YOUTH VIOLENCE: A COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE ONE CITY'S SUCCESS STORY. September 1996 23 pages YOUTH VIOLENCE: A COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE ONE CITY'S SUCCESS STORY Table of Contents I. YOUTH VIOLENCE: NATIONAL TRENDS (Page 6) II. BOSTON'S COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY--PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, AND ENFORCEMENT (Page 6-7) III. ENFORCEMENT ORIENTED PROGRAMS (Page 7-10) A. A Coordinated Strategy--Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force (YVSF) B. Police And Probation Working In the Community --Operation Night Light C. Tough Action Against Gangs--Operation Cease Fire D. Targeting Gun Violence--The Boston Gun Project IV. INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION ORIENTED PROGRAMS (Page 10-19) A. Problem Solving Through Partnerships--Safe Neighborhood Initiative 1. Partnerships To Involve The Community In Solving Crimes--Safe Neighborhood Initiative Tip Line 2. Partnerships To Reduce The Effects Of Domestic Violence And Child Abuse- -The Child Witness to Violence Project 3. Partnerships To Reduce The Effects Of Domestic Violence And Child Abuse--Improving The Court's Response 4. Partnerships To Address Issues Of Diversity--The Vietnamese-Police Collaborative To Reduce Crime Victimization 5. Partnerships To Establish Community Priorities-- Community Prosecutions 6. Partnerships To Prevent Violence--The Boston Violence Prevention Program 7. Partnerships With The Business Community--Summer of Opportunity 8. Partnership In The Boston Coalition--Business, Religious, Media, And Law Enforcement Working Together 9. Partnership In The Legal Community--The Boston Bar Association 10. Partnership And Leadership In The Religious Community--The Ten Point Coalition 11. Partnerships To Reduce Crime And Improve Public Housing--Operation Safe Home B. The Comprehensive Communities Program 1. CCP's Strategic Planning And Community Mobilization 2. CCP's Youth Service Providers Network 3. CCP's Alternatives to Incarceration Network V. PREVENTION ORIENTED SCHOOL PROGRAMS (Page 19-22) A. Boston Community Centers B. Community Schools C. Safe Schools D. School to Work Program E. The Louis D. Brown Peace Curriculum F. Children's Hospital Fenway Collaborative G. Barron Assessment and Counseling Center H. Creative Conflict Resolution Programs I. Startsharp J. Student Conflict Resolution Experts (SCORE) K. Community Based Justice Program in the Boston Schools VI. MIDDLESEX COUNTY (Page 22) VII. A FRAMEWORK FOR THE FUTURE--COMMUNITY JUSTICE (Page 22-23) September 3, 1996 To Community Leaders Across America: As I travel across the country, I am asked time and again about the problem of youth violence, and what we can do about it. Communities throughout the nation are working together to address youth violence, and searching for examples of what works so that they can apply new and successful strategies in their towns. I have been very fortunate to meet with mayors, police chiefs, community activists, parents, and youth across America who are taking positive steps to create safer neighborhoods and brighter futures. I recently visited the Boston area to see firsthand how community leaders there, in both the public and private sectors, are implementing a number of initiatives designed to reduce youth violence and create safer communities with opportunities for young people. I am impressed by their efforts. The foundation of Boston's approach has been to build coalitions and partnerships among police, prosecutors, probation officers, corrections officials, youth and social service personnel, school officials, judges, health professionals, parents, and the young people of Boston. These partnerships allow organizations and individuals to better share information, keep track of at-risk youth and violent youth offenders in their community, and coordinate resources to help those youth as part of an ongoing, individualized intervention strategy. Through increased information-sharing and coordination, the criminal justice system can take tough action against the relatively few youth engaged in violence or other dangerous behavior, while allowing its other partners to provide opportunities for the majority of children who are seeking to build happy and productive futures. We are already seeing some signs of success across the country. Last year, the national juvenile violent crime arrest rate and the juvenile murder arrest rate decreased for the first time in seven years. While these signs are promising, we must not let up and must work together to enhance our efforts. This pamphlet attempts to describe some of the efforts one community--Boston, Massachusetts--has undertaken to successfully combat youth violence. We may not have learned of all of the positive efforts underway in the Greater Boston area, but it is my hope that these representative examples will help other communities identify what they might do to stand against youth violence. I look forward to hearing of your efforts, and to working with you to reduce youth violence in America. Sincerely, Janet Reno YOUTH VIOLENCE: A COMMUNITY-BASED RESPONSE ONE CITY'S SUCCESS STORY I. YOUTH VIOLENCE: NATIONAL TRENDS Until recently, the rate of youth violence has been climbing. For example, between 1984 and 1993, the rate of homicides committed by juveniles skyrocketed 169%. The fastest increase in the rate of juvenile violent crime is occurring among very young juveniles -- 10 to 12 year-olds. Demographic experts tell us that if juvenile crime rates for persons 10 to 17 continue to increase with expected youth population increases, the year 2010 will see the number of juvenile-committed violent crimes increase by nearly 15 percent. However, these projections do not have to be America's destiny. Over the past two years, there has been a decline in the rates of both murders committed by youth and youth violence in general. While the juvenile violent crime arrest rate increased 62% between 1987 and 1993, it decreased 2.9% in 1995, the first decline in seven