Solving Youth Violence: Partnerships That Work. MENU TITLE: Solving Youth Violence Series: NIJ Research Report Published: 1994 159 pages 331,540 bytes National Conference Proceedings Washington, D.C. August 15-17, 1994 National Conference Solving Youth Violence: Partnerships That Work Sponsored by: Janet Reno U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala U.S. Department of Education Secretary Richard W. Riley U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Lee P. Brown This project was supported by Contract No. OJP-94- C-008 awarded to the Institute for Law and Justice by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, coordinates the activities of the following programs, offices, and bureaus: Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Table of Contents Keynote Speakers and Opening Plenary Session, Monday, August 15, 1994 Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Peter Edelman, Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Janet Reno, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Ralph Green, Corrales, New Mexico J. David Hawkins, Director, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., Seattle, Washington Concurrent Workshops: The Individual and the Community Developing Responsibility Youth Development Programs I Youth Development Programs II Mentoring Youth Involvement and Participation Community Service Community Health and Community Mental Health Approaches Concurrent Workshops: Home and Family Domestic Violence Child Abuse and Neglect Family Support and Preservation Out-of-Home Youth Sexual Assault Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Media Literacy and Advocacy Keynote Speakers and Afternoon Plenary Session Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Assistant Dean, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts Plenary Panel: Comprehensive Community Planning Strategies for Solving Youth Violence Keynote Speakers, Tuesday, August 16, 1994 Kelly Zimmerman, National Youth of the Year, National Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Orrville, Ohio Ernesto Cortes, Jr., Director, Texas Industrial Areas Foundation Austin, Texas Concurrent Workshops: Schools and Communities Safety and Security Education and Skills Development Home/School/Community Partnerships Improved School Climate Information Sharing Issues in School-Based Coordinated Programs Alternative Development Programs for Adjudicated Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Concurrent Workshops: Community and Neighborhood Community Policing Increasing Employment Community Development Juvenile Justice Programs Weed and Seed Reducing Gun Violence in the Community and the Home Hate Violence Keynote Address and Town Hall Meeting Albert Gore, Jr., Vice President of the United States (Transcript of Presentation) Bill Clinton, President of the United States (Address via Video) Town Hall Meeting First Panel Second Panel Third Panel Plenary Address: Report on Comprehensive Community Planning Sessions, Wednesday, August 16, 1994 John A. Calhoun, Executive Director, National Crime Prevention Council, Washington, D.C. Plenary Panel: Youth Reporting from Caucus Meetings Plenary Panel: Addressing Concentrated Poverty and Crime Closing Speaker Carl Upchurch, President, National Council for Urban Peace and Justice, Newark, Ohio APPENDIX A, Speakers APPENDIX B, Conference Planning Committee APPENDIX C, Executive Summary: Community Planning Sessions ------------------------------------------ Keynote Speakers and Opening Plenary Session, Monday, August 15, 1994 Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Governor Kunin noted that partnership is the key word in this conference title since seven Federal agencies have come to the conference to work together to help the children of America. Those involved in solving youth violence can succeed only by working together. Governor Kunin described the purposes of the conference as (1) showcasing what works, so different parties can learn from each other, and (2) collaborating. Solutions to problems will come from all of the participants, not just from Washington. She implored attendees to generously share their spark of success with others. She then urged the passage of the pending Crime Bill. She said the country cannot reach its educational goals unless children learn that it is worthwhile to grow up and to work. She concluded that this conference, where five cabinet secretaries, the Vice President, and the First Lady would speak, has the tools, the will, and the talent to address these critical issues. Peter Edelman, Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Mr. Edelman said that he and the other representatives of the Federal Government are looking forward to learning from attendees during the conference and that he hoped the violence that is gripping the Nation's communities and literally killing its children could be stopped. According to Mr. Edelman, three critical elements emerged. The first is clear pathways. Children entering their teen years should be able to see a clear pathway to the future--to a job or to college. If they don't see opportunities, they will choose alternatives, such as gangs or drugs. It is important for children to have safe and stimulating places to go to after school. Schools should consider using their facilities as community centers. The second critical element is full community involvement. There is not enough money in the Crime Bill, in the Federal Government, or in all government to solve the problem of youth violence. Mr. Edelman believes the solution requires the involvement of business, labor, charities--such as the United Way--and other parties. The third critical point is youth responsibility. Children themselves must seize opportunities, take leadership and responsibility, and say, "Enough! The violence must stop!" Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Success in preventing youth violence requires the cooperation of Federal and State agencies, local government, businesses, and communities, Ms. Robinson said. The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is working to help local communities get the necessary money for programs that help kids stay out of trouble. OJP is also working on Project PACT--Pulling America's Communities Together. OJP has also created the Partnerships Against Violence Network (PAVNET) to help PACT and others link up with Federal information resources. PAVNET's resource guide describes programs to prevent violence that have been developed by organizations across America. Ms. Robinson reminded participants of Attorney General Janet Reno's admonition that Washington does not have all the answers. The Federal Government needs community residents, law enforcement officials, social service agencies, and others to work toward solutions. Janet Reno, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Attorney General Reno noted that something exciting is happening across America today and that we conference participants are on the forefront of that effort. People are coming together in their communities to make a difference in the lives of the children. This is government by the people. The Attorney General also stated that we must take this spirit and make it a reality for all America. We must listen to people. We must talk to young people who have told her, "I'd have avoided trouble if there had been something to do and somewhere to go--someone to talk to me, respect me, and give me discipline." The Attorney General noted several ingredients for success. First is partnership. Lawyers, doctors, community groups, and others can come together to help the youth, rather than try to help them in isolation. The second ingredient is focusing efforts on a narrow group and providing a holistic approach to changing the lives of these youngsters. She described a woman who has volunteered at her church school and sticks with the kids over the long term. Such individuals recognize that real change is not going to happen overnight. These people are the heroes and heroines of this Nation, and their approach has greater impact than spending one year with one program and another year doing something else. The third ingredient is starting early. Children must be given a good foundation to grow from age zero to three, she said. Elementary and teen programs are already too late to being. Together, she said, we can begin to make a difference. It is not enough to end with a dialogue between Head Start programs and the elementary schools; we have to give teachers the support necessary to do the job. Communities need to have positive after-school programs for youths who have no parent at home to supervise them. In high crime areas, youths who are struggling for identity must have access to jobs that enable development of skills to earn a living wage. Unless we start investing in children now, she emphasized, we will not be able to build our way out of the problem with prisons. Political rhetoric has clouded the issue, but the American people know better. We can fight crime, she said, with a balanced plan of punishment, policing, and prevention. Let the political wrangling stop so children can have a better future. Ralph Green, Corrales, New Mexico Note: Ralph Green, 17, was shot in the back while walking to see his grandmother in the Bedford- Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, N.Y. Now he is a prizewinner in the Special Olympics.] Mr. Green noted that youth violence has changed the world dramatically. Ten- and 11-year-old kids carry guns now. We have to control it, he said, before it affects the next generation. When someone shoots somebody, he shoots that person's family and friends, too. We may not be able to stop youth violence, he added, but we can decrease it. This year, several of Mr. Green's friends were killed by other youths. The young men who shot Mr. Green and his friend were sentenced to 7 years; so after about 2 years, he will become eligible for parole. "Do you think that's enough," he asked, "for someone who almost killed two people?" Why do youths do this? They think they can get away with murder. It would be better to steer youths' desire for violence in legal directions: Let them become boxers or join the military. The sort of violence that happened to Mr. Green can happen to anyone. "But look at me," he invited, "I am living proof that you can do anything if you just keep your head up." J. David Hawkins, Director, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., Seattle, Washington Prevention of violence and substance abuse must begin with the family, noted Dr. Hawkins. He said he has committed himself to all of America's children, regardless of race and culture. As a former probation officer, he met people for whom stealing was rewarding but school a place of alienation. A judge once said that running a juvenile court is like running an ambulance service at the bottom of a cliff. "You can patch the kids up," he said, "but people keep coming over the cliff." They must be stopped before they go over the cliff. That is why Dr. Hawkins has switched his focus to prevention. It is important that violence prevention, like medicine, do no harm. A successful strategy must do more good than harm. Youth violence is like a medical problem in another way, too. Since many factors cause cardiovascular disease, many people now avoid those factors. Similarly, he said, we must identify the factors associated with youth violence, reduce them, and create barriers against them. Among the factors that influence youth violence are availability of drugs; availability of guns; laws and norms favoring drug use, guns, and crime; media portrayal of violence; transitions and mobility; low neighborhood attachment and community disorganization; and extreme economic deprivation. When we increase attachment to neighborhoods, said Dr. Hawkins, crime goes down. Knowing what their kids are doing and with whom they are doing it makes a difference to parents. Excessive and inconsistent punishment of children increases their risk of substance abuse. Teachers can contribute to violence by failing to reach out and engage all students. The earlier children start risky behaviors, such as drug use or fighting, the greater the likelihood that they will do it over time. It is important at the very least to delay such behaviors. Forty-five percent of African-American children are reared in poverty, compared to 15 percent of European-American children. Poverty is a risk factor. Dr. Hawkins also noted that there are several protective factors. Individual characteristics, such as a resilient temperament, great intelligence, and a good attitude, can make a difference. Bonding insulates kids against other risk factors--even in high-risk areas. People shine when someone takes an interest in them. Healthy beliefs and clear standards, when held by adults with whom kids are bonding, are also protective factors for the kids. Those beliefs and standards include, for example, the beliefs that children should finish school and should not drink alcohol. We have had a change in norms that has reduced high school marijuana use, he pointed out, but we have not had a change of norms regarding violence. The community, including the media, must disapprove of violence and restrain itself from violence. This is a war against drugs and violence. This is a war for bonding children with adults who hold healthy beliefs. Bonding to a group requires three necessary conditions: opportunities for active involvement, such as responsibilities at school, at home, and in the community; the skills to be successful; and a consistent system of recognition or reinforcement for skillful work, celebrating kids' successes, not just punishing their failures. Dr. Hawkins stated that the key prevention principles are: addressing known risk factors; enhancing protective factors; addressing risk factors at appropriate developmental stages; intervening before behavior stabilizes, including interventions with those at high risk--even targeting high-risk individuals and community areas; addressing multiple risks with multiple strategies; and reaching the diverse races, cultures, and classes in the community. "Our job," he said, "is to reinvent communities as protective enclaves for children. I challenge all of you to lead that work." Concurrent Workshops: The Individual and the Community Developing Responsibility Moderator: The Reverend Alicia D. Byrd, Project Director, Leadership Development and Theological Education Programs, Congress of National Black Churches, Washington, D.C. Panelists: William Damon, Professor and Director, Center for the Study for Human Development, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Lori Clarke, Director, Home-Based Services, Home Start, San Diego, California Fran V. Donelan, Project Director, Youth Outreach, American Friends Service Committee, Mid-Atlantic Region, Baltimore, Maryland The Reverend Dr. Alicia Byrd introduced the panelists, noting that Dr. Damon would focus on strategies for promoting moral development in children; Ms. Clarke would discuss an innovative, in-home approach to working with families; and Ms. Donelan would discuss middle-school support groups for children affected by homicide, AIDS, and other tragedies. Dr. William Damon said his emphasis is on aspirations, hope, and positive engagement. Emotional dispositions, for example, dispositions toward empathy and sympathy, are present in everyone at birth. These dispositions are part of each person's "emotional legacy." Children seek regularity; they are looking for rules. Children also want to construct a positive self-identity; they want to contribute to society and avoid being stigmatized. All children seek rewards and avoid punishment. All of these things dispose people to pro-social behavior. Violence today is alarming, but people should not feel too defeated. Many things can be done by following some key principles required to encourage positive development. Young people need to develop two different types of cognitive and behavioral systems. First, children need good beliefs and good attitudes. They need to believe in something beyond the self, something that is dedicated to other people. Second, children need good habits, for example, the habits of acting kindly and resolving conflict quickly and nonviolently. How do adults encourage this development? They must build relationships through a "process of respectful engagement." The guiding adults set limits and encourage three important character dispositions: truthfulness; diligence, or the ability to work past frustration; and a sense of humility, a sense of one's place in the community. While adults must do things that children think are authentic, constructive attitudes or bridges must also lead somewhere beyond what children like or dislike. Youth need to see a consensus in the community, such as agreement on truthfulness and good habits. Youth are in trouble in all settings, not just in the inner city. Politics and education do not mix when it comes to encouraging constructive youth development. Church, family, schools, peers, and others need to come together. Too much time is