, agency staff will work with a Family Navigator to support shared families, while local community action boards will decide how to spend public funds on neighborhood safety problems. The state says the effort is meant to improve coordination among workers serving the same families and to concentrate resources where crime and system involvement are heaviest.

In Prince George’s County, the rollout is being backed by more than $450,000 in local nonprofit investment aimed at nearly 650 young people and families in Capitol Heights and District Heights. The Prince George’s County Department of Social Services said it is part of the implementation team helping the three state agencies bring the program to those communities. State officials say Safer, Stronger, Together will work in 10 communities across Maryland over the next few years.

Governor Wes Moore announced the expansion into Capitol Heights and District Heights during his April 27 stop in Prince George’s County on the Delivering for Maryland tour. During that same county visit, state officials said the Community Schools Rental Assistance Program had already helped more than 60 Prince George’s County families with $675,000 in support, and Moore said his FY2027 budget would increase that program to $11 million, up $6 million from the prior year.

For District Heights and Capitol Heights, the summer launch sets a clear test: whether coordinated case management and locally directed spending can produce visible safety gains in neighborhoods that have too often been promised help without a measurable payoff.