years. The decrease in the juvenile murder arrest rate is even more significant, declining 15.2% in 1995--the largest one year decrease in more than ten years. Since 1993, the juvenile murder arrest rate has dropped an incredible 22.8%. As the problem of juvenile violence has grown, so has our understanding of the problem and some possible solutions. A small percentage of youth are responsible for the bulk of violent juvenile crime; most violent crimes committed by youth are committed against other juveniles; and many involve handguns and/or drug use. Violence is a learned behavior and children neglected, left alone, or uncared for, without appropriate role models, often do not learn right from wrong. Children who suffer abuse at the hands of family violence often learn that violence is natural, even expected. Fortunately there is evidence that at-risk youth, if reached early enough, can be saved from a life of violence. The challenge facing America is to take what is known about youth violence and apply it now to reach at-risk youth before they take their first step into the world of crime, and to deal firmly with those who are already in trouble. II. BOSTON'S COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY--PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, AND ENFORCEMENT Boston's initiatives rely on community organizations, individuals, and the business community, as well as contributions from federal, state, and local government. The Departments of Justice, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, Education, and Health and Human Services all are supporting Boston's efforts. Portions of Boston have been designated a HUD Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community as well as a Department of Justice Weed and Seed Initiative locale. Youth by youth, person by person, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and city by city, America can and will solve the youth violence problem. Individual and community commitment and cooperation, leveraged with federal, state, and local resources, are critical to our success. Boston has assembled a comprehensive strategy to prevent lives of crime for the vast majority of youth who are good kids, intervene into the lives of young people who have had initial trouble with authorities, and take tough fair action against those who commit violent crimes. The good news is that Boston's three-pronged strategy is paying dividends: * The number of juvenile homicides dropped some 80% citywide from 1990 to 1995. * Between 1993 and 1995, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate for aggravated assault and battery with a firearm decreased 65%. * The number of violent crime incidents in one of Boston's toughest neighborhoods, Dorchester, went down from 1,583 in 1991 to 1,224 in 1995. * Year to date in 1996 (January 1 through mid-August) Boston has had no firearm homicides of juveniles (defined by Massachusetts law). * Violent crime in the public schools fell more than 20 percent in school year 1995-1996 as compared with the previous year. The projects outlined below describe some of the enforcement, prevention and intervention efforts which have helped to produce these results. III. ENFORCEMENT ORIENTED PROGRAMS A. A Coordinated Strategy--Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force (YVSF) The Youth Violence Strike Force (YVSF) is one of the primary enforcement strategies that Boston is pursuing to combat youth violence. The YVSF is a multi-agency coordinated task force made up of 45 full time Boston Police Officers and 15 officers from outside agencies. The membership of the YVSF includes the Massachusetts State Police, The Department of Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), police departments from neighboring jurisdictions, Massachusetts Corrections, Probation, Parole and Division of Youth Service (juvenile corrections) officers, and other agencies as appropriate. It works closely with the Suffolk County District Attorney's and state Attorney General's offices, and participates in the Department of Justice's Anti-Violent Crime Initiative (AVCI) led locally by the United States Attorney. The YVSF, which has focused on areas of the city where youth-related violence is prevalent, made 1358 arrests in 1995 and 689 arrests in 1996 through July 31. The YVSF investigates youth crimes, arrests those responsible, and breaks up the environment for crime. One important accomplishment of the YVSF was the creation of a comprehensive computer data base, which has allowed tough enforcement efforts against the leaders of gangs, and positive intervention in the lives of those who are at-risk of becoming hard-core gang members. In addition, the Youth Violence Strike Force, in cooperation with the City of Boston and the Department of Justice, has used criminal and civil forfeiture laws to help secure the safety of the community by taking over drug dens and renovating them as new homes. Over 150 drug dens have been closed through joint federal-state-local cooperation, and nearly 50 are being renovated, including one in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, which will provide low income elderly housing. The Youth Violence Strike Force takes tough action every day against gangs and gang members across Boston. Yet many of the strike force officers view their work in prevention as equally important, and many of these officers help to sponsor numerous prevention activities in the community. For example, members of the YVSF have been working in partnership with several law enforcement, social service, and private institutions to raise funds for a series of "Kids at Risk" programs provided to youth during the summer. These include professionally run camping programs, membership at the Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA's, and attendance at basketball camp or the Boston Police's Teen Summer Academy. B. Police And Probation Working In The Community --Operation Night Light In Boston, there is also a ground-breaking collaboration between probation officers and police officers which has