spent on professional infighting, and too little time is spent helping youths develop core values. Youths need to hear the same basic messages in all settings. Lori Clarke discussed Mano a Mano, one of five federal demonstration projects in San Diego that are funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau. The program goals are to empower children, families, and communities and to build resiliency, especially in the face of drugs and violence. As noted by Herschel Swinger, referring to the effects of the Los Angeles riots on children, there is no "post" in "post-traumatic shock" syndrome. The continuing effects have been psychological, physical, and spiritual. The Mano a Mano program site is Barrio Logan in San Diego, where there are 45 known gangs involving 5,400 members, most of whom are between the ages of 14 and 26. There, Perkins Elementary School is served by two social service agencies: Home Start, which administers Mano a Mano; and the San Diego Youth and Community Service Neighborhood Outreach Program. The Mano a Mano program focuses on early-childhood development, not on problem behaviors. It starts with all kindergarten children at Perkins and provides "multi-systemic" services. Staff look at family situations and peer groups to identify community systems that may be resources for the family. The provision of in-home services is key to making other community services more accessible. These services range from helping with transportation problems to dealing with violence issues. Staff help parents apply and internalize what they hear in parenting classes. Ms. Clarke said it is important to provide concrete resources, such as emergency food, clothing, and shelter. The program's strength-based approach begins with an assessment of family resources. She added to Dr. Damon's description, saying that Home Start and Mano a Mano want to build a consensus of values. The program conducts community meetings and children's workshops in the schools. Trust, however, is first built one-on-one during the in- home encounters. Fran Donelan discussed several programs sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in the mid-Atlantic region. One program is a nonviolence course she has conducted over Baltimore County teachers over the past 14 years. She said children are no longer safe in schools but noted that there are many violence-reduction and prejudice-reduction approaches being implemented around the country. The Help Increase the Peace (HIP) effort in Syracuse is a 3-day, in-school conflict-resolution program focusing strongly on taking responsibility. But youths must also be given opportunities to take responsibility. In West Virginia, the College Scouts program trains volunteers to motivate families to send their children to college. Volunteers also help families fill out college application forms and submit them on time. Another program is Fighting Fair for Families, which is designed to address domestic violence issues. The underlying philosophy of these programs is to empower adults by drawing on what they already know. "Everyone is an agent for social change," Ms. Donelan said. Another AFSC program is Rising Stars, a Baltimore city theater project that has been operating for the past 6 years. Fifteen teenagers write and perform their own material. All group members have to keep up their grades, and all 15 of this year's members are going on to college. Recently, the group opened in a Gladys Knight concert. The AFSC also conducts grief sessions for middle school students. Often, families do not talk about grief issues. For example, one boy's mother was dying of AIDS but no one told him. As part of the program approach, youths create memory books containing drawings and poems about their loved ones who have died, often by violence. Reverend Dr. Byrd said the Council of National Black Churches brings together clergy and lay leaders. Through its fellowship program, ministers work part-time for various agencies. For example, working for the Centers for Disease Control gives clergy and lay leaders a closer look at health issues and a chance to assess how churches can address these issues. Other projects relate to the following: building self-esteem; resolving conflicts; producing The Enlightened Male's Manual, based on the concept of rites of passages; and a national anti-drug campaign. Reverend Dr. Byrd believes that churches can provide forums for listening to youth, and she noted that the CNBC's national conference this year is entitled "Creating Hope and Healing in the Midst of a Violent Society." Youth Development Programs I Moderator: Merita Irby, Program Officer, Academy for Educational Development, Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Ruben Chavez, Deputy Director, Outreach Services, Youth Development, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico Colberson Atole, Peer Advocate, Youth Development, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico Frances Kunreuther, Executive Director, Hetrick- Martin Institute, New York, New York Howard Phengsomphone, Project Director, City of Providence, Rhode Island Frances Kunreuther spoke of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a national education and social service agency in New York that serves lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. Since 1983, Hetrick-Martin has been a leader in the field of HIV and AIDS education and prevention among adolescents. The Institute provides a variety of services, such as after-school programs, counseling, alternative schooling, working with homeless youth, and guidance and technical assistance to teachers and social workers. Adolescents who are "coming out" are very susceptible to violence because they are not seen as "normal." They are attacked within the family, the school system, and in the community. The youths may believe they need to return violence in kind. Unfortunately, too many of these adolescents cannot cope with their difficult circumstances and attempt or commit suicide. These adolescents are also targets of gay bashers, pimps, and other criminals. Institute programs are based on the belief that everyone needs family and community. The youths in the Institute's residential programs need to be supported so they can go back to their families and the community. Many of the Hetrick-Martin staff become role models to these youths. Over the years, the Institute has changed its policy from one of protection to one of involvement. Youth clients are involved in peer orientation at intake, paid internships, and given membership in the youth council. Additionally, the Institute has two youth board members. Ruben Chavez of Youth Development, Inc. (YDI), in Albuquerque, described its anti-gang violence program. The 10-week program is directed at youths who are court-ordered into the program. The youths come from any gang throughout the city. However, YDI attempts to balance the gang affiliations so that no gang is dominant. A key element of the YDI program is meaningful parent involvement. At least six sessions involve both the youth and parents. Early in the program, the youths are all brought together to help them understand the rules, encouraging strong ritual bonds. The organization stresses respect for each other's cultures, spiritual institutions, and traditions. A portion of the program involves performance by each youth or group of some form of community service, such as feeding the homeless and giving assistance to the handicapped. The key to success is common sense, bonding, caring, an array of alternative program services, and a committed staff. Mr. Chavez introduced Mr. Atole, a gang member who has been through the program. Mr. Atole indicated that the YDI program makes individuals feel important and allows gang members to talk as equals. Young people are not "talked down to." Program staff listen and do not judge. Most justice practitioners do not know how to handle gang members. The prevalent "lock them up" philosophy does not solve the problem. Howard Phengsomphone described the Southeast Asian Youth and Family Development Project, which is a gang prevention and violence reduction program in Providence. The city has had a substantial influx of immigrants from Southeast Asia (Cambodian and Laotian). There is a major difficulty in assimilating these new arrivals into the prevalent culture and democratic institutions. The city joined forces with the Southeast Asian community and formed an integrated structure of councils and projects directed at early identification of Asian youths who are gang members or at risk of becoming gang members. The key to the program is working with the youth and their parents, the youth's first role models. Other local agencies and organizations serving these populations are brought into the relationship in the next phase. Working only with the youth would not have lasting impact. The Southeast Asian Youth and Family Development Project is involved in both prevention and intervention activities. Mr. Phengsomphone finds it important to sit down with other agencies and institutions delivering services to the at-risk population in the community to jointly design a program that covers necessary areas. This collaboration can be used to address the problems of selected project clients. Youth Development Programs II Moderator: Michele Cahill, Director, Youth Development Institute, and Vice President, Fund for the City of New York, New York Panelists: Ozelious J. Clement, Executive Director, Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture, Brooklyn, New York Tyrone Brown, Assistant to the Director, Marching Band, Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture, Brooklyn, New York Luis Garden Acosta, Chief Executive Officer, El Puente, Brooklyn, New York Carla Sanger, Executive Director, LA's BEST, Office of the Mayor, Los Angeles, California Michele Cahill heads New York City's Beacon Program, which is a network of after-school safe havens. Youth development activities do not work, she observed, unless they engage children, interest them, give them an opportunity to contribute something, and have long-term continuity. Ozelious Clement said the Jackie Robinson Center operates at a disadvantage. The center is thought of as a program, but it has been designed to operate as an institution that would affect other institutions for young people. The center's mission, he stated, is to strengthen the institutions of school, family, and community. That, he said, is a comprehensive strategy that can work. The trend toward putting more and more resources into punishment is a negative approach that will never fully solve the problem of violence. Objections to the preventive route may arise from the idea that prevention has been rather vague in the past. With an institution like the Jackie Robinson Center to represent prevention, legislators may feel more comfortable supporting the preventive approach to ending violence. Among the key features of the Jackie Robinson Center are medical care and exams for youth, job assistance, and a youth tribunal whereby the center's young people themselves can discipline offending youngsters. Mr. Clement said several studies have cited the Jackie Robinson Center as very good, and he offered to share the center's methods with others. Tyrone Brown noted that his marching band travels around the country representing the Jackie Robinson Center. Student involvement reduces violence overall, he said, benefiting not just the students involved, but the entire community. Regarding the youth tribunal, he observed that adult counselors yell at misbehaving youth to no avail, but when a kid is up before the youth tribunal, he really listens. Mr. Brown stressed that the 6,000 kids in the Brooklyn center are learning peer mediation, conflict resolution, and how to avoid trouble. Luis Garden Acosta recalled that, in 1981, the south side of Williamsburg, a section of Brooklyn, was a killing field. That year, in that small area, 48 young people were killed, mostly because of gang activity. Mr. Acosta, who was then in charge of the local hospital's emergency room, saw the bodies come in and felt helpless to stop the flow. The experience galvanized him. Mr. Acosta wondered what could be done about the violence. He described neighborhood meetings that included anyone who wanted to end youth violence. Everyone thought in terms of categories with which they were familiar. Some people blamed the schools; some blamed early sex; and some blamed robbery of old people, purse-snatching, chain-grabbing, or the lack of places for young people to hang out. Mr. Acosta said he agreed with everyone. The problem is all those things. He said that to segregate body, mind, spirit, and community is impossible. The people at those meetings decided not to wait for government to help out. They checked among themselves for resources and found plenty: graphic designers, sports organizers, and people with other helpful specialties. The group built what Mr. Acosta called a bridge of support and empowerment named El Puente, Spanish for "the bridge." About four years ago, the area served by El Puente lost 23 young people to measles. Calling that sort of loss insane, Mr. Acosta said the young people in the community decided to go door to door, asking whether people wanted to be immunized. The young people themselves influenced many of their peers to be immunized. Health hazards, Mr. Acosta noted, are now being handled through a new family health clinic in the area. Carla Sanger described LA's BEST, an anti-violence program in Los Angeles that is funded primarily by community redevelopment money. In 1988, she said, the mayor created a legal mechanism for using redevelopment money for the local school system and then arranged the general fund for LA's BEST. That program is a 501(c)3 independent nonprofit, which happens to be housed in the mayor's office. LA's BEST is an after-school program whose staff members are trained by the best people it can find. The staff tries to find the most teachable moments with children. Ms. Sanger said the organization works hard to teach the teachers that what they do is less important than the effect it has on the kids. If those kids are not interested in the program, they will simply not show up. The program recently sponsored a talent show in each school. Each act had to decry violence. In keeping with its after-school setting, LA's BEST also includes homework and nutrition segments among its activities. Ms. Sanger said the organization contracts an independent evaluation of the program. It is expensive, she said--about $50,000--but appeals to donors. A recent evaluation showed that more than 75 percent of the children in the program like school more now than they did before entering the program. One reason, she speculated, is that the children come to school better prepared and there is less fighting on the way to and from school. In closing, Ms. Sanger issued a call for development of more after-school programs. Mentoring Moderator: Marc Freedman, Director of Special Projects, Public/Private Ventures, Berkeley, California Panelists: Michael Johnson, Project Coordinator, Project RAISE, Baltimore, Maryland James Lewis, Kids Grow Program, Project RAISE, Baltimore, Maryland Clifton Simmons, Urban Resources Initiative, Project RAISE, Baltimore, Maryland Leon Franklin, Youth Development Specialist, The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Project Choice, Kansas City, Missouri Over the past decade, a new movement to provide volunteer mentors to young people, particularly those living in poverty, has emerged in cities across the United States. Marc Freedman questioned the audience. Why is mentoring so popular? What will it do for communities? Can it deliver? Mr. Freedman spent five years studying mentoring. He found that a large number of programs have been started since the 1980s by organizations such as the Rainbow Coalition, Xerox, IBM, Procter and Gamble, and private foundations. The Clinton administration has also included new initiatives on mentoring. The failure of society to support young people may be the reason for such an interest in mentoring. Today, one-half of children are growing up in single parent homes. Since 1970, the average American has been working more hours and has less time to help young people make the transition to adulthood. In the schools, staff members are overwhelmed with too many students. People no longer know their own neighbors. In the past, social scientists focused on the failure of individual youths. More recently, they are looking at the other side: why individuals succeed. Michael Johnson told the audience that his project, Raising Ambition Instills Self-Esteem (RAISE), is a public-private partnership begun in June 1988, when the City of Baltimore was looking for an imaginative way to decrease the dropout rate and improve the life chances of inner-city public school students. RAISE began with seven sets of sixth graders, who were followed until they completed high school. A second stage of the program (RAISE II) began in the fall of 1990, with three groups of second graders, one group of fifth graders, and two groups