Federal agencies host Summit on Preventing Youth Violence
Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, and San Jose present plans to address community needs, using multi-disciplinary, data-driven approaches to preventing and reducing youth violence.
WASHINGTON, DC (U.S. Department of Justice) April 4, 2011 -- Today mayors and other officials from six cities presented comprehensive plans to prevent youth violence in their communities. The plans were outlined at the Summit on Preventing Youth Violence in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Department of Justice and other federal agencies. In addition to members of Congress, the audience included representatives from the public and private sectors.
"I'm pleased that these six cities responded so quickly after President Obama launched the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention last October," said Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. "These plans reflect a serious commitment to multi-disciplinary, data-driven approaches to preventing and reducing youth violence. I believe these plans offer ideas that will help these and other communities make our children safer."
The Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy are collaborating to provide technical assistance to the Forum's participating cities. These cities, Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Memphis, Tenn.; Salinas, Calif.; and San Jose, Calif., were selected based on need, geographic diversity, and willingness and capacity to develop comprehensive plans.
More details about the Forum and summaries of the city plans are available at: www.findyouthinfo.gov.
About the Collaboration
At the direction of President Obama, the Departments of Justice and Education, along with other participating localities and federal agencies, officially launched the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention (the Forum) on October 5, 2010.
The administration created the Forum in order to assist participating localities share challenges and promising strategies with each other and explore how federal agencies can better support local efforts. Participating cities were selected on the basis of need, geographic diversity, and willingness and capacity to engage.
At a working session on October 4 – 5, 2010, teams from the cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, Calif. and San Jose, Calif., met with federal agencies and each other to share information and experience about what works in preventing youth and gang violence. At that time each city pledged to develop or enhance comprehensive plans to prevent youth and gang violence in their city, using multi-disciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches and data-driven strategies.
The comprehensive plans have been developed as pledged and will be presented at the Summit on Preventing Youth Violence, to be held in Washington, D.C., April 4 -5, 2011.
These plans will focus on strategies to reduce violence, improve opportunities for youth, and encourage innovation at the local and federal levels.
Along with Justice and Education, participating federal agencies include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Goals of the Forum
The Forum's first stage involved assessment and plan development. At this stage, the Forum's goals focused on the development of comprehensive plans that reflect the core values of the Forum:
- Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships: e.g. law enforcement, education, public health, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, business and philanthropic communities
- Balanced Approaches: prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry
- Data-Driven Strategies: necessary to pool data from a variety of sources to provide comprehensive picture and to have objective means of measuring progress
In the short term, preparation of these plans intended to lead to:
- More active partnerships,
- Improved coordination and focus of resources, and
- Better use of data
This should occur at local and federal levels.
In the medium term, exposure of these plans should lead to improved ability to secure funding from a variety of resources (federal, state, local, private) for anti-youth violence efforts, and to accomplish short-term goals.
In the long term, implementation of plans should eventually
- Reduce violence among youth
- Improve opportunities for positive youth development
- Enhance public safety and quality of life
- Encourage innovation, e.g. explore ways to better coordinate funding, policy, and regulation at local and federal levels
Contact:
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Starr Small, 202-598-9457
Michelle Muth Person, 202-569-3167
del.icio.us |
Digg
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