expanded community based efforts. This program began because innovative probation officers, who had grown frustrated with sitting at their desks, wanted to make their communities safer by involving police officers, parents, and peers in ensuring that young people on probation do not stray back into trouble. Operation Night Light is a cooperative effort between the YVSF and the Massachusetts Department of Probation that sends police officers and probation officers on nightly visits to the homes of youths on probation to ensure that they are complying with the terms of their probation. The probation officers and police officer teams make regular home, school or work site visits to enforce curfews or court-designated area restrictions. These house calls serve simultaneously to provide for a more interactive relationship between the probation officer and the probationer, strengthen the relationships between the police and probation officers, get the parents involved in the child's probation, and serve notice to other youths that police and probation officers are serious about their mission. Communication with the Boston School Department and with area social agencies is also essential to the success of the program, as the officers also make it a top priority to discuss substance abuse prevention and treatment with each probationer. Since its implementation, the number of Boston probationers who comply with their probation orders has increased dramatically. One probation officer has commented that from 1990 to 1994, 68 of his youthful clients had been murdered. Since 1995, he reports that 3 of his clients have been murdered. Operation Nightlight, by involving the community and encouraging responsibility, has proved to be a dramatic success. C. Tough Action Against Gangs--Operation Cease Fire The prevalence of gangs in urban communities and their increasing presence in rural communities have adversely affected the quality of life of all Americans. Sometimes lured into gangs with the promise of "family", companionship, and safety, gang members often resort to vicious, destructive behavior. Police and prosecutors tell us, however, that it doesn't have to be that way, and that enforcement and intervention can lead to gang suppression and prevention. Under its Anti-Gang Strategy, partially funded by the Department of Justice, Boston has implemented Operation Cease Fire, a two part Zero Tolerance strategy in the Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and South End neighborhoods of Boston. Boston officials strongly believe that their success is attributable to identifying, and then strongly enforcing community priorities. Further, they meet with gang members to make clear that community leaders have "zero tolerance" for violence in their city and neighborhoods, and to lay out in concrete terms the intensive police attention gangs will experience unless the violence stops. Following these community briefings, the "zero tolerance" policy is enforced. It may be that graffiti, truancy, noise, or public drinking statutes are vigorously enforced as a means to stop gang activity leading to more serious crimes. The "zero tolerance" policy is the muscle behind the shared interests that the community identifies, and Boston police attribute their success to the community's involvement in establishing and enforcing their quality of life priorities. Operation Cease Fire is another example of the fine cooperation that exists between all of the interested law enforcement parties in Boston, including the U.S. Attorney, the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Boston Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. These partners meet weekly to review their progress and to target any flare-ups where crime may be increasing, areas that they designate as "hot spots," which deserve particular attention. D. Targeting Gun Violence--The Boston Gun Project As part of this strategy of focusing on "hot spots," Boston has implemented an interagency project, in collaboration with the Boston Police Department, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, ATF, and researchers at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, to focus on the supply side of gun crimes. Firearms have played an increasing role in the rates of crime committed by and against youths across the country. In Boston, information about the way youth illegally acquire firearms is used to shape a crackdown on this "market". The Boston Gun Project uses increased emphasis on ATF traces and post-arrest debriefing to identify the sources of illegal firearms. The work of the Boston Gun Project is integrated into the overall "Operation Ceasefire" strategy. In cooperation with other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, increased enforcement efforts are then directed against those who supply or traffic in illegal firearms, both in-state and interstate. By using federal firearms laws, the project makes the market much less hospitable by strategically removing the most dangerous gang and drug offenders from the streets, and stemming the flow of firearms into Massachusetts. The Boston Gun Project has also cracked down on felons who are prohibited from owning firearms, and severely punishes those who put guns into the hands of juveniles and older gang members. With the ongoing sharing of information about both the supply and demand for firearms, the Boston Gun Project is targeting its resources for maximum impact. IV. INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION ORIENTED PROGRAMS Boston has been vigilant in enforcing federal, state, and local laws against those youths who have shown substantial disregard for society's rules. But Boston attributes much of its success to the community driven partnerships that have been created to intervene in the lives of young people who have had some trouble with the law. These partnerships prevent lives of crime and encourage constructive behavior and activities for the overwhelming majority of youth in Boston who have not been in trouble with the law. A. Problem Solving Through