of sixth graders. The RAISE II children are assigned mentors and participate in program activities for 7 years. Each child completing high school is guaranteed funding for college or technical training. Mr. Johnson emphasized that the program provides sustained caring connections of three types: a school-based advocate, a sponsoring organization, and one-on-one mentors. Mr. Johnson serves as a school-based advocate and is part counselor, part friend, and part role model to 63 students. He monitors attendance, grades, and behavior; builds trust with the students and their families; and acts as liaison to the mentors. Mentors represent caring connections for the students. Individual mentors are asked to commit to 1 year. They are expected to meet face-to-face with their students at least every other week and to periodically attend training workshops. Currently 44 mentors are assigned to 63 students. Forty-one of these mentors have been with the program for 6 years. Mr. Johnson trains the volunteer mentors in 2-hour workshops that cover communication skills, parenting skills, and cross-cultural differences. Mentors and students complete surveys to determine areas of interest and expectations. Meetings are held with families to see how they would feel about a mentor coming into the family circle. There is usually some apprehension, but Mr. Johnson said that he urges them to give it a try because adjustments can always be made later. The founder and lead supporter of RAISE has been the Abell Foundation, providing over $4.5 million since 1988. The Fund for Educational Excellence operated RAISE until the Baltimore Mentoring Institute was created in January of 1990 to administer the RAISE I and RAISE II projects as well as the Mentoring Resource Center. The resource center is a clearinghouse of information about mentoring models and provider of technical assistance and training. Other sponsoring organizations are varied in composition and mission, ranging from church groups to businesses and colleges. In addition to providing funding, these organizations recruit mentors from their ranks and sponsor various other activities. These organizations commit to support the program for 7 years. Mr. Johnson said the program works. Students need a person they can depend on and trust. Mentors provide an alternative caring relationship that a young person may not be able to find anywhere else. Mr. Johnson indicated that a breakdown in communication often gets him involved in the schools. Sometimes, for example, students do not understand how to solve problems. He has helped students and administrators improve relationships through communication without anger. He has also helped youths deal with authority without hostility. Many times these young people need role playing and other training to figure out how to express needs. Mr. Johnson has worked with parents and students to understand the Baltimore school system. For example, what specialty education is available? This opens the door to educational opportunities. Project RAISE also helps students find ways to give back to the community. For example, participants in the project taught young children Chinese in short sessions. Working with the Yale University Forestry Program during the summer, young people had the opportunity to learn environmental science. The mentoring programs stress academic, social, and cultural education. Clifton Simmons has had a mentor for six years. He admitted that during that time, he has had ups and downs. With the help of his mentor and Mr. Johnson, he believes he has grown up with a positive outlook and hope for the future. Mr. Simmons told the audience that he wrote and implemented a business plan and is currently running his own vending business. He had dropped out of high school, but he is taking a course to get a GED. He plans to attend college to major in architecture. When he entered RAISE, he completed a survey and expressed an interest in art. He was paired with a mentor who owns an art gallery. Mr. Simmons said his mentor has given him opportunities that he would never have had before. An audience member asked whether the cross-cultural match was difficult, because Mr. Simmons is African-American and his mentor is white. Mr. Simmons reflected that when he was first assigned a white mentor, he had a lot of negative thoughts, but it did not take him long to see that color does not matter when it comes to mentoring ability. James Lewis told the audience that he attends a Baltimore city public high school and is studying electronic engineering. His mentor, who has helped him academically to attain a B+ average, takes him on business trips, helps him understand what is needed to prepare for college, and tutors him in math. His goal is to be an aerospace engineer. Mr. Lewis met his mentor when he was entering sixth grade. Despite a cross-cultural match, Mr. Lewis felt that his mentor was someone who accepted him and was always there to help. As part of the RAISE program, Mr. Lewis reported that he served as a junior counselor in a "Kids Grow" summer camp. He led a group of 10 youths in the exploration of forestry, environmental, and natural concerns. They found a polluted stream and contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency to initiate action. Leon Franklin explained that in 1989, Project Choice was founded as a dropout prevention program by The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. The program was initiated in Westport High School. To be part of the program, students agreed to remain drug free, avoid pregnancy, and enter the program in their freshman year of high school. College funding is the reward for those who succeed. Mr. Franklin works with students during their high school years. He was first seen as simply another authority figure, but after hours of walking the halls, attending extracurricular activities, and making himself available to get to know the students, a dialogue was opened. Mr. Franklin admitted that it takes persistence to work with students. He had to get to know their families and neighbors. He is now in a position to see the positive impact of mentoring youths. Project Choice places two staff persons in a school. These staff members also serve the families of the youth. A post-secondary staff takes over for the college students. There is an 800 number to help communication. Mr. Freedman said that during his research, he interviewed 300 mentors and students. He found that making the right match is very difficult. A good match is particularly difficult in cross-cultural situations, often due to communication problems. The strongest relationships are usually created between those with the same ethnic background. Mr. Freedman advised those involved in mentoring programs to realize that youths may need more than one mentor. As young people grow and change, each stage of development may require different mentoring skills and abilities. The most effective programs offer a variety of support.Youth Involvement and Participation Moderator: Ann Rosewater, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Policy and External Affairs, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Jenna K. Thomas, President, Serious Teens Acting Responsibly (STAR), Hardeeville, South Carolina Augusto Rodriquez, President, Board of Young Adult Police Commissioners, New Haven Department of Police Services, New Haven, Connecticut Michelle Edwards, Vice President, Board of Young Adult Police Commissioners, New Haven Department of Police Services, New Haven, Connecticut David Reliford, Youthline Listener, NYC Youthline, Department of Youth Services, Brooklyn, New York Ann Rosewater stated that it is impossible to talk effectively to youth about violence prevention and consequences of violence without hearing from them. Furthermore, it cannot be done without creating opportunities for youths to teach adults lessons about young persons' lives and to contribute to the plans made for them. Ms. Rosewater introduced the presenters on the panel as youths who have been instrumental in designing and operating organizations that give themselves and other youth opportunities for leading constructive lives. Jenna Thomas described Serious Teens Acting Responsibly (STAR) as an organization for youth operated by youth. Whereas many youth organizations are operated by adults, STAR is operated solely by young people, with only advisory functions for adults. Unlike other youth programs, STAR's goal is to prepare youths for long-term success, not for a specific skill. STAR began as a group formed for a few girls and evolved into an organization with more than 400 members, ages 13 through 19. In many communities, members are mostly boys. Through STAR, youths can be placed in paid internships in good companies. The companies are paid by STAR, so the youth work without expense to the company and receive professional experience. There are several chapters in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Connecticut, and North Carolina. STAR has addressed such issues as teenage pregnancy, AIDS awareness, drug abuse prevention, violence prevention, high school dropouts, college preparation, career awareness, environmental justice, multiculturalism, African-American history and culture, and mentoring for younger children. Ms. Thomas maintained that STAR members prefer to work with youth. Indeed, it is STAR policy. She has found that adults are not accustomed to working with youths as authority figures, so adults may ultimately want to control too much. STAR prepares youths for leadership based on the premise that youths must be given responsibility if they are to become responsible. Augusto Rodriquez attends high school in New Haven, Connecticut, which, he pointed out, is the seventh poorest city in the country. Mr. Rodriquez described several of the serious violent altercations he has witnessed, including a homicide, and the impact of these experiences on his outlook. He told how his brother, mistreated by a police officer, finally reached the point of intolerance and went to the police department to request a meeting with the chief to talk about his concerns. He was not only granted the request, but was also asked to join the Board of Young Adult Police Commissioners (BYAPC), an organization chartered in May 1991. The BYAPC consists of 22 members, six of whom are elected from each of the city's six high schools and 16 of whom are appointed by the mayor. The Board members represent a full cross-section of New Haven's population. The Board does not have formal policymaking power, but sets its own agenda and gives advice directly to the chief of police. The Board is now actively interviewing the 60 community policing recruits who will be joining the department next year. The Board also plans fund raising events, such as a Holiday Jam for youths that raised more than $800 for an AIDS hospice last year. Mr. Rodriquez is convinced that the young adult commissioners' involvement in the process "helps us bridge the gap between police and youth." Mr. Rodriquez had praise for Chief Nicholas Pastore and referred to him as a friend of youth. "Together," he said, "we are improving life in New Haven for everyone. We are ready to spread the solution and are available." Michelle Edwards also lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where she attends high school, is a National Honor Society member, is captain of the volleyball team, and holds a part-time job. Ms. Edwards has witnessed or has knowledge of many acts of violence by students that have disrupted and destroyed social and educational opportunities at school. Students, teachers, and other school staff have been attacked, and many teachers lock their doors out of fear. Ms. Edwards was elected to the BYAPC by students at her high school. She was at first critical of the board and thought it was only symbolic, not active. Now that she is a member, she recognizes its accomplishments and sees the board as a viable place for youth to participate in decisionmaking. She cites as an example the board's standing committee on residential drug treatment for adolescents, which was formed in 1991. The purpose of the committee is to try to help provide education, prevention, and treatment for drug abuse among youths in New Haven. The committee conducted a study and discovered that only 110 residential treatment beds for adolescents are available in the entire state of Connecticut, only 20 of which are available for non-insured persons. The study also found that the cost of jailing someone for 1 year, approximately $42,000, is far more expensive than putting someone in residential treatment, which costs about $24,000. The committee resolved to advocate more treatment beds for adolescents, and they were able to obtain 2,000 signatures of students on a petition in support of increased availability of treatment beds. The petition was presented to the Connecticut General Assembly's appropriations committee. In the annual budget, however, no beds were added, but 10 beds for youths were eliminated. After an appeal to the co-chairperson of the assembly's appropriations committee, the 10 beds were reinstated. The BYAPC board is committed to the position that residential drug treatment is the best transition from a negative environment involving drug abuse and crime to a positive one that is drug and crime free. The board recently hired two consultants from Massachusetts to assist with needs assessment, strategic planning, documentation, and fund raising. The consultants were funded in response to a proposal submitted to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in September 1993. The consultants will assist the board in improving its standing with the community, national linkages, fund raising, and community and police relations. David Reliford is a listener with the NYC Youthline, a 24-hour, toll-free national phone service staffed by youth for youth. He pointed out that Youthline is a phone service that gives youths an opportunity to talk if they need someone to listen to them. The line is anonymous and confidential, unless a caller indicates that a homicide or suicide may occur or has occurred. Youthline counselors make referrals to a wide range of services including family planning, job listings, and health care. Youthline uses a geographically based computer system and maintains a database of more than 9,000 youth programs and services. The staff of Youthline are paid youth listeners who receive 90 hours of training in a variety of areas, including gay and lesbian issues; counseling in cases of child abuse, rape, or death and bereavement; and school safety and listening skills. The youth staff are supervised by professionally trained adults. An effective system has been established for situations in which youth listeners are unsure of how to handle a call. The youths have three flags to choose from to get an adult supervisor's attention: a yellow flag indicating need for information, a green flag indicating the caller is abused or a runaway, and a red flag indicating the call involves a homicide or suicide. Mr. Reliford said that most of the calls are about relationships. Youthline is based in New York, but will soon be started in San Francisco also. It is so successful that the Federal Government is considering establishing it nationwide. Mr. Reliford predicted that one day it would be international, because youths everywhere have the same problems.Community Service Moderator: Shirley Sagawa, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, The Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Rick Collins, Deputy Director, Delta Service Corps, Little Rock, Arkansas Michael Canul, Vice President of Operations, Public Allies, Washington, D.C. David Medina, 1993-1994 Public Ally, Public Allies, Washington, D.C. Ira Harkavy, Director, Center for Community Partnerships, University of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Shirley Sagawa explained that The Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorp) gives communities a resource other than money or mandates--people to solve problems. The motto of AmeriCorp is "getting things done," and its first priority is to make a real difference in the community. Ms. Sagawa reported that programs under AmeriCorp have demonstrated an impact on crime prevention. The Delta Service Corps (DSC) was one of the original national demonstration models selected in 1991 by the Commission on National and Community Service. DSC serves 132 counties at over 200 independent service opportunity sites in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Rick Collins stated that DSC's purpose is to promote an ethic of civic responsibility and to provide a structure in which citizens can serve their communities. The DSC recruits members for full- and part-time service. Applicants must be 17 years of age at the start of training, must be citizens of the United States or have a permanent residence visa, and must have a high school diploma or obtain a GED during the service period. As an AmeriCorp program, DSC has an impact on three areas. First, it affects communities "through direct and demonstrable