Youth Killed in Crossfire. Gangs Terrorizing Neighborhoods. Guns in the Hands of Children. Headlines like these reveal the dangers our nation's youth face every day, often at the hands of other youth. Criminal justice, education, and public health systems have all recognized the imperative to prevent youth from joining gangs and from being victimized by gang and gun violence. One way for Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) , the U.S. Department of Justice's anti-gun crime initiative, to continue to effectively address gun crime and gang violence in America's neighborhoods is for PSN stakeholders to reach out to youth in a meaningful way to engage them in prevention and intervention efforts.

Youth age 12-18 who live in PSN focus areas face multiple social, economic, and educational challenges in their daily lives-challenges that make them susceptible to criminal behavior and gang involvement. For example, youth who live in neighborhoods where marijuana is readily available and where neighborhood youth are frequently in trouble are more than three times more likely to join a gang compared with other youth. Low academic achievement and attachment to school make youth between two and three times more likely to join a gang. In addition, four specific community conditions, often found in PSN focus areas, increase the likelihood that youth will join gangs: absence of appropriate adult supervision; too much free time not consumed by other pro-social activities; limited access to appealing conventional jobs; and a place to congregate-usually a well-defined neighborhood.

Strategies to engage youth in gang prevention must address these challenges and provide youth with positive interactions that are imperative in making prevention, intervention, and suppression efforts most effective. The most successful prevention strategies recognize young people as experts, expose them to leadership roles, and create positive peer groups for them.

The Toolkit provides PSN districts hands-on models and tools to engage youth in meaningful ways to address gang violence.

About Project Safe Neighborhoods
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in America by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing these programs with additional tools necessary to be successful.