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Guide for Delinquency Prevention Programs Based in Work and Community Service Activities - A Working Paper

NCJ Number
89351
Author(s)
S Beville; C A Cioffi
Date Published
1979
Length
43 pages
Annotation
This paper uses leading theories of delinquency prevention to develop principles that underlie tentative guidelines for the identification, creation, and design of employment and volunteer activities for youth.
Abstract
The guidelines provide that a program not be billed as a delinquency prevention program but as an opportunity for youth to participate in positive work and community service activities. Further, the program should be targeted for a mixed group of youth defined by generic, nonlabeling characteristics such as unemployment status, residence, age, or interests. The selection and recruitment criteria and mechanisms should be designed and implemented to prevent bias, so as to present a positive image of the program and increase its visibility. Moreover, the program ought to involve systematic and consistent building of community support for and promotion of work and community service opportunities for youth. For individual participants, there must be ongoing monitoring and provision of necessary remedial or special support services. Augmentation or expansion of the basic work or community service activities should encourage organizational and community internalization of policies to continue the involvement of youth in various work assignments. The proposed application of these guidelines should proceed through the tasks of (1) assessment of opportunities for action, collecting information, and preliminary negotiations to determine community and agency conditions under which the project would be attempted; (2) organizing the support required to design and implement a project; (3) designing the project, including the development of agreements that are organizationally and politically feasible; and (4) getting the program underway, which includes the development of program practices and routines. (Author summary modified)