Working with faith-based groups, law enforcement agencies, and community and youth groups, Fresno resident Ross Smith mobilizes resources to reduce crime, improve living conditions, and revitalize inner-city neighborhoods.

Ross is a key member of Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life, an organization which has been very successful in partnering with police and faith-based groups to decrease crime in Southwest Fresno through block parties, which Ross and his wife Clara have hosted, and increasing a sense of place. They are now providing training, by request, to groups in other areas of Fresno, as well as Visalia, on how to implement the program.

Ross also participates in West Fresno Night Walks with Pastor Booker Lewis of the Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church. Ross and others from his church walk a four-to-five block area in southwest Fresno in the vicinity of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Jensen Avenue. They talk with residents they encounter, distributing fliers, offering prayer, and discussing the needs of the community. Since beginning the program, crime in the area has been reduced nearly 40%. An article on the program was published in The Fresno Bee on December 8, 2012.

Ross and his wife Clara serve on the Program Board of Directors for the Fresno Urban Neighborhood Development Corporation (FUND Inc.), and were recognized as outstanding volunteers of the year in 2004. FUND Inc. helps inner-city homeowners by engaging them with neighborhood volunteers, faith-based groups, community and youth groups, and local businesses to upgrade sub-standard living conditions and restore their homes at very low cost.

Ross and his wife Clara are instrumental in creating a Santa’s Village each year at the Southwest Police Policing District Station for children of families in impoverished neighborhoods, providing food, toys, clothing, and visits with Santa at no cost to the families, along with resource booths to help the families. Every family is provided with a free 5” x 7” photo with Santa; in 2012, over 2,000 families participated. Ross helped organize a special presentation of “A Christmas Story” at a local theatre company in November 2011 as a fundraiser for the event.

In November 2011, Ross worked with the Second Baptist Church to plan a community garden on a vacant lot, enlisting the assistance of students from California State University, Fresno.

Ross has been a member of the Fresno-Madera Area Agency on Aging’s Advisory Council since November 2007. As part of his work on the Disaster Preparedness committee of the Agency on Aging Advisory Council, Ross conducted disaster preparedness presentations for the Del Rey and Kingsburg senior centers in rural Fresno County and the Cecil C. Hinton Community Center and Bringing Broken Neighborhoods Back to Life in southwest Fresno.