Partnerships--Safe Neighborhood Initiative A big part of Boston's success is attributable to the communication among the participants in the criminal justice system and the community. At a greater level than ever before, police officers are sharing information with probation officers and judges; school principals are joining in strategy sessions with the Massachusetts Attorney General, the Suffolk County District Attorney, and the Boston Police Commissioner; and the community is more involved in the design and evaluation of public and private programs. The Safe Neighborhood Initiative (SNI) is one example of this increased cooperation. The SNI is a network of problem- solving partnerships that brings together government agencies, private, nonprofit service providers and citizens to identify, prioritize and solve neighborhood and crime related problems in the Boston area. 1. Partnerships To Involve The Community In Solving Crimes--Safe Neighborhood Initiative Tip Line Unfortunately, crime flourishes when the community stays silent as crimes occur. This phone line, advertised in local newspapers, is designed to increase the community's ability to respond with a clear voice when crimes are occurring. The Safe Neighborhood Tip Line allows community members to notify the police where they think suspicious or criminal activities are occurring, where gang members are congregating, or where other activities that might endanger the safety of the neighborhood are taking place. The information received from these phone calls allow police to identify areas of known drug, gang, or prostitution activities. 2. Partnerships To Reduce The Effects Of Domestic Violence And Child Abuse--The Child Witness to Violence Project Children who experience or even witness violence are more prone to engage in criminally violent behavior because they have learned that violence is an acceptable means of resolving disputes. The Child Witness to Violence Project, a partnership between Boston police officers in the Dorchester section of Boston and Boston City Hospital pediatricians, emergency room staff and child psychiatrists, is studying the effects of violence on children and attempting to prevent the cycle of violence from occurring. In this project, police are trained to assess the impact of trauma on child and family, and to re-stabilize the family system in order to support the child. Police are familiarized with services available in the community and taught to make the appropriate referrals. Since its implementation in 1993, the Child Witness to Violence Project has trained police officers on the effects of children's exposure to violence and has provided critical services to families across Boston. 3. Partnerships To Reduce The Effects Of Domestic Violence And Child Abuse--Improving The Court's Response In addition, the Dorchester District Court has established a partnership to utilize the ChildWitness to Violence Project when the court is confronted with cases of domestic violence or child abuse. Through this program, court judges may require a defendant to undergo intensive, supervised domestic violence training as part of their sentence. The Dorchester District Court has taken an active role in training court personnel, police officers, prosecutors, and the public to sensitize participants about the nature of domestic violence and its impact on the victim and children. The Court also has helped to improve communication between the players in the criminal justice system, and to improve the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence. 4. Partnerships To Address Issues Of Diversity--The Vietnamese-Police Collaborative To Reduce Crime Victimization As a nation of immigrants, cities and towns struggle with issues of racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity, and work hard to solve and prevent problems among their varying communities. Like many other communities, Boston has established a partnership between its police and one of its growing minority populations, the Vietnamese community. The Police Collaborative has organized a Vietnamese Residents Advisory Council that works with the police to identify, prioritize and solve problems. 5. Partnerships To Establish Community Priorities --Community Prosecutions One of the most important aspects of a community based approach to justice involves the community setting its priorities in the reduction of crimes. In Boston, this coordination involves the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Massachusetts Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, the Boston Police Department, and community residents. By pooling intelligence and other information, the Safe Neighborhood Initiative team is able to target those individuals and situations that are generating the greatest fear and victimization, and choose the court of appropriate jurisdiction to address the problem. This includes using civil law to address chronic problems--from commercial mechanics doing car repairs in streets to crack houses operating with the owners looking the other way--that cannot be handled adequately using the criminal law alone. 6. Partnerships To Prevent Violence--The Boston Violence Prevention Program Violence in a community affects everyone in many different ways. The Boston Violence Prevention Program (BVPP), a part of the Safe Neighborhood Initiative since 1990, approaches violence as a public health problem as well as an issue for the criminal justice system. Therefore, BVPP has developed a number of projects to treat injured adolescents by intervening in the cycle of violence. Health care workers participate in a multidisciplinary Victim Care Services team to reach youth who have been injured in intentional violence while they are still receiving treatment at Boston City Hospital. The program includes a review and assessment of the incident with the patient, as well as education regarding violence and homicide. The project also involves a review of the patient's conflict resolution strategies, the introduction of conflict resolution skills, referrals to appropriate community and hospital-based agencies, and review of strategies for staying safe upon discharge. The BVPP is also involved in many other areas of prevention. On the education front, BVPP educators provide violence prevention training to service providers, other professionals, interested individuals, community- based groups and organizations. As a facilitator of networking, the BVPP has developed networking activities including a monthly networking breakfast of area professionals, publication of a monthly newsletter, and involvement in an anti-violence advertising campaign. These efforts have indeed been successful. An evaluation of the pilot program in Roxbury and South Boston has shown positive effects on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the adolescents living in those two neighborhoods. 