All Hands on Deck to Address Crime and its After-effects on Wilmington’s Children, Youth and Families

The Wilmington News Journal recently published a very powerful, compelling series, “Growing Up Under Fire”, describing the epidemic of crime in our city. I was initially skeptical, indeed cynical, when I first heard that this series was being developed and might be critical of the work of the CDC Community Advisory Council (recently re-named “The Wilmington Community Advisory Council”). Now having read the series, I am inclined to say that we owe a debt of gratitude to Jessica Masulli Reyes, Brittany Horn, Esteban Parra and Christina Jedra for their very cogent, coherent and comprehensive report on the violence that is plaguing Wilmington. The News Journal series underscores many of the key points delineated in the CDC Community Advisory Council’s final report, issued in January, 2017.
In our report, we said:

In order to fully implement the report’s recommendations, the Council calls for a financing plan to improve the use of existing and proposed new appropriations to address violence and crime. Currently, nearly all of these funds are being applied to the “after-effects” of violence and crime. The challenge is to devise strategies to use relatively marginal sums of these resources and apply them to support the use of evidence-based and promising practices that demonstrate positive outcomes related to preventing youth violence and promoting positive development, and promoting integration among these services for synergistic effects. Our community is already paying for the costs of negative outcomes experienced by our youth and our communities, because sufficient resources have not been strategically invested up front in the quality and quantity of programs and support systems that are accessible and well-integrated.

Each time a youth cannot read on grade level, or is suspended or expelled, drops out of school, stands on a corner because he does not have a safe, caring place to go; cannot find a job to earn money for his basic needs; gets caught up in violence; or gets arrested for a violent act; goes into a “secure care” placement, completes the program, and gets released only to return to the same way of life, we pay the price of more failure.

The members of the Council believe that citizens of the State of Delaware deserve a better return on their investments in government efforts to address crime and its after-effects. There is no better plan than to make a focused investment in children and youth and strategically deploy limited resources to achieve positive results.

Speaking for the Council, we clearly understand that current fiscal realities place considerable spending restrictions on governments at all levels. But, to the degree that our crime epidemic is not effectively addressed, we all pay an even higher cost in dollars, and in lives. We must recognize that addressing this issue of crime in Wilmington requires “an all hands on deck” strategy. The crime epidemic issue is a population issue, requiring the involvement of governments at all levels, the corporate and philanthropic communities, the faith-based and non-profit institutions, other community organizations and all people of good will.

I remain confident, because I believe the CDC Community Advisory Council has produced an excellent report with solid recommendations that can enable very positive results.

But, I’m also mindful that we can’t tackle this challenge, if you will, on the cheap. Significant financial investments are required – on the range of five – ten million dollars a year, over the next decade. When you consider the State, County and City’s combined operating budgets totals more than $5.3 billion, our five to ten-million-dollar estimate represent one to two-tenths of a percent of the overall budget. To the extent that new dollars are not available, the Community Advisory Council calls for the reallocation of existing dollars to support the use of evidence-based programs and promising practices in prevention and early intervention that address the social determinants of crime – unemployment, poor housing, neighborhood/community deterioration, school dropouts – together with the failures of our social, political, economic and governmental systems that have lead us to this drastic outcome.

Over the years, we’ve been trying hard, but “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough”.