services." Second, the impact "on communities [is made] by strengthening and affecting lasting and constructive changes." This is done with the Golden Triangle concept of bringing other institutions and organizations together to cooperate on common goals. Third, the program affects participants "by developing leadership skills, fostering active, productive citizenship, and enhancing educational opportunities." Mr. Collins identified four national priorities that DSC incorporates into its program. The education component emphasizes school readiness programs, such as Head Start, which foster early childhood development, as well as school success programs, such as after-school tutoring. The public safety element stresses crime prevention and crime control strategies, such as numbering houses to improve the response time by criminal justice services. Human services focuses on both health and home care, such as community-based health care and neighborhood rebuilding. The environmental component emphasizes both neighborhood and natural conservation, restoration, and maintenance programs. Mr. Collins reported that full-time DSC participants receive $7,662 for 9 months of service, health care, and $4,725 in educational benefits. Part-time participants receive $4,050 for 900 hours of service that may be completed in up to a 2-year period, liability coverage while on site, and $2,363 in educational benefits. Public Allies began as a grass roots project only 2 years ago, but it is now a "direct and demonstrable service." Michael Canul stated that participants of Public Allies, who are between the ages of 18 and 30, serve an apprenticeship during a 10-month term. They work 4 to 5 days a week in a nonprofit entity or government agency providing a direct service, such as tutoring or managing programs. Public Allies promotes social responsibility with service projects that have a lasting effect and explore the participants' potential for advancement and leadership. Public Allies invests in training for each of its members. Two years ago, David Medina "was doing what every youth does--trying to make a living." He was on his own at age 16 and had to support himself. Last year, he noticed that the people with whom he associated would eventually get him into trouble. He said he was "given the light" when a dissatisfied drug dealer in Boston told him that a change in his life would take him to better places. That change was Public Allies. Mr. Medina stated that Public Allies gave him insight on how youth can make a difference. "No matter what work you do --lawyer, cook, custodian; you have to give something back," he said. He stated that he wants to help people, regardless of race or sex, even if it is "just a little something. . . ." As a youth counselor, Mr. Medina developed self- esteem and leadership skills in his clients. One youth he was counseling is now in jail for murder. He expressed remorse that this youth's once bright future is now gone. He is determined not to let that happen again. Mr. Medina stressed the importance of telling people they are cared for. Even those who are underprivileged must give back to those who are less fortunate. Mr. Canul stated that violence among youth is a type of a social disease. It has identifiable symptoms, it can spread and overcome communities, and yet, it is treatable as well. He emphasized that professionals must be willing to "get [their] hands dirty" and become involved in service opportunities to prevent violence. Dr. Ira Harkavy introduced the concept of university-assisted schools that are comprehensive centers designed to involve the community in education, service, and neighborhood improvement activities. The West Philadelphia Improvement Corps (WEPIC) is an example of such a program that links the University of Pennsylvania with the Philadelphia community. This strategy uses university resources and involves students, families, and communities. The public school cluster (elementary, middle, and senior high schools) has been shown to represent the most appropriate combination of institutions from which to build effective youth violence prevention and intervention programs. WEPIC offered a summer institute where 60 youths studied nutrition with medical students and undergraduates. The college students taught nutrition to the middle school students, who used this knowledge to inform the rest of the community through flyers and newspapers. Youths also worked in hospitals. As a result, the university became a wellspring of learning for the entire community. Dr. Harkavy emphasized that rather than expecting government to solve community problems, the community must combine the talents and resources of faculty, students, staff, and institutions to become catalysts with the government for community improvement. Community service is at the heart of effective change.Community Health and Community Mental Health Approaches Moderator: Diane Doherty, Director, Children's Safety Network, National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, Arlington, Virginia Panelists: Michelle S. Hassell, Coordinator, PACT Training, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio William H. Wiist, Administration Manager, Houston Department of Health and Human Services, Houston, Texas Janice Hutchinson, Acting Administrator, Child and Youth Services Administration, Department of Human Services, Washington, D.C. Diane Doherty said the Children's Safety Network (CSN) was affiliated with Georgetown University and the Maternal and Child Health Board. CSN fosters the development and inclusion of injury and violence prevention strategies into maternal and child health services, programs, and organizations. CSN seeks to reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with unintentional injuries and violence among children and young adults. CSN holds regular meetings on developing strategies against youth violence. A recent campaign from the Carter Center in Atlanta had the theme, "Not Even One." This campaign was focused against gun violence. Ms. Doherty said that 85 percent of youth homicides are gun-related. Contra Costa County in California has passed a resolution calling for public-private prevention projects aimed at securing safe homes, communities, and schools. Dr. Michele Hassell directs the Positive Adolescent Choices Training (PACT) project. This is a culturally sensitive training program developed specifically for African-American youths to reduce their disproportionate risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence. Seventh and eighth grade students are referred by teachers to attend 26 hours of sessions. The PACT program is not part of a disciplinary process and is presented to the youths as a club, part of the physical education curriculum. It has been very well received by the students. They use team names and colors and have competitions and role-playing situations. Dr. Hassell showed part of a video depicting African-American youths in different anger- producing situations. The PACT training system uses a three-pronged approach, how to "give it," how to "take it," and how to "work it out." The videos are designed to be culturally specific and to help develop particular anger management skills in young people. An evaluation was conducted from 1989 to 1993 involving 130 students who received intervention and a control group of 111 students. Juvenile court records were checked on both groups during the follow up. Only eight percent of those who received the training appeared in the juvenile court records, compared to 21 percent of the control group. Dr. William Wiist represented the Houston Violence Prevention Program, begun in 1992. It is a 5-year, cooperative community-based violence prevention program backed by participating organizations, including The Tejano Center for Community Concerns, Texas Southern University, Houston University, the local health department, and the local school district. Funding is provided by a cooperative agreement with the National Center for Injury Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control. Geographic areas were selected based on ethnic mix (80 percent African-American and Hispanic), quantity of discipline problems recorded, and economic factors. The Tejano Center provides materials in Spanish as well as English. The goal of the project is to reduce mortality and morbidity due to violence among African-American and Hispanic adolescents in large cities with high homicide rates. The intervention consists of (1) an educational program to prepare sixth grade peer leaders in violence prevention and to train high school youths to serve as mentors, (2) organizing community leaders to develop local violence prevention strategies, and (3) training block leaders to serve as neighborhood violence prevention advocates. Youths who have been identified by their peers as influential are enrolled in the program and given training in leadership, interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and educational subjects. They also receive other social guidance or advice through the mentorship, such as movie monitoring. These youths participate 2 to 3 hours per week year-round, and are involved in many recreational activities such as camping. Parent participation has been somewhat weak. Other components of the Houston program also establish neighborhood violence prevention advocates to conduct meetings, locate resources, and lobby. Dr. Janice Hutchinson began her discussion by pointing out that the District of Columbia has three times the national rate of teen violent death and truancy from school. She said children are often abused early in life and exposed to violence about which the parents may be unaware. Dr. Hutchinson spoke about the D.C. Youth Trauma Services Team that works at scenes of violent street incidents, offering counseling to youths who are involved in or who witness these events. The trauma team operates from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Thursday to Saturday each week. They also offer training to police officers and provide links to other community services. The prostitute intervention program, Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), is sponsored by the University of the District of Columbia and offers counseling and support to prostitutes in Washington, D.C. Many of the prostitutes are very young, and they sometimes engage in this trade for the sake of addicted parents. The team offers coffee, chocolate, condoms, and free shelter to those they are able to approach. In the 10 months the program has existed, staff have counseled 400 young women and men. The team coordinates with shelters, private homes, and women's organizations. Although there has been community resistance to HIPS due to the mistaken idea that it supports prostitution, the program has succeeded in safely getting young people off the street and out of that lifestyle. Concurrent Workshops: Home and Family and Domestic Violence Moderator: Anne Menard, Director, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Panelists: Marlies Sudermann, Director, London Family Court Clinic, London, Ontario, Canada David S. Lee, Teen Program Education Coordinator, Battered Women's Alternatives, Concord, California Nancy V. Neylon, Executive Director, Ohio Domestic Violence Network, Cleveland, Ohio Anne Menard defined domestic violence as the use of violence, threats, or coercive tactics against a partner. Most domestic violence involves a man committing acts of violence against a woman. It is reported that 2 to 4 million women are abused by their male partners every year and that 1,400 to 2,000 of these women are murdered. Research on the extent of violence in dating relationships has only just begun. In addition, 3 million children are at risk of witnessing domestic violence each year. This has a serious impact on the children. Dr. Marlies Sudermann stated that "we live in a world where youth are bombarded with violence in the media." She reported that the rates of violence on TV are high, with five acts of violence per prime time hour and 20 to 25 acts of violence per Saturday morning cartoon hour. She illustrated her point with slides of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons, a Freddy Krueger television series, video games and CD covers that depict a woman being raped, and a T-shirt that shows a man holding a gun to a woman's head. Dr. Sudermann stated that wife assault is a major criminal and social problem. In November 1993 statistics, Canada found that 50 percent of women over the age of 18 in Canada reported an assault incident. In addition, severe, repeated violence occurs in 1 out of 14 marriages. It was also reported that domestic violence is the leading cause of injuries to women--more than car accidents, muggings, and rape combined. Dr. Sudermann asserted that the biggest predictor of whether a man will abuse his partner is whether the man has witnessed violence in his own family. Seventy-five percent of men who abuse have, as children, observed violence between their parents. A London Family Court Clinic study found that boys from violent homes have higher rates of violence in general. Children who witness domestic violence have adjustment problems comparable to those of children who are abused. Serious behavioral and emotional problems are 17 times higher for boys and 10 times higher for girls who have observed domestic violence in comparison to those who have not. It has been predicted that 150,000 to 250,000 school- aged children have been exposed to domestic violence. This translates into two to five children per classroom. Dr. Sudermann stated that only long-term prevention tactics can be effective against violence. One such tactic is "A School-Based Anti-Violence Program" (ASAP) sponsored by the London Family Court Clinic. ASAP's goal is to increase violence awareness, confront and challenge attitudes, and develop action plans at the individual and school level. This program stresses staff development and training, community involvement, student programs, and information sessions for parents. The London Family Court Clinic's evaluation of this school-based program shows measurable effects. Before the program was implemented, 19.6 percent of males thought it was permissible to rape a girl if she led him on, 17.5 percent thought it was permissible if she sexually excited him, and 8.1 percent thought it was permissible if she had dated him for some time. After the program, the percents dropped to 15.6, 15, and 5.9 percent respectively. The study also showed, however, a slight increase in the number of males who thought it was permissible to rape a female if he spent money on her or if he was drunk. David Lee stated that the Battered Women's Alternatives (BWA) program provides services, such as a 24-hour hotline, shelters, crisis counseling, a transitional housing program, job training, a legal program, and treatment programs, for those affected by domestic violence. Although services are necessary, prevention strategies should be emphasized. For instance, the Teen Program promotes violence prevention workshops, sponsors youth leadership development programs, and provides resources to other organizations. Mr. Lee maintained that the Teen Program assumes that everybody is born a loving, intelligent, and capable human being. However, as children grow up, they are exposed to pervasive images of violence that encourage the socialization of violence as a norm. In addition, he noted that domestic violence must be seen in connection with sexism, racism, homophobia, and devaluation of others. Alliances such as the Teen Program need to be formed to help children resist oppressive situations. In addition, Mr. Lee noted that prevention must begin at home. If children are exposed to violence in the home, they are more likely to accept and repeat the violence. Although adults play a critical role in marketing CDs, television shows, and clothing that may encourage violent acts, teens are the ones who are blamed and devalued. Mr. Lee stated that adults must give up some of their power and help to create a change in society in order to hear and respect the voice of youth. The Teen Program encourages youths to prevent violence through youth leadership development programs. These programs stress peer advocacy, conflict management, and training of youths to become spokespeople in the community. Mr. Lee trains in San Francisco's Men Overcoming Violence and organizes men to speak out against domestic violence. He stated that supportive men can help to stop violence against women by becoming allies and organizing with women against those men who assault women. Nancy Neylon is the Executive Director of Templum House, which offers both prevention and intervention programs for youths who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence. Research has shown that witnessing family violence can have an adverse effect on the behavioral and emotional development of children.She stressed that children as young as two years can clearly verbalize violence they have seen in their family. Ms. Neylon identified four problems in current intervention strategies. First, there is a lack of