7. Partnerships With The Business Community--Summer of Opportunity Another important piece to Boston's success has been the willingness of the business community to become involved at the community level in addressing crime and the circumstances which foster criminal activity. Businesses have a direct stake in reducing crime and in ensuring that the young people of today will become the talented employees and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The Summer of Opportunity is a partnership among the Boston Police Department Youth Violence Strike Force, John Hancock Financial Services, and Northeastern University designed to engage at risk youth in a host of summer activities beneficial to their social, academic and professional aspirations. These youths are 15 to 17 years old who have been recommended for the program by police officers who have learned of the youths through contacts in schools, churches, or community. Many of the young people have already been involved with the criminal justice system. The 46-week long program has been funded for three years through a $150,000 annual grant from John Hancock Financial Services. The young people who successfully complete a training program which incorporates mentorships, job readiness, leadership and life skills training, are placed in part-time jobs in places such as John Hancock, the Greater Boston YMCA and the Franklin Park Zoo. The youth must be enrolled in either a school or an alternative education program and must maintain passing grades, maintain a relationship with their mentors, not be arrested, and if they are under court order, not violate their probation. The program has been successful, with some of the youths now enrolled in college, and others successfully participating in athletics or maintaining part-time jobs while attending high school. Yet the Summer of Opportunity is just one example of the business community's involvement. 8. Partnership In The Boston Coalition--Business, Religious, Media, And Law Enforcement Working Together The Boston Coalition, founded in 1990 to combat drugs and violence in Boston, represents over 350 civic, business, and community leaders, working with law enforcement to reduce violence, fight substance abuse, and assist the criminal justice system. As examples of its work, the Boston Coalition has successfully established a drug diversion court which recently completed its first year of alternative programs, counseling and testing for drug offenders; the Coalition is supporting a series of training conferences and classes for youth streetworkers so that all such workers have a basic competency in their very challenging field of work with disadvantaged youth; and the religious community task force has trained clergy on issues of domestic violence. 9. Partnership In The Legal Community--The Boston Bar Association The local Bar Association is also active on issues of violence and its prevention, through mentoring and educational programs in Boston's public high schools; a summer jobs program for youth in legal settings; and its recent co-sponsorship of a conference on gun violence, with law enforcement agencies, and local media. 10. Partnership And Leadership In The Religious Community --The Ten Point Coalition The religious community plays an important role in helping to heal communities from the effects of violence. Therefore, it is appropriate that the religious community in the Boston area has decided to take on a bigger role in the prevention of violence. The Ten Point Coalition is an ecumenical group of clergy and lay leaders working to mobilize the religious community around issues affecting urban youth--especially those at risk to engage in violence, drug abuse, and other destructive behavior. The Coalition's main activities are facilitating collaboration between churches with programs in place and helping to train those willing to reach out. As part of their efforts, the Ten Point Coalition aims to: * Establish church sponsored "Adopt-a-Gang" programs, where inner-city churches would serve as drop-in centers providing sanctuary for troubled youth. * Initiate and support neighborhood crime-watch programs within local church neighborhoods. * Establish working relationships between local churches and community-based health centers to provide counseling for families during times of crisis. * Establish rape crisis drop-in centers and services for battered women in churches, and counseling programs for abusive men, particularly teenagers and young adults. Since May, 1992, the Coalition has sponsored a Friday night street ministry which offers an opportunity for pastors and lay people to be trained in working in an urban setting with at-risk youth. Activities include: participation in mediation efforts between gangs, participation in neighborhood crime watches and patrols, and meetings with youth agency workers. Participants are encouraged to develop at least two relationships on an on-going basis with at-risk youth in their local areas. 