Expertise: Community Policing, Systems Development, Strategic Planning, Grant Writing, Coalition Building, Training and Facilitation, Public/Private Partnerships, Non-profit Capacity Building
Content Knowledge: Gangs/Youth Violence Prevention, Criminal Justice, Substance Abuse Prevention, HIV/AIDS, Youth Mentoring, Methamphetamine, Crime Prevention, Education, Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Asset Building
Ms. Copple oversees the facilitation of training and technical assistance for SAI domestic projects focusing on methamphetamine and Drug Endangered Children for National DEC, SAMHSA, BJA and the COPS Office. Internationally, she builds the capacity of indigenous non-profits to mobilize communities to address HIV/AIDS in Swaziland and 6 other African countries. She served as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Capacity Development Office for five years (2004-2008). Her work at CCDO focused on creating national strategic partnerships for the Weed and Seed Initiative. Ms. Copple served as a former Weed and Seed site coordinator in Salt Lake City, UT in the mid 90’s and brought her collaborative and innovative style to her work at CCDO.
Prior to launching SAI in 2004, Ms. Copple served as Senior Advisor to the President for New Initiatives at the National Crime Prevention Council. Ms. Copple came to NCPC in 1999 as the Associate Deputy Director and oversaw a number of responsibilities during her five year tenure at NCPC including Youth Programs, Training, and the Crime Prevention Coalition of America. New initiatives Ms. Copple was responsible for designing, funding, and implementing include: a national response to methamphetamine funded by the COPS Office and SAMHSA that included statewide Meth Summits, a national clearinghouse on methamphetamine; and the Center for Faith and Service, which included major grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts to launch a faith-based technical assistance project FASTEN, and the Training/TA grant for faith-based initiatives with the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Other examples of her contributions at NCPC include: designing and funding two national school safety initiatives, “National Youth Safety Corps” and “National Safety and Security Council;” expanding Teens, Crime, and the Community, a youth crime prevention project in 37 states; increasing membership in the Crime Prevention Coalition of America from 120 to 4,000+; training more that 200 community teams in the 3 day executive seminar “Cutting Edge” in collaboration with the DEA; and developing a 32 hour training curriculum for law enforcement on underage drinking.
Ms. Copple joined NCPC after shepherding a series of successful community initiatives in Salt Lake City, Utah. These include the Glendale Community Mobilization Project, a community-based gang prevention project recognized by OJJDP as a national model, the Comprehensive Communities Program recognized by Attorney General Janet Reno for its innovative design in reinventing government, the Weed and Seed program which generated over $10 million in resources committed to her neighborhood to address youth violence, and the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative which created a comprehensive response to methamphetamine. Ms. Copple has over 25 years of experience working with systems strengthening at the local, state, and national levels to improve outcomes on crime, violence, and substance abuse.