coordination among services. Second, compartmentalism of service delivery exists so that programs work with only one problem and do not draw a connection to other affected areas. Third, children are not empowered. Pedophobia, which does not endow children with rights or voices, is prevalent in our society. Finally, current service delivery approaches do not acknowledge that children will usually continue their relationship with an abuser. The services, therefore, do not provide adequate safety programs. In designing an effective intervention program, it is important to frame a goal that defines what will be changed. Support and resources in the community need to be identified and analyzed. How broad an effort the program will encompass should be decided. Community leaders who might be willing to get involved for the long term should be approached. Finally, it is important to get feedback from the community to assess the program's impact. Groups, such as the local and federal juvenile justice systems, court-appointed guardians, and battered women's organizations, may help with evaluation. An effective program needs a philosophy of empowerment to encourage people to make their own decisions. Domestic violence programs must also be connected to other problem-solving efforts in the community, especially against violence in general. A high level of coordination between agencies helps to facilitate change. Child Abuse and Neglect Moderator: Cathy Spatz Widom, Professor, Criminal Justice and Psychology, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York Panelists: Susan J. Wells, Director, Research on Children and the Law, American Bar Association, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Deanne Tilton Durfee, United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, El Monte, California Pat Stanislaski, Executive Director, National Center for Assault Prevention, Sewell, New Jersey Susan Wells noted that 23 percent of reports on abuse and neglect to child protective services (CPS) are made by educators and 16 percent are made by law enforcement. States differ regarding who should receive child abuse reports. Thirty States specify CPS, and 19 States require CPS to notify law enforcement in certain types of cases. But responses to these reports soon involve many agencies. The role of law enforcement is relatively clear in child homicide and sexual assault cases, but there are debates about professional roles and responsibilities in other situations. CPS/police response teams offer several advantages: they help team members understand each others' perspectives, the police can prevent the perpetrator from leaving the scene, the police can protect the CPS worker, and the law can be a motivator for treatment. The past 20 years have seen a shift in the CPS role from a family-oriented agency to a "law enforcement investigative arm" and back again. Law enforcement agencies often say they do not get called enough. There are several different types of teams: diagnostic and treatment, investigative, and review. Teams often suffer from lack of funds, turf wars, lack of mutual respect, personality clashes, and time constraints. Even when funding is available, teams often have difficulty writing proposals because of these problems. Teams can be strengthened and maintained by commitment to a mutual goal and joint training. Deanne Durfee noted that a 1974 act of Congress created the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect, and a 1988 amendment created an advisory board for the Center. Ms. Durfee serves on that advisory board, which comprises 15 members who serve 4-year terms. In 1990, the board declared child abuse and neglect a national emergency and issued a report with 31 recommendations. However, good data on child abuse and neglect is still lacking. There was no national agenda for child abuse and neglect through the 1950's. In the 1960's, research by Halfer and Kemp called attention to the battered child syndrome, and a 1962 paper dealt with inconsistencies between child injuries and parental explanations for them. By 1974, there were child abuse reporting laws in all states. Also in the 1970's, family-child sexual abuse was "discovered." The problem was found to cross class lines, and programs were developed to address it. In the 1980's, child sexual abuse began to receive attention, and society realized that interventions by public health workers, friends and family, mental health professionals, law enforcement, and others were necessary. The 1990's have included a focus on child abuse fatalities and how to prevent them. In 1978, the Los Angeles County Child Abuse Fatality Review Team found that these fatalities usually occurred in the third or fourth child of a parent who started having children as a teenager. Finally, Ms. Durfee pointed to the power of the media to increase public awareness. Television dramas, such as the last Marcus Welby episode, Something About Amelia, Scared Silent, and Oprah Winfrey's discussion of her own childhood abuse, generated a tremendous number of calls to service agencies. Now a backlash exists involving adults who claim to have been wrongly accused. Pat Stanislaski noted that power, or lack of power, is "at the very root of all violence." Empowerment is at the heart of necessary solutions. The Child Abuse Protection (CAP) project began in 1978 after a second grade girl was raped in Columbus, Ohio. Program founders were concerned about the avoidance and victim-blaming they saw. They asked organizations working with adult victims of sexual assault to suggest how their work could be applied to children. CAP programs now operate in 32 States and eight countries. CAP workshops for children give them solid information about how assaults happen, try to lessen their isolation, and work to empower them. Children are told they have the power to make decisions (for example, about what they do with their bodies) and that they have a fundamental right to be safe. The children are invited to speak after the workshop. About 5 percent report major abuse they have never before told anyone. Children's workshops are adapted for preschool through high school, including special education classes. CAP also holds workshops for parents and teachers. About 70 percent of all public schools in New Jersey have had CAP workshops. New Jersey has seen a 16 percent decline in child sexual abuse over the past 3 years. In response to a question about what to do when children are abused by the criminal justice and service systems, Dr. Cathy Widom said not all children are treated the same. People need to document differential treatment and increase people's awareness of this issue. Dr. Widom talks about equality of response at community policing conferences. She also referred to her recent research on child abuse and neglect, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Using a prospective cohorts design, she studied a substantial number of cases, separating abused and neglected groups and comparing them with a matched control group. Results are summarized in an NIJ Research in Brief, The Cycle of Violence. Family Support and Preservation Moderator: Layla P. Suleiman, Associate Director of Programs, Family Resource Coalition, Chicago, Illinois Panelists: Maria Elena Orrego, Consultant, Preservation and Support Services, Commission on Social Services of the District of Columbia Susan Kelly, Director, Division of Family Preservation Services, Michigan Department of Social Services, Lansing, Michigan Mustafa Abdul-Salaam, Executive Director, New Haven Family Alliance, New Haven, Connecticut Layla Suleiman opened the workshop by reminding everyone that a consistent principle of social service is that all families should have access to resources that meet their needs and desires. In today's environment, where many families have trouble staying together, the traditional approaches to human service delivery are challenged. The family support concept seeks to make services to families more accessible, helpful, and empowering. It has emerged as a realistic response to the increasingly complex array of services and types of support that all families need in order to raise healthy, productive children. Ms. Suleiman specifically suggested that successful family support and preservation programs and services should consider: (1) the ecological framework or cultural and social system where the family exists; (2) the developmental perspective of the family as it adapts, changes, and grows as a unit and as individuals; and (3) the issue of empowerment as it relates to individuals and families determining their service needs. Mustafa Abdul-Salaam contended that violence is rooted in the fact that families have not been strengthened. Families are the core of communities and country. They need information and resources to control their environment. The goal should be to help them understand responsible power. When a person feels he or she has no power or control, hope is lost. In this society, power is gained through wealth, knowledge, or influence. Most people do not have particular wealth or knowledge, but they may have influence. Families need to understand power and teach their children about it. History has clearly documented the power of violence in civilization. As a tool of power, violence is witnessed every day in communities, politics, and corporations. To improve the situation, people must understand how to create their own power base. Mr. Abdul-Salaam stressed that there are only positive outcomes when communities, families, and individuals learn to understand and use power. Communities that control resources have the healthiest environments. People in such communities vote, organize, and get action on their concerns. Communities that organize also institutionalize leadership--a critical component for future success. Resources must be invested in underdeveloped communities in order to decrease violence. By emphasizing human and economic development, focusing on families, and empowering parents, a high standard of moral behavior for young men and women can be developed. Community members can be motivated to gain knowledge and information. Maria Elena Orrego pointed out that State planning for family support and preservation is an opportunity for local communities to build collaborative and integrated services. Planning funds are offered by the Federal Government with the requirement that consumers, such as parents and families, be involved in the process. The Federal mandate calls for working in collaboration to minimize conflict. This is an opportunity to harness more resources to stop the wave of violence and destruction. Ms. Orrego said that, as a consultant to the District of Columbia, she sees the planning process following a different route. The District knows where the problems are and what their dimensions are. New thinking looks at the many assets and strengths in the community and determines how best to build upon those. She urged professionals in the field to use the word "participant" rather than "client," because it will help to build respect. Relationships with participants should be built on trust, equality, and respect. Ms. Orrego concluded by stating that pregnancy provides a window of opportunity to support families. During this period, an important dialogue about parenting takes place. Parents should be coached and supported during the prenatal stage. Information and support should continue through the early childhood stages and into adolescence. Parents of adolescents often lack support systems during that critical period. Information and resources can encourage them to be the best parents they can be. Susan Kelly directs the Division of Family Preservation Services for the Michigan Department of Social Services. In that capacity, she has also directed the planning process for family support services. Funds can only be used for new or enhanced programs. Ms. Kelly observed that violence is often tolerated and condoned. It is not just a "youth" problem. For example, at least 50 percent of men who batter a female partner also assault one or more minor children in the family. She advocated developing a partnership with families and communities. She stressed that the problems belong to all, collectively. Removing children from problem homes is not the answer. The first removal usually leads to multiple placements, an average of five. Last year, $11.9 billion was spent in the United States to remove children from their homes. Children often do not understand why they are removed and are emotionally damaged by the experience. In addition, Michigan authorities have found that placing children into restrictive environments (State facilities) almost guarantees a more restrictive future placement. Ms. Kelly showed a video about a young man who formerly stole cars. He was placed in a State facility and given technical training as an auto mechanic. He also was assigned a mentor. The fact that he was able to change his life proved that solutions can be found. Out-of-Home Youth Moderator: Nexus Nichols, Director, Public Policy, National Network of Runaway and Youth Services, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Eliza F. Greenberg, Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts Jeffrey A. Fetzko, Executive Director, Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced Children, Bridgewater, New Jersey Mardia Blyther, Peer Counselor, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, Washington, D.C. Nexus Nichols of the National Network of Runaway and Youth Services began the session by describing a young woman she had helped who was trying to get health care. The woman had fled a violent and abusive home, come to a strange city (Washington, D.C.), and ended up sleeping on a park bench near the White House in February. Despite health problems, this young woman told Ms. Nichols she wanted, above all else, for the violence to stop. Eliza Greenberg has served as a counselor at Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Inc., (Bridge) in Boston for 6 years. Bridge was founded in July 1970 to serve runaways, homeless youth, and other youth on the streets. Since then, Bridge has evolved into a comprehensive multi-service agency, serving an average of 4,000 youths each year. Bridge intervenes in the lives of runaways, homeless youth, and other youth in high-risk situations to offer alternatives to street life, substance abuse, and dependency. Ms. Greenberg pointed out that when asked how they see themselves in the future, street youths most often respond with "pregnant" (if females) or "in jail or dead" (if males). She said the youths do not see any options available to them. Bridge operates a street outreach van, free medical assistance, referrals to emergency housing for up to three days (for youths of 17 years and under), a family life center for young mothers, career counseling, and education (GED) components. The Bridge program has many points of entry, and youths can benefit from whatever applies best to their situation. The residential component of Bridge (Single Parent House and Transitional Living Program) houses homeless youths, young adults, and single parents in Bridge Houses. It provides affordable, supportive housing, weekly group counseling, individual counseling, independent living skills education, stress and time management skills, support for completing a high school education, housekeeping, and work experience. The Bridge Transitional Apartments provide clients who have been through one of the Bridge Houses with an additional year of less formal supervision in their own apartments. Of the street youth participating in the Bridge program, 80 percent came from families not intact, 60 percent experienced either one or both parents having addiction problems, 25 percent indicated there were mental health problems at home, and 65 percent disclosed they had been abused. Ms. Greenberg pointed out that it is necessary to stabilize the young person before it is possible to find sources of psychological problems. She described an example of one young man who had been homeless, unemployed, and gang-involved since the age of 11. He had been shot three times, had used alcohol and marijuana daily since the age of 16, and had several warrants out for his arrest. After the youth was brought to the residential program and began to have a trusting relationship with his counselor, the counselor discovered he had been raped repeatedly from the age of 6 to 11. Although street youths often come across as tough, this posture may be protective. The violence is a response to an inability to see any positive alternatives. Jeffrey Fetzko described his 16-bed shelter and 10- bed transitional program in New Jersey. The New Jersey statute that makes running away a status offense has been a classic example of punishing the victim. Mr. Fetzko said his program has branched into new areas as they were needed, such as family group counseling, educational services, and substance abuse education and prevention. Youths can stay in the transitional living program for about 1 year to gain experience being self- sufficient. They are also assisted