11. Partnerships To Reduce Crime And Improve Public Housing--Operation Safe Home There is no place that a person should feel safer than in his own home. Unfortunately, however, public housing areas, the homes of many men, women and children, are often areas of high crime. Operation Safe Home is an initiative developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to utilize the unique resources of HUD to reduce violent crime and improve the quality of life in public housing. Operation Safe Home regularly assesses the crime problems facing public housing units within its jurisdiction and develops strategic plans to address the worst problems. Operation Safe Home develops task forces and partnerships among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate drug trafficking and violent crime within public housing developments. For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office has invited HUD's Inspector General to be a direct and full participant in major drug investigations led by his office, alongside the traditional enforcement agents from DEA, ATF, and the FBI. HUD brings unique resources to these investigations, including intelligence from public housing authorities, tenant lists and information, access to apartments and common areas for physical and electronic surveillance, and additional sources of funding for strategic investigations. HUD also works in partnership to ensure that criminal problems once addressed do not recur. HUD helps housing developments redesign structures to eliminate havens for drug dealing, assist in drafting tenant leases which permit immediate eviction for criminal activity, increase access to available social services, and provide recreation and job opportunities. HUD also provides funds to the Boston Housing Authority to support their "Youth on the Rise" program, which has youth workers in every family development in the City. The youth workers organize events, refer high-risk youth to appropriate services, and defuse many potentially high-risk situations. They also work closely with the Boston Streetworkers Program in this regard. B. The Comprehensive Communities Program The Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) is Boston's citywide, pro-active approach to improving the quality of life and reducing crime and fear for the residents of Boston, in partnership with City government, neighborhood residents and other significant stakeholders. Among the CCP public safety strategies are: Boston's Strategic Planning and Community Mobilization efforts, the Youth Services Providers Network, and the Alternatives to Incarceration Network. 1. CCP's Strategic Planning And Community Mobilization Police and area community members are working together to develop action plans to address community needs. Their mission is "to work in partnership to reduce crime and fear, and improve the quality of life in the targeted neighborhoods." The over 400 participants are organized into individual planning teams, which vary from a city-wide team, district teams, and teams organized by functions, such as administrative services or investigative services. Each team is made up of a variety of neighborhood residents, city/governmental officials, law enforcement agencies, the business, health, education and church communities and others. The teams systematically identified key strengths, problems, opportunities and threats that they face in their efforts to achieve their mission. They identified strategic goals and objectives and developed concrete action plans to reduce crime that reflect the input of the community. In partnerships across the city, the plans are now being implemented. 2. CCP's Youth Service Providers Network The Youth Service Providers Network is a vehicle to better serve at-risk youth and their families. The Network is made up of some of the most successful youth service organizations in the City of Boston in partnership with the Boston Police in Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester. The majority of service providers involved serve clients citywide and specialize in youth problems ranging from teenage run-a-ways to drop-out prevention, mentoring, job training and placement, tutoring, and emergency housing. The Network has developed a Case Management Referral System which is used by front line police officers to access critically needed services for at-risk youth. This system allows police officers to serve youth and families through just one phone call to the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based at the stationhouse. The officer simply calls the Network's LCSW with the name and phone number of a youth in need of service. Then the LCSW reaches out to the youth and the family to develop a plan to access the Network service-providing agencies. In addition, the members of the Network share resources and information, focus on youth violence issues and come up with strategies to overcome those issues in order to better serve their youth and their families individually. Some of the many programs supported through the Youth Service Providers Network include: * Boston Against Drugs--Community based drug education. * Boston Medical Center--Child Witness to Violence Project. * Boston Community Centers--Direct service through street corner outreach. * Bridge Over Troubled Water Inc--Since 1970, the Bridge program has been a multiservice program for homeless, runaway and other at-risk youth that sends people out into the streets to directly interact and intervene with these youth. * Greater Boston One to One--Mentoring training and technical assistance, as well as direct assistance through The Pathways Program, which teaches entrepreneurship and economic literacy. * Jobs for Youth--Job Readiness, training, and placement programs. * The Greater Boston Boys and Girls Club--Recreation, tutoring, dropout prevention, crisis counseling and victim service advocates. * United Methodist Urban Services (UMUS) Police in Partnership Program--joint training between Boston police officers, church mentors and inner city youth designed to teach problem solving. * Streetworkers Program--One of the many programs participating in the work of the YSP Network is the Streetworkers Program. CCP funds the salaries of 2 Streetworker positions in the Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. The