Dana Rachlin’s long career as a public safety expert and community justice leader have prepared her for public service. She founded the innovative, community-led movement “We Build The Block” (WBTB) with the late actor and Brooklyn native Michael K. Williams in 2020. WBTB supports communities facing over-policing, mass incarceration, and gun violence by creating and implementing new programs and protocols to replace traditional policing. Over the last two years, Rachlin and WBTB partners co-led the creation and implementation of the Brownsville Safety Alliance, launched a gun violence intervention program focused on healing and economic empowerment, and hosted a Mayoral Candidate Forum on a block impacted by gun violence.Rachlin has also helped pioneer numerous other innovative public safety, community and civic programs over the years, including NYC Together, which served as an alternative to suspension programs for District 50 schools, Project LEAD, a summer youth employment program she founded when the city’s jobs program was canceled due to COVID, and WBTB’s get-out-the-youth organizing arm, Crew Count. In 2022, she was named a John Jay Public Safety Initiatives Fellow in their Punishment to Public Health Department. She has also been active serving residents of the 50th Assembly District, including:As director of the Greenpoint Youth Court in 2012, an initiative that uses positive peer pressure to ensure young people who have committed minor offenses pay back the community and receive the support they need to avoid further involvement in the justice system. Membership director of the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce in 2014While there, she helped develop, fund and implement Curb Your Litter Greenpoint, an anti-litter project that culminated in the production of an acclaimed documentary video, “Talking Trash: Throwing Out the Big Apple” with Frances Perkins Academy students. Co-founder of the Jessica Tush Teen Dating Violence CurriculumOrganize the Big Brooklyn Holiday Toy Drive, which was started in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and distributed 5,000+ toys annually to young people in need of holiday cheer. OutSmart BK, a month-long awareness campaign dedicated to encouraging safe and alert fun.