to seek jobs, get driver's licenses, and apply to school. All the youths are given individual and group counseling in response to the high incidence of family violence and depression encountered in these cases. Mr. Fetzko has found that, as youth experience some success in economic and educational efforts, their mental discouragement is turned around. Mardia Blyther is a peer educator at Sasha Bruce Youthwork. The program has a 24-hour emergency shelter for runaway youths and maintains contacts with other transitional living programs. Ms. Blyther said that each youth's individual needs have to be targeted, and often this is difficult using traditional methods. Her program relies on youth-to-youth outreach and counseling. When the youth is working with another young person who treats him or her as an equal and a nonthreatening friend, better results may be reached. The young people need to have their opinions respected and not to be subjected to intimidation. Innovative ideas can come out of having young people themselves directing components of the outreach program. Mr. Fetzko commented that the facilities themselves must command respect. He said his group keeps the Somerset facility in good repair and paints it almost twice a year. The youth value their place more when it looks worthy. The youth need an opportunity to succeed at things and to feel they have some control. Additionally, Mr. Fetzko trains his staff in boundary referral-- access to other services provided by neighboring organizations. He has also found that mentoring is very helpful for the youth, particularly in the two or three years after they leave the transitional living program. Sexual Assault Moderator: Lynn Hecht Schafran, Director, National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts, National Organization for Women, New York, New York Panelists: William D. Pithers, Director, Vermont Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Sexual Abuse, Waterbury, Vermont Vangie Foshee, Assistant Professor, Public Health Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Lynn Schafran asked attendees whether two statements were true or false. The first statement was, "If a man spends a lot of money on a woman, he has the right to force sex on her." The second statement was, "If a woman wears a tight skirt and walks alone at night, she is asking for it." Ms. Schafran reported that in one survey of high school students, some boys and also some girls said the statements were true. Vangie Foshee described the Safe Dates program, a partnership between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Johnston County community. The program targets eighth and ninth grade students in Johnston County. The program's primary goal is to reduce the percentage of adolescents who have ever been a victim of dating violence by 35 percent and to reduce psychological abuse by 35 percent as well. Ms. Foshee stated that some studies have shown that 30 to 40 percent of high school students have experienced abusive sexual situations. The program targets students who have never been abused and encourages those who have been abused to get out of abusive relationships. Students watch a "Safe Dating" play in required health classes and study a "Safe Dating" curriculum. Numerous agencies and officials--14 schools, the district attorney's office, hospitals, police departments, probation officers, and others-- collaborate in the program, and training activities are spread throughout the year. The program seeks to decrease gender stereotyping, improve conflict management skills, increase acceptance of norms favoring nonviolence, and foster an ability to get help. In a program evaluation procedure that includes students who drop out of school, students are tested before training, one month after training, and one year after training. The 1,200 students in middle and high schools who receive the training and a control group of 1,200 students who do not receive the training are tested. Dr. William Pithers used several figures to sketch the economic costs of child sexual abuse. In Vermont, he said, the cost of investigating and prosecuting a case of child sexual abuse is $60,000. Nationally, in 1990, a total of 85,647 sex offenders were incarcerated at a cost of $2 billion. The emotional and social costs, however, are impossible to estimate. Dr. Pithers stated that 40 to 80 percent of sexual abusers of children were themselves abused as children. Society must heal those who have been abused and prevent future abuse, he said. Prevention requires intervening as early as possible into the lives of abusers. Dr. Pithers described the program in which he is involved, "Partnership for an Abuse-Free Vermont: Transforming Vermont into the First Abuse-Free State." One element is the STEP program, which has a family-based focus. Including the family of an abuser in the treatment, he said, greatly increases the chance that the abuser will finish treatment. Another motivation, he added, is making offenders pay part of the cost of their treatment. Recidivism runs high among sex offenders. The three dimensions of relapse prevention, as described by Dr. Pithers, are internal self-management, external supervision (even more important than self- management), and structural integration of assessment and treatment. Dr. Pithers said that among those who entered the treatment program, the recidivism rate for rapists was 19 percent and for pedophiles 7 percent over a period of about 8 years. Ms. Schafran concluded the session with comments about her organization's activities. The National Organization for Women published a survey about sexual harassment in Seventeen magazine and received more than 4,000 responses. Many girls are afraid to go to school, she said, because they cannot bear the touching and groping that occurs. Some, she stated, drop out of school. Ms. Schafran mentioned the Glen Ridge, New Jersey, case in which a group of high school athletes raped a retarded girl. The offenders received short sentences in a youth camp. However, Ms. Schafran stated, because sex offenders recidivate at a higher rate than any other class of criminals, it is ineffective merely to jail them without treatment. She called for such cases to be taken more seriously.Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs Moderator: Barbara W. Sugland, Research Associate, Child Trends, Inc., Washington, D.C. Panelists: Marion Howard, Director, Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia The Reverend Ms. Carolyn Holloway, Multi-Ethnic Center, New York, New York Douglas Kirby, Director of Research, ETR Associates, Santa Cruz, California Dr. Barbara Sugland stated that the problems and concerns that arise from teenage pregnancy are well documented. The greatest impact of teenage pregnancy is the loss of opportunity for education, employment, and other life experiences. The Reverend Carolyn Holloway operates a program for youth and families in New York City's Chinatown. It provides comprehensive support for teens and elders. The goals of the program are: o To be in partnership and cooperation with the home, school, and multi-ethnic community; o To increase the level of self-esteem, especially among young people who are underachievers; o To secure for young people a greater awareness of themselves and others; o To provide intergenerational counseling and skills building; and o To provide nontraditional female and male mentoring. The Multi-Ethnic Center (MEC) was established in 1986 in response to high school failure rates and other problems in New York's Lower East Side. The after-school program provides individual tutoring, homework help, and an educationally oriented arts program. The center has expanded to include a "Youth Alive" segment that sponsors retreats away from the city for teens and pre-teens. The "Elders' Circle of Wisdom" provides an opportunity for those over the age of 55 to share their experiences with the youth. MEC serves youths ages 6 to 18, of whom two-thirds are African-American, one-fourth are Asian, and a few are Hispanic. Most are from single-parent households, and many are latchkey children. The center has programs for elementary school children and pre-teens. The center's philosophy is that prevention efforts must begin at an early age. In working with youth, Ms. Holloway realized that, while many young people are involved in difficult and serious situations, youth just want to be youth. They do not want to grow up too fast, but too often they have no choice. The center holds "rap" sessions that address these issues and give youths an opportunity to talk about their concerns and know that someone is listening and caring. Ms. Holloway has also found that "education provides the best deterrent to the statistics." The program instills in the youths respect for their bodies so that they can have a different outlook from which to make decisions that involve their bodies. A unique component of the program is its elder care segment. Through this, youths can see the impact their babies may have on the elders of the community, who all too often are the ones to care for the children of teenage mothers. Dr. Douglas Kirby has conducted research on the effectiveness of pregnancy prevention programs and has found that school-based programs are the most effective. He pointed out that pregnancy prevention efforts should focus on schools, since all youth are enrolled in school at some point before they engage in sex. Dr. Kirby provided a brief history of pregnancy prevention strategies. The first generation of programs focused on providing information and dispelling myths about sex. While these programs increased youths' knowledge, they had no proven impact on behavior. Behavioral research suggests knowledge is not highly correlated to behavior. The second generation of programs focused on imparting values and on teaching decision-making and communication skills. These types of programs still showed no statistically significant impact on behavior. The third generation of programs grew out of opposition to the first and second generation types. These suggested abstinence and were religion-based. Researchers do not yet know what impact these programs have had on behavior. The fourth generation of programs is theoretically based. Evaluation of these programs shows that some have had an impact on behavior. Practitioners in the field of pregnancy prevention believe this confirms that educational programs can make a difference. Dr. Kirby presented study findings from three programs with proven success. These programs had several characteristics in common: o They focused narrowly on reducing sexual risk- taking behavior. o They were based on social learning theories. o They provided basic information and activities to personalize information. o They included activities that address the social and media influences on sexual behavior. o They reinforced clear and appropriate values and norms. o They provided modeling of communication skills. o They provided training for program implementers. As director of a family planning clinic, Dr. Marion Howard has made several observations about approaches to pregnancy prevention among youth. Through the media, youth get very diverse and conflicting messages about sexual behavior and its consequences. They often do not have the information to sort these conflicts out. Those providing pregnancy prevention education must correct misinformation and provide new information. She also noted that those who are sexually involved receive much attention and have many support elements available--contraceptives, sexually transmitted disease (STD) education and treatment, prenatal care, and childcare. Yet, for those who do not engage in sex, there is no reinforcement that tells them, "good job." It became apparent to Dr. Howard that "we need to institutionalize support for youth who are delaying engaging in sex." Youth who are sexually active need to focus on minimizing sexual involvement. The consequences of having multiple partners and unprotected sex are not just related to reproduction, but to life and death. AIDS, STDs, and infertility can result. The focus of the teen pregnancy prevention program that Dr. Howard operates is delaying the start of sexual behavior through empowering older teens to work as role models. This peer-based program, operating in Atlanta public schools, hired 60 teenagers (30 male and 30 female) who undergo 20 hours of training and attend 2-hour in-service training sessions each month. Teenagers, according to Dr. Howard, have not developed the same psychosocial skills as adults and cannot be approached in the same manner. Teenagers live in a media age where there is much confusion about sex and the reasons for engaging in it. Those who do not engage in sex, as well as those at risk for becoming pregnant, need support.Media Literacy and Advocacy Moderator: Margi Trapani, Director, Child Health and Development Media Program, New York, New York Panelists: Elizabeth Thoman, Executive Director, Center for Media Literacy, Los Angeles, California Ivan J. Juzang, President, Motivational Educational Entertainment Productions, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Paul A. Teruel, Production Director, Street Level Video, Chicago, Illinois Arthur L. Kanegis, President, Future WAVE, Santa Fe, New Mexico Margi Trapani referred to the effort of finding positive alternatives to replace media influences that favor violence. She gave the scriptural quote, "Seek not to contest with evil, lest ye be taken by the spirit of contention--rather, concern yourself with goodness." Elizabeth Thoman, representing the Center for Media Literacy, the largest developer of media literacy educational resources, has undertaken several assessment studies of the media. The Center's mission is to inform citizens about what they are viewing. An informed citizenry sees beyond what is shown on the screen. They know how the programs got there. Media literacy attempts to get people to look past the circle of blame. Responsibility is not on the advertisers who sponsor violence or the persons who produce violent films to please the sponsors. The consumers themselves, who watch violent films and purchase the sponsors' products, drive the industry. The media do not really cause violence; mass media are an integral part of society, and society buys violence. Ms. Thoman stated that all of the current five generations, children to senior citizens, need to be educated. Citizens must use all the educational processes, schools, libraries, and churches. The Center for Media Literacy produces a monthly magazine, Media & Values, and prepares curricula for media literacy. There are currently 10 different media literacy workshop kits. Another program directed at youth is "Beyond Blame: Countering Violence in the Media." This uses four video-based curricula for elementary students, middle school or junior high school students, adult or teen community groups, and parents and caregivers of young children. Arthur Kanegis is associated with such pictures as War without Winners, and The Day After. He works with one of Hollywood's top producers, Robert Watts, to produce films and entertainment products with new kinds of nonviolent heroes and heroines. This is a response to President Clinton's call to the entertainment industry to help give children nonviolent ways to resolve their own frustration. Mr. Kanegis founded Future WAVE, Inc. (Working for Alternatives to Violence in Entertainment) to answer this call. Future WAVE is developing an educational resource center to offer Hollywood's creative teams practical alternatives to violence that they can incorporate into their productions. Mr. Kanegis provided an overview of his new program for empowering young people with the tools for violence-free creative conflict engagement. It is built around The Legend of the Bullyproof Shields, a rap and roll opera that uses multicultural music. The legend describes a series of 10 shields made by Shona Bear, a Muskogee (Creek) medicine woman, that carry the spirits of the bear, unicorn, lynx, lion, yak, porpoise, raven, otter, owl, and fox, creating the acronym BULLYPROOF. The opera has been effectively used in schools, particularly when presented by those students who most need assistance, such as truants and disruptive youths. The musical stage play, while fun and cross- cultural in influence, requires the students to learn their lines and play roles. Children's books, music videos, and public service announcements are also built around the program's violence prevention themes. Paul Teruel, production director for Street Level Video, uses the video production process to get youth involved in using the media to present neighborhood and street issues and possible solutions. The students invent the story line, act in the scenarios, and edit the film. They have produced over 50 such videos, which are available to schools, recreation centers, civic groups, and other interested organizations. Ivan Juzang, founder and president of Motivational Educational Entertainment Productions (MEE), is a nationally recognized leader in communicating with urban youth. Recently the