Streetworkers program is designed to reach at-risk youth on the streets, including former gang members. Approximately 50 "Streetworkers" venture out daily to help direct at-risk youth to appropriate services. These Streetworkers are funded mainly by the Boston Mayor's office (although two have been paid for by federal CCP grants). In the past five years these Streetworkers have, through the Youth Services Providers Network, attended joint training sessions with area police officers where the two groups learn from and share information with each other: the police officers teach the Streetworkers about local and federal laws and the Streetworkers teach the police officers about the workings of the neighborhoods. What sets this program apart from other outreach programs is that these Streetworkers actually go out to the streets, sometimes even into homes, and help direct youth to other services that can help them. The Streetworkers focus on known gang members, youth that have been targeted as at-risk and school truants. By going into the youth environment, the Streetworkers can learn how best to help the individual youth, while reporting to local community centers about at-risk youth and the overall community situation. 3. CCP's Alternatives to Incarceration Network The Alternatives to Incarceration Network is a broad coalition, including the Department of Youth Services, Department of Probation, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, and the Boston Police Department. Community based non-profit agencies include Mass Halfway House, Make Peace, and the Boston Coalition. The AITN is a collaboration which diverts first time and non-violent offenders who would otherwise be incarcerated. The diverted youth are subject to increased monitoring and rehabilitation, including substance abuse counseling, job skills training and placement, intensive community monitoring, life skills counseling, and violence prevention programs. V. PREVENTION ORIENTED SCHOOL PROGRAMS Good schools are an important part of any long range plan to reduce youth violence and increase opportunities for the adults of tomorrow. Boston has used its schools not only for academic enrichment, but also as physical locales where counseling, mentoring and tutoring programs can enrich the lives of Boston youth. A few of their initiatives are described below. A. Boston Community Centers Boston has established a network of 41 comprehensive community centers, each run by an independent, non-profit Community Center Council, with primary funding coming from the City's budget. Many of the centers use school buildings after hours. Boston Community Centers are Boston's largest single human services provider, offering youth and families services that include child care, adult and youth education, youth services, and youth recreation. Boston Community Centers are an important contact point for Streetworkers to find young people in need of prevention or intervention services. B. Community Schools Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act, this program funds a broad coalition including residents, schools, community based organizations, health centers, tenant task forces, city agencies and law enforcement in the South End neighborhood of Boston. The mission is to develop a community-focused continuum of prevention and intervention services for 9-18 year olds in order to prevent violence and foster a safer community. Some of the services offered by the program include safe havens, tutoring, and family strengthening services. C. Safe Schools Funded by the Department of Education, this program is operating at the two public schools in Boston with the highest incidents of violence. It is an effort to provide full-service schools, complete with health, social services, and enrichment both during and after school. Coordination for this program occurs in conjunction with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and the Boston Police Department. D. School to Work Program Funded by the Department of Education and the Department of Labor, these funds help support the Boston School-to-Career Program, which provides school to work services in every Boston public high school, including alternative schools. The program provides internships, job shadowing and many other employment and education related services which tie education to the world of work, with a goal of ensuring that out-of-school youth return to the classroom and leave the streets, while in-school youth have a smooth transition to the world of work. E. The Louis D. Brown Peace Curriculum Despite the decline in youth violence in Boston, there are unfortunately still victims. One such person was Louis D. Brown, a 15 year old honor student at West Roxbury High School in Boston, who was tragically shot down by gang gunfire on his way to an anti-gang violence Christmas party in 1993. His parents, in Louis' honor, have founded The Louis D. Brown Peace Curriculum, which teaches the value of peace through the life story of Louis, presented in a book and a biographical video. This Curriculum, which targets high school tenth graders from Boston neighborhoods, is a values program that develops the student's character as well as enhances reading and writing capabilities. Students not only learn about Louis' story, but also participate in community field projects and class discussions, read a selected novel, write essays about their understanding of peace and their own peace making effort. During the 1995-96 school year, the Curriculum was implemented in 11 of the 17 Boston Public High Schools and over 1,600 students enrolled in the program. F. Children's Hospital Fenway Collaborative A cooperative effort between the Fenway Middle College High School and Boston's Children's Hospital, the Collaborative is a school-to-work program focused on preventing school dropouts by enhancing employment skills and offering career development. The program offers 40 juniors and seniors in high school the opportunity to explore the Health care profession in many different areas through part-time jobs, internships, and