CDC Community Advisory Council Issues Its Report on the Prevention of Youth Violence and Ways to Ensure the Positive Development of Young People
The report is the culmination of work over the past year to identify actions steps to prevent citizens from becoming involved in the criminal justice system
Wilmington, New Castle County and State elected and community representatives came together today at the news conference in Wilmington to unveil a report intended to serve as a blueprint for governments and communities throughout Delaware to initiate programs that help prevent youth violence.
Visit this link to download the report.
Led by Wilmington City Council President Hanifa Shabazz and supported by Delaware’s Governor John Carney, Wilmington’s Mayor Mike Purzycki and New Castle County’s Executive Matthew Meyer, the Centers for Disease Control Community Advisory Council culminated more than a year’s worth of work by presenting its final report today. The work is entitled Accelerating Youth Violence Prevention and Positive Development: A Call to Action. Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf, who has lead the State’s efforts over the past few years to support implementation of the CDC’s recommendations, also attended today’s announcement and was given special recognition by Council President Shabazz and others for her commitment to refocusing people’s lives and reducing violent behaviors.
The group’s report is the outgrowth of an unprecedented move by Council President Shabazz in 2013 when she asked the Centers for Disease Control to come to Delaware to help Wilmington reduce incidents of violent crime. Shabazz asked the CDC to conduct its work within the context of youth violence being a public health crisis that needed a cure. The CDC reviewed the history of individuals who had committed violent crimes through their lifetimes and issued a report almost a year later which became the basis for today’s release of the advisory council’s work.
The six summary report recommendations are:
- Foster violence-free environments and promote positive opportunities and connections to trusted adults. Establish universal services for all youth living in high needs neighborhoods. Expand the capacity of community centers to provide year-round quality programming after school and evenings, 7 days a week and invest in a year-round employment program for young and young adults, i.e. “earn and learn.”
- Intervene with youth and families at the first sign of risk with selected services for youth at moderate risk. Develop a multi-tiered identification and referral system to be accessed by families, schools, community organizations, and health care providers with options for self-referral to connect youth to needed services with case management; test this approach in a middle or high school, community school, or health care provider.
- Restore youth who have gone down the wrong path. Coordinate indicated services for high risk youth active with the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF). Increase the level of support for youth transitioning back to the community by developing a one-stop “Youth Wellness Center” at community centers, modeled after the Hope Commission Achievement Center.
- Protect children and youth from violence in the community. Increase support for outreach programs that engage the community in creating a culture and environment that prevent violence and promote positive youth development. Support existing efforts to embed trauma informed practice in every aspect of working with youth and their families to foster community resiliency to combat the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences on individual and community health and well-being.
- Integrate services. Develop and pilot a model for the integration of services for children, youth, and their families engaging school districts, schools, community organizations, hospital systems and key state agencies; would include a common platform for sharing student data and service information and have a school-based coordinator to make the connections to needed services. Create a State level Children’s Cabinet with an advisory group of representatives from the non-profit, business, and philanthropic communities, to integrate policies, programs, services, data sharing and resources at the state systems governance level.
- Address policy issues that have unintended adverse consequences for youth. Includes difficulties with the sharing of client data among State agencies (e.g. DHSS, DOE, DSCYF), schools, and hospitals to improve early detection of problems and connections to needed services with case management. Also, the transitioning of youth back to traditional public and charter schools from alternative settings to complete their education and graduate.
The CDC Community Advisory Council has met in recent weeks with top elected officials, legislators and community representatives to discuss its recommendations and has received commitments of support for piloting some of the various areas identified and outlined today.
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