company was recognized as one of the most effective agencies to link with the present "Hip-Hop" generation. The company based its production effort around the results of research completed on urban youth living in at-risk environments. The company has produced two video documentaries on these results. Qualitative research has found a number of faulty assumptions that contribute to the lack of communication with inner-city youth, including the idea that there is a homogeneous "street culture" and that inner-city youths make decisions in their mid-teens about drug use or other self-destructive actions. Decisions are actually made much earlier. The dominant culture's style of communication is not effective, and parental injunctions such as "Just say no!" and "Stay in school!" coming from mainstream society are not believable. If people want to better understand the inner-city culture based on youth-to-youth and adult-to-youth contact, they need to listen, a part of communicating. Outdated messages and the wrong messengers have been used. As senders, youths can channel the message to obtain peer acceptance. This strategy includes preventing violence. The Atlantic Project has attempted to involve the general media in getting messages across. No one can make changes in the media by simply requesting them. The media belong to the people, but it takes empowered people to have an impact on what is shown. Some in the entertainment community support efforts to reduce the violence and present more positive conflict resolution alternatives. Keynote Speakers and Afternoon Plenary Session Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States, (Transcript of Presentation) If we had a disease in our country that was killing 65 people a day, this country would be mobilized. We would not rest until we had figured out how to stamp out that epidemic--particularly when it meant the deaths of seven young people a day. We know now that there is an epidemic of violence. Yet, some among us either refuse to accept the ravages of that epidemic or have other agendas than the saving of lives and the reforming of people's futures. Conferences like this, including people from around this country, speak loudly and clearly to elected representatives, telling them, "Enough is enough, and America wants action now." I especially want to thank all the cities that sent teams to this conference. We know we have to form partnerships among all different kinds of people in every community and at the local, State, and Federal levels, in order to combat the ravages of violence. I also particularly want to thank the young people who are here. I love their enthusiasm and the sound of young voices speaking out on what they care about. Your being here and being willing to commit yourselves to finding solutions is very significant. I am grateful to you for accepting this responsibility. This conference, as those of you who are participants know, is about possibilities and about success. And it is about never, never giving up. I often give commencement speeches. I've heard many, as I am sure all of you in this room have. But the favorite I have ever heard about is the one Winston Churchill gave at his prep school, when he strode to the podium and with very few introductory words said, "Never, never, never give up." That is the way I feel about every single young person in our country today. Every young man or woman has a God-given potential that we at our peril give up on. It is incumbent on us, as representatives of the adult community of this society, to commit ourselves to you young people. If you don't give up on yourself, we will not give up on you. It is a lot harder, in many ways, growing up today than it was when many of us in this room were coming up. I bet most of us remember the occasional black eye, hurtful word, pushing, and shoving. I just thank God that, given the strong emotions that accompany growing up no matter where you are, we did not have guns. The most we could do with one another was yell, scream, and shove. Think of what it is like today. The young people in this room and millions of others like them are immersed in a culture of violence--a culture that, in so many ways, glorifies violence. We see it every day on television, we see it in our movies, but worst of all we see it every single day in the streets and neighborhoods where children are trying to grow up, where too many, in effect, are raising themselves. In too many neighborhoods, gunfire is a daily ritual of life. An Uzi is a badge of honor, instead of the mark of cowardice, which it truly is. A bullet wound is an emblem of adulthood. From hospital to hospital in the last year and a half, I have gone into emergency rooms. Over and over, I saw the epidemic of violence raging in many of our communities: 13- and 14-year-olds with bullet wounds. They are brought in, not with one bullet, but with multiple bullets from an assault weapon. The techniques of medicine cannot even keep up with the carnage that is daily brought to the doors of the emergency rooms. You go to any emergency room in any medium-sized city, let alone a large city in our country, and you talk to the doctors and nurses there, as I have. If you do not believe violence is an epidemic, you will become quickly convinced as they tell you stories of struggling to save 13- and 14-year-old lives. Sometimes they are saving those lives only to send those kids back out on the street, where they are likely to be returned to that emergency room in a relatively short period of time. We see this violence every day as we pick up our newspapers. In Washington today, another 13-year- old was gunned down on a street corner. His killer was also 13 years old. In Washington last summer, gunshots were fired at a public swimming pool packed with children trying to escape the 90-degree heat. A few months ago, a 4-year-old girl was fatally shot in the head when groups of youngsters opened fire on an elementary school playground. And during the last week, a 1-year-old was grazed by a bullet from a gun fight. What does it say about a society that has graduated from the taunts, thrown punches, and raised fists we all remember from schoolyard fights of the past, to 13-year-olds being gunned down on street corners, 4-year-olds being killed on playgrounds, and 1-year-olds being grazed by bullets? Children are not only the victims of violence but, all too frequently, the perpetrators. In the 1980's, more than 11,000 people died as a result of homicides committed by teenagers. Gunfire and drive-by shootings have become so commonplace that many people don't even notice it or talk about it any more. In matter-of-fact ways, children tell you that they are not sure they will live to finish high school. They confront not only academic challenges, but challenges to their physical safety. There is, as you know, no simple answer to this epidemic of youth violence. That is why we have brought federal agencies together to fulfill the President's pledge to begin, at least, to address this problem. We need a comprehensive strategy that emphasizes responsibility and opportunity and community. We need health reform, welfare reform, job training programs, and life-long learning programs. The voices of young people today can testify to the importance of recreational facilities, educational programs, family support services, and other preventive measures that nurture hope and possibilities for our young people. Those who voted against the Crime Bill last week don't seem to care that our children cannot feel safe at school. A recent survey showed that 15 percent of school children believe there are gangs in their school. Almost one in 10 students in high school reported that in the previous month there had been at least one serious physical fight. Time after time Congress caved in to the pressure of special interests instead of making this legislation law. The Crime Bill is not perfect--no piece of legislation is. I bet every one of us would have written it slightly differently, would have added or taken out according to what we thought was best. But it is a critical, important, and necessary start. It is, for the first time, a piece of legislation that lays down the twin principles of fighting crime: punishment and prevention. Let us focus on some of the pieces of this Crime Bill that are so important, like YES, the Youth Employment Skills Program. It is important to give young people in high unemployment areas the skills they need to be able to find jobs. Another good program is the Community Schools Program that will give grants to community groups to keep schools open after hours, on weekends, and during the summer, so that kids can have safe places where they can engage in learning and recreation, where there can be adult mentors and coaches. If schools can be used as safe havens for youngsters, children will be safer. When it takes both parents in a home working, or when it takes a single parent working to sustain the household, that person should not have to live in fear of what happens to their children on the street between the time school is over and the time they get home for dinner. The Gang Resistance Education and Training Program, called GREAT, is already a proven success. We often fight a losing battle to convince young people not to join gangs. Why? Because the gang provides a haven. Not safe! But a haven. It provides a "family." It provides a network of people who say they will look out for each other and fills a vacuum in the lives of thousands and thousands of youngsters. A positive alternative, a program like GREAT, where young people can be safe and grow together is much better. Children can learn to resist the false, in many ways dangerous, seductive pleasures the gang proposes in the short run, which lead to death and misery for so many children. Consider also programs supporting police partnerships for children, programs where police officers take time to work with young people. These programs, together with community policing, provide a bulwark against problems on the street. We have the opportunity to transform our police officers not only into instruments of punishment but also instruments of prevention. The Violence Against Women Act is also an important part of the current Crime Bill. Women should not be victimized, whether in the home or on the street, and we need to give our law enforcement officials a tool to protect women. When you merge all of this prevention with the other law enforcement elements, it adds up to a well-balanced, reasonable approach that mixes prevention and punishment. Those of you participating in this conference know first-hand what it will take in your own home towns to combat violence. The Crime Bill is a critical step, but it is not a panacea. It is not going to bring families together; it is not going to get adults to give children all the supervision, love, discipline, and attention they need; it is not going to instill a sense of faith and responsibility in the souls of young people who have been damaged and alienated. It will, however, begin to put into place people, institutions, and programs to help young people and their families get to those outcomes. It can give people a chance to feel they are part of something bigger than themselves. It can lay the line very clearly that you have to know the difference between right and wrong, and we are going to hold you responsible for your choices and the consequences of those choices. The whole issue of youth violence indicates something much more profound. It indicates that literally millions of Americans have walked away from their responsibilities. That is what we are ultimately trying to reverse. The individual is responsible for his or her actions. Society is also responsible for individuals. It is not an either/or situation. Let's just stop for a minute and ask ourselves, "Haven't we wasted enough lives? Haven't we lost enough young men and women to prisons? Haven't we turned our back too many times on the God-given potential of every one of our young people?" I don't care what race they are; I don't care where they live. Every single young person in this country has a spark about them that we have for too long allowed to be extinguished by the level of violence, hatred, and divisiveness that still stalks this country. We can do much better than that. Look at the faces of the young people around you today. We know we can do better. But not unless we are willing to stand up and be counted. We are going to begin to save a generation of young people from this epidemic of violence. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Assistant Dean, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts I am honored to be here because I know many of you here, and I know what we have accomplished together. This conference has a special excitement about it, in part because it has so many young people participating. The multidisciplinary aspect of it and the visit by the First Lady make it special. It's tiring to go to conferences. You work hard and see the same faces over and over. When we go home, we lose that spirit that helps us to try to do things differently. This is an important time for us. Still, when we get home, it's hard to do things any differently. This conference is important because we are the national movement to prevent violence. During my internship, I pondered the words of a spiritual, "I ain't no way tired--I come too far." We believe that we can live lives without violence. We might get tired, but we must inspire ourselves and each other to keep on and prevent violence. This conference is not about my program, your program, or somebody's videotape, it is about preventing violence in our lives. Nor is it about who's got the "best" or who's got the "most." It is about a national movement to change the fabric of this country. We have a problem that no other industrialized country has. Whether we are from Arkansas, Detroit, or anywhere else in the country, we have to stop teaching children to admire violence. You know why children admire violence? Because they are raised in a society that admires violence. Violence is part of the feeling of who we are. We must stop teaching children to admire violence. We have to change that feeling of "who we are," the fabric of this society. Adults have as much of a problem on this issue as the children do. Adults make guns, make violent films, even produce and distribute violent rap songs. Did you read the recent article in People magazine about the L.A. Coroner's office? They are selling toe tags. You can buy toe tags with the names of dead people on them. You can buy T-shirts with images of the taped outlines of bodies, as seen in police investigation areas. We have "Rambo" hearts and "Terminator" heads. We watch children who are in trouble and do nothing. When they need primary prevention and secondary intervention, we do nothing. But as soon as they have committed a violent crime, we get aggressive and spend a lot of money. The mayor of Milwaukee told me about the conviction of a 17-year-old who had committed murder. The mayor was understandably satisfied that this young man had been convicted, because it was a horrible murder. The 17-year-old was sentenced to 73 years incarceration, without opportunity for parole. Later, I thought about that conversation again, because the mayor had also spoken about the city's summer jobs program. He said the city government had not been able to get the Federal money they wanted. It dawned on me that we are willing to spend $35,000 a year on the same kid to whom we won't give a $2,000 summer job. It does not make sense on either the individual or public policy level. In the process of teaching one of our violence prevention courses, I received a call from one of our counselors. She had a young man who had been in the summer program who was depressed. He had avoided and prevented fights, but his friends didn't think that was a good idea. They didn't like him as well. Not only that, his parents didn't think preventing fights was necessarily a good idea. Although he tried to prevent violence, he was in a world that did not appreciate that effort. Our culture doesn't believe in or like nonviolence. It doesn't make the news. If we really want things to change, we will have to live without violence and believe in nonviolence. Forgiveness, empathy, compassion, compromise, and mediation are not very popular. Those are the things the "wimps" do. They are not celebrated. Half of the homicides in the United States are not drive-by or drug-related shootings. They are friends, families, and neighbors who get into an argument. If you and I are going to get along, we have to forgive each other, listen, and compromise with each other. Reginald Denny, the man who had been beaten in Los Angeles, was on the Phil Donahue show together with one of those accused of beating him, a couple of jurors, and family members. As the discussion went on, Reginald talked about forgiveness, and the audience became quite hostile. One woman said, "Why didn't you let the jury do what they should have done and send that man to jail?" It was scary to see how unpopular