classroom activities. G. Barron Assessment and Counseling Center A program funded by the Boston public school system, this two-part program deals with youth that have brought weapons onto school property or have been involved in other problem behavior. After the youth is disciplined according to school policy, the parents are notified and the youth is referred to the counseling center. At the center, the student receives academic, psychological and social assessments, as well as crisis intervention. H. Creative Conflict Resolution Programs A number of programs in Boston Public Schools teach conflict resolution and violence prevention training to teachers, counselors and school administrators in grades K-12. The programs offer a variety of training formats that teach teachers how to model appropriate behavior in the classroom, conduct skills training for students, and integrate conflict resolution concepts into the standard curriculum. Included in this is the successful "Streetsmarts" conflict resolution training. I. Startsharp A school-based, educational and recreational program targeting inner-city youths ages 8-15, Startsharp emphasizes community involvement to prevent violence, substance abuse, and premature/ unprotected sexual activity. J. Student Conflict Resolution Experts (SCORE) A program sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General and receiving funding from the Department of Justice, this program trains students from 16 high schools and 9 middle schools in conflict resolution and peer mediation. Peer mediators are a representative cross section of the student body, including both negative and positive student leaders. These students, with supervision from the SCORE Coordinator, a full-time staff person who works at the school, mediate disputes involving a variety of issues ranging from rumors to gangs. K. Community Based Justice Program in the Boston Schools Like the Middlesex program described in the following section, the Suffolk County District Attorney is implementing a community based justice strategy in Boston schools to improve the criminal justice system's response to youth violence. VI. MIDDLESEX COUNTY In order to address youth violence in a comprehensive manner, surrounding jurisdictions as well as urban centers like Boston must address the issue too. In this regard, the Boston area offers another fine example from the efforts of Middlesex County, which borders Suffolk County (where Boston is located). In Middlesex County, many of the same players within and outside the criminal justice community have come together to explore solutions to youth violence problems. The District Attorney in Middlesex County has developed the Middlesex Community- Based Justice Program, which brings together community task forces made up of the school officials, police, prosecutors, probation officers, corrections officials, and youth-service and social-service professionals who work with high-risk and adjudicated youth. The result of this interagency information-sharing is the ability of the District Attorney's Office and other child professionals to prioritize cases, devise individualized intervention strategies, oversee the progress of each involved child, and if necessary increase sanctions for those youth who warrant stricter intervention or incarceration. In each community participating in the program, a task force made up of school officials, police, prosecutors, probation officers, corrections officials, youth-service and social-service professionals, and in some cases community leaders meets on a regular basis to share information about identified high-risk youth whose behavior poses a threat to their schools, neighborhoods, and communities. Police officers report on recent criminal events involving juveniles, school officials report on school-based disturbances, prosecutors report on the status of court cases involving identified high-risk youth, and probation, corrections and other youth-service officials participate by filling in with case-specific details. The result of this communication is the ability of each task force to address the individual context of each case and come to a clear consensus about what should be done to address each identified youth's antisocial behavior. Middlesex County's efforts move towards a comprehensive system of community based justice. VII. A FRAMEWORK FOR THE FUTURE--COMMUNITY JUSTICE The key to Boston's success lies in its community-based partnerships, a number of which are described above. These programs are part of a growing awareness that a "community justice" approach is required. Community justice is a process of identifying public safety problems, creating partnerships within the community and building bridges among all parts of the justice system to address these problems effectively. This problem-solving approach moves law enforcement's focus away from the crime incident and court case, to the problem they face--what causes it and how can it be addressed. The emphasis is no longer exclusively on arrest, prosecution, and adjudication, but rather on solving the problem in order to prevent crime before it occurs, to reduce recidivism, and to address the public safety needs of the community. Community justice reorients the focus of justice through engagement with the community. Partnerships are required not only with the community but within the entire range of the criminal justice system. Police officers, prosecutors, judges, court staff, and probation officers must all cooperate and collaborate in ways that maximize their resources and magnify each individual effort. The traditional sense of community must be expanded to include public agencies such as schools, hospitals, and social services, as well as private businesses and institutions. Boston and Middlesex County are well on their way to achieving an integrated community justice system. If you have any questions about the materials in this pamphlet, please contact the Mayor's Public Safety Cabinet in Boston, Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans at (617) 343-5096.