What You Need to Know

Criminal justice professionals involved in PSN around the country have long acknowledged that it is impossible to "arrest our way out of the problem" of youth involvement in gangs. They have developed initiatives such as Police Athletic Leagues and Drug Education For Youth camps to engage youth and help them develop life and leadership skills. These programs offer positive activities as a way to help inoculate youth against the dangers of gang violence.

To be most effective, gang prevention programs should be rooted in the practice of positive youth development, which acknowledges that all youth go through developmental stages as they mature, and tries to help them go through these stages in a positive way by developing their skills and assets. These skills and assets serve as protective factors in violence prevention-that is, as youth develop internal and external strengths, they are less likely to fall prey to gangs and violence. They also experience many other benefits, including decreased alcohol use, decreased use of marijuana and other drugs, lower rates of drop-out, sexual activity, pregnancy, and depression.

The positive youth development approach consciously shifts away from focusing on the deficits or problems of a particular group of youth-access to drugs and guns, anti-social peer groups, or lack of parental or school attachment, to name a few. Positive youth development programs instead help youth develop strengths or assets such as positive adult relationships, engagement in school, positive peer influences, and resistance to anti-social peers and activities.

Several specific strategies help to promote positive youth development in the context of violence prevention activities. These include:

• Recognize young people as experts on the needs of their communities; empower them to become change agents; and give them the opportunity to engage in non-violent activities.
  

• Expose youth to leadership roles in order to increase protective factors that promote non-violent behavior and decrease risk factors for violent behavior.
  

• Focus on adolescents, who are at a life stage in which their peer group has a greater influence than adults, and in which they are more likely to engage in collaborative decision-making and action if their peers are involved.
  

• Develop peer group activities, as adolescents are more likely to develop and implement interventions when working with and for their peers to create a violence prevention movement.
  

Structural Supports for Youth Gang Prevention Initiatives

Getting Youth involved in developing and participating in successful gang prevention programs depends on the leadership of a credible youth serving agency and engaged community members, who provide a foundation of support, ensure program quality, and encourage and sustain youth involvement. The characteristics of credible youth serving agencies and engaged communities are explained more fully explained in the graphic below.

The most successful PSN youth engagement efforts include partnerships with youth serving organizations and communities that demonstrate the specific qualities and characteristics shown above. The factors below should be considered in indentifying agencies and communities to work with in any particular PSN Task Force.

Defining Community Engagement:
Community engagement strategies are used to work collaboratively with groups of people who are affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or similar situations with respect to issues affecting their well-being.

In the context of PSN, this process has to involve working with community members to address social conditions in the community as well as a means to prevent violence. It is important to understand that community engagement is a two way street-in order to get the community invested in working to address gang crime and violence, the PSN approach needs to be developed and refined collaboratively with the community so that it reflects the community's own concerns and priorities.

Qualities of a Youth Serving Agency Leader

Community-based youth serving organizations that might serve in a leadership role in a youth engagement initiative should demonstrate as many of these characteristics as possible:

• Passion for empowering and nurturing youth
• Physical location in the community being focused on
• Strong and competent leadership that is representative of the community
• Commitment to youth developed principles and experience with youth engagement and mobilization
• Understanding of youth violence and gang issues, as well as other economic, social, and cultural issues that impact youth in the community
• Strong partnerships and referral networks with other community organizations, including schools, GED programs, vocational training programs, employers, health services, substance abuse and mental health services, and others
• Financial and administrative capacity to secure and appropriately manage grant and other funding

Characteristics of an Engaged Community

There are several specific ways that engaged or mobilized community members relate to their community, which can be applied within the context of PSN. Consider the degree to which community members demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Are aware, in a detailed and realistic way, of their individual and collective vulnerability to gun and gang crime and violence
• Are motivated to do something about this crime and violence
• Take action within their capabilities, applying their own strengths and investing their own resources-including time, materials, money, or whatever else they have to contribute
• Participate in decision-making on what actions to take, evaluate the results, and take responsibility for both success and failure
• Seek outside assistance and cooperation as necessary
  

Benefits of Community Engagement for PSN

PSN Task Forces around the country have been able to realize several other benefits as a result of engaging and mobilizing communities to work with PSN:

• Participation and leadership from a wide variety of community and neighborhood organizations, residents, schools, faith and business leaders, and foundations
• Promotion of PSN anti-gun and gang prevention messages within other community programs, activities, and awareness campaigns
• Community members who view law enforcement and criminal justice professionals as allies
• Community members who play a proactive role in reporting crime and working with law enforcement to address community conditions that promote gang crime and other violence
• Wider base of support and sustainability for anti-gun and gang prevention initiatives, including support from foundations and local businesses
  

Youth Leadership

Another factor to consider in engaging and involving youth in PSN is the degree to which youth will provide leadership. There is a continuum of roles that youth can play, as shown below. Moving to the right on the continuum provides a glimpse into more sophisticated approaches to youth engagement and leadership development, but there is no right or wrong place to be. The place where a program or initiative falls on the continuum will be the result of many things, including community and youth levels of readiness and engagement, the skill and comfort level of adult allies, and resources available.

This framework can be used as a planning tool to define the leadership role youth will play in a specific initiative or program (consider the gang prevention public awareness campaign example below). Visit Other Resources to download the Youth Leadership Planning Worksheet based on this framework.

Ideas for Working with Youth

Successfully engaging youth in anti-gang initiatives depends on using the right tools to attract young people. Visit the Getting Started and Other Resources sections of this toolkit for resources, activities, and facilitation guides to jump start youth involvement in prevention activities.