forgiveness is. People don't understand the concept. Reginald Denny said, "It's in my religion to forgive." Then the woman responded, "Well, what kind of religion do you have?" All the world religions I know have something about forgiveness in them. --------------------------------------- Plenary Panel: Comprehensive Community Planning Strategies for Solving Youth Violence Moderator: John A. Calhoun, Executive Director, National Crime Prevention Council, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Thomas J. Monaghan, U.S. Attorney, District of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska Stefanie Sanford, Chief, Juvenile Crime Intervention Division, Office of the Attorney General, Austin, Texas Robert L. Mallett, City Administrator, District of Columbia Debra S. Lindsey-Opel, Executive Assistant to the Mayor, Corpus Christi, Texas John Calhoun began the session by offering a description of the human face of violence. He quoted an 8-year-old boy from Hartford, Connecticut, as saying, "I like school, but I have to worry about getting home alive." Crime claims two victims, Mr. Calhoun said: the person hurt and the community that suffers fear. Crime prevention strategies should operate on three levels: individual response, community involvement, and national public policy. He said the first two panelists, Stefanie Sanford and Robert Mallett, would speak on the process of combating violence, while the second two speakers, Thomas Monaghan and Debra Lindsey-Opel, would speak on the content of their strategies. Ms. Sanford spoke about the Texas Cities Action Plan (TCAP), a multi-city attempt to prevent violence. In Texas, major increases in prison spending had struggled to keep up with an increase in serious crime. In fact, prison capacity rose from 25,000 in 1982 to a projected 150,000 in 1996, when current building is finished. To get a prevention program going, Ms. Sanford said, it is necessary to involve conservatives (who usually prefer punishment to prevention). The media are accustomed to hearing about prevention from child advocacy groups and others of a similar bent. But when a police chief or business CEO speaks out on behalf of violence prevention, the media pay more attention. A successful anti-violence campaign also needs a "media heavy-hitter," someone who can get reporters and cameras to attend the big meetings. In addition, such a campaign needs articulate, savvy people on its board. Star power also helps. Ms. Sanford said a radio talk-show star in San Antonio joined the project and succeeded in getting other people to attend meetings. TCAP faced major problems such as apathy (it is hard for voters to act when they see only incremental, not major, successes), inertia (the job is so big people cannot start), and people's belief that violence is something for government to solve. Any positive media coverage of TCAP's activities helped to keep those involved enthusiastic about the effort. TCAP also published a biweekly newsletter to keep cities up-to-date with what the other cities in the program were doing. The newsletter fostered competition among the cities. A recurring criticism of the project, Ms. Sanford said, was that all of the steps TCAP was taking had been done before. TCAP was different, however, because it made action steps (not "should" statements, but actual lists of activities for the group to do). It involved the citizens, made plans public, and followed an organized process. When violence-prevention proposals are made public, many good people will step forward and ask, "When can I start?" Mr. Mallett described Washington, D.C.'s experience as a part of Project PACT (Pulling America's Communities Together). Violence in Washington, he said, is headline news across the nation. However, crime in Washington is substantially down. For example, homicide has dropped 15 percent over the last year. Washington was invited by the federal government to participate in PACT, to identify programs that were fighting violence, and to aid those programs. Therefore, the city government sought neighborhood, community, and religious leaders. The work of PACT is done by grassroots stakeholders in the communities. The efforts include a broad range of people, Mr. Mallett said: lawyers, doctors, homosexuals, Asians, and African-Americans. Violence touches them all, he said, and they can all help solve the problems. Several obstacles arose. One is cynicism. People would ask, "How many task forces must we form before we get serious?" Another is hopelessness. Mr. Mallett said the level of hopelessness in Washington is overwhelming. There is more hopelessness there, he said, than anywhere he had ever lived. He described citizens' pronounced detachment from the city government. In Washington, he said, people are much more attached to the Federal Government and have little faith in the city government. Time is another obstacle. He had to convince people not just to join PACT but to stick with it for a long time. Momentum, too, was a challenge. So far, PACT has gathered statistics on violent crime, helped the juvenile justice system work better, and helped city agencies to work better together. Mr. Mallett said the main goal is to stop the terrible crimes--the people getting killed--in Washington. Mr. Monaghan, representing PACT of Nebraska, discussed why Nebraska is participating in the PACT program. People from Los Angeles and elsewhere had found a market for crack cocaine in the cities of Nebraska. Once they came to the State, violent crime escalated, especially for youthful offenders. Law enforcement worked hard to catch the shooters, he said, but more had to be done. Prevention was needed. The Nebraska PACT program decided against using a steering committee. Many smart people in the State were already working on preventing violence, Mr. Monaghan said. PACT decided to include them all. Youth, social workers, judges, law enforcement officers, and others were brought together to share ideas for a written plan. PACT works to strengthen neighborhoods, expand youth participation in community life, and teach dispute resolution. PACT leaders also knew that they must work to strengthen families and give them the chance to solve their own problems. PACT leaders knew they must address people's values. Since PACT was organized by the governor's office and the U.S. attorney, the program leaders had to exclude any particular religion from the values they stressed. They simply tried to encourage people to care about each other, not to cheat on taxes, and to behave in other ways that showed civic virtue. The reason PACT and other violence-prevention efforts must continue, Mr. Monaghan said, pointing out his daughters in the audience, is so that children like his daughters, and their children in turn, can live in safety. When TCAP was started in Corpus Christi, Ms. Lindsey-Opel said, Texas was spending great sums of money on prisons and law enforcement officers. However, by the end of the TCAP process, she noted, the State had become much more prevention- oriented. The TCAP committee she headed included car dealers, community advocates, and anyone else who wanted to join. The group held town hall meetings to gather the ideas of the people. The TCAP program in Corpus Christi had four key elements. First was a top-notch support team of Federal, State, and local government officials. Second was a good organizational structure consisting of a four-person steering committee, a 26-person coalition, and many committees on specific topics. Third was the fact that participants truly embraced the process. Finally, the mayor and the police chief also fully supported TCAP. TCAP leadership tasked the committees with bringing back specific crime prevention recommendations. The recommendations were not necessarily the very best, Ms. Lindsey-Opel said, but they were good and realistic; and there was a deadline to meet. The TCAP plan represented Corpus Christi residents' vision for their city. Several activities resulted from TCAP's work. Now, after certain legal actions that involve or affect children (such as divorce), the local court orders the parents to participate in educational programs. Ms. Lindsey-Opel said 99 percent of the parents have rated the program favorably. A Weed and Seed program has been started that has increased community policing, and a large police athletic league has begun. The city of Corpus Christi is also developing security action plans for middle schools. The city has developed a supervised parental visitation center where combative, separated parents can transfer kids without seeing each other and where court-ordered parental visits that must be supervised can be held. Keynote Speakers, Tuesday, August 16, 1994 Kelly Zimmerman National Youth of the Year, National Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Orrville, Ohio Ms. Zimmerman revealed that she originally questioned why she was asked to speak on violence, because she did not live in an area that suffered from gun- or gang-related violence. She realized, however, that the family violence she had experienced was not unique and that its prevention measures were similar to other forms of violence. Ms. Zimmerman acknowledged that she is a survivor of the physical and emotional abuse caused by her father's alcoholism. She stated that her earliest memory of her father was of him beating her mother. She had witnessed her father rape her mother and threaten her grandmother with a gun. Her younger sister's only recollection of her father was of him throwing a pan of hot water on her. Like many victims of violence, she credited her perseverance to becoming involved in activities away from the home. She stated that the Boys and Girls Club gave her the stability and direction she needed to resist drugs and alcohol. The Boys and Girls Club staff is made up of people from all walks of life devoted to serving their community's children. She described each of the staff members as a necessary link in building a bond in the community. She praised the leaders' dedication to making the Club a positive place to be. That commitment encouraged her own continued participation. Similar organizations have effective facilitators that can create a sense of belonging. If young people do not get that sense of belonging from the home or organizations like the Club, they may seek refuge in gangs. Ms. Zimmerman emphasized the importance of communicating to youths that they matter. This can be done by motivating youths to become community oriented. She commended her local United Way for demonstrating concern for the youth by giving full voting power to her as youth member of the United Way Board of Trustees. Ms. Zimmerman quoted Emerson's statement, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. When you do something, do it with all your might. Put your own soul in it. Stamp it with your own personality." She applauded those kids who were so enthusiastic about the issue of violence prevention that they took a week out of their summer vacation to become involved in the conference. She also commended those adults who put their time, energy, and sanity into this conference. They believe in the future of the youth. Ernesto Cortes, Jr., Director, Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, Austin, Texas As an organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation with the Alinsky Institute, Mr. Cortes stated that to do something about crime and violence, the single most strategic, preventive program is a healthy, viable community. This strategy is rooted in the reorganization and redevelopment of families. In the past 20 to 25 years, there has been an economic war on families, which has made it difficult for families to sustain themselves. The base of the economy has moved from manufacturing and distri-bution of goods to a service-oriented, globalized market. This has produced incredible pressures on the ability of families to sustain themselves. Mr. Cortes noted that there has been a 30 percent decline in real income since 1973 for white males who have graduated from high school. In order for the family income of 1989 to compare to that of 1973 in terms of real purchasing strength, the family income has to be augmented by at least one other adult working person. Consequently, the family has been transformed from an institution whose primary purpose was nurturing, developing relationships, developing identity, raising children, and building communities, to an institution that is an economic unit, whose primary purpose is the business of making or moving economic resources. Because of these pressures on families, Mr. Cortes emphasized that it is more important to develop "the capacities of families and communities to organize, to be viable entities able to articulate their interests and to make them significant in the public agenda." His job, he said, is to teach families about politics in the sense that Aristotle meant it, debate and discussion on three big issues: family, property, and education. Mr. Cortes defined politics "in the Aristotelian sense of public debate, in the sense of developing a public discourse, developing a public persona." He argued that a healthy community is one where people can debate, discuss, confront, and compromise about their interests. People's fears, anxieties, and prejudices must be translated into legitimate interests. Tension between the capacity to be just and concerned about others and the inclination to be selfish and self-centered makes compromise difficult. This tension, this dimension of human nature, demands the aid of institutions such as families, communities, schools, congregations, and churches to "rebuild some sort of social fabric that will enable us to develop our full potential as human beings." It is toward the development of these institutions that the Industrial Areas Foundation is focused. Mr. Cortes asserted that throughout this development, the concept of the "Iron Rule" must be present. The Iron Rule is, "Never do for anyone what he or she can do for themselves." It stands in contrast to what he called "The Guardian" or "Grand Inquisitor" mode of leadership, the rule of the expert or meritocracy, which encourages learned helplessness and passivity. Mr. Cortes illustrated the Iron Rule with the story of Moses. Moses learned that he alone could not be responsible for the livelihood of the Hebrews he had led to freedom. Instead, he realized he had to bring together leaders that he could train and guide to organize others, in turn, to support themselves. He learned that by organizing around the interests of others, the barriers of mistrust and fear between people are broken down. They begin to develop an understanding of the Iron Rule. Once leaders among the people can be identified, leaders who understand their interests and can be taught to converse about those interests, then race, ethnicity, and geography can be transcended. People can break down barriers of mistrust and begin to act collaboratively. When they begin to act collaboratively and see one another backing each other on different issues, they develop reciprocity, a capacity for action. If communities are to be truly viable and successful, their members must be taught how to operate with power. Mr. Cortes reminded the audience that "power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely." He stated that the power that corrupts is inaccessible power--power of the Grand Inquisitor. In organizing communities, citizens must be taught relational power, which instead involves calculated vulnerability. The dominant culture teaches people to be customers, consumers, and taxpayers--passive clients. Instead, people must learn how to exercise citizenship, which involves "not just being acted upon, not just being passive . . . [but] embracing our birthright, our heritage, our burden." A birthright is an identity. For Americans, this includes the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the American Revolution, and the civil rights movements. It also includes slavery, racism, and sexism. This ambiguous legacy is the obligation or burden of American citizens. Mr. Cortes said the dominant culture denies the reality of these burdens. The culture shows lack of concern for others and represses anger, which takes energy. The energy consumed in that manner could be turned to building relationships, organizing, becoming political, and understanding the common birthright. In order to do anything about violence, about the breakdown in society, people must begin to reweave some kind of social fabric, to reconnect intermediate institutions, and to develop concern over the responsibilities of citizens in this community. Everyone knows the old African proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child." Somehow, citizens must recreate the infrastructure of that particular "village"--the families and communities that together can build broad-based institutions. Concurrent Workshops: Schools and Communities Safety and Security Moderator: William Modzeleski, Staff Director, Drug Planning and Outreach Staff, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Ronald D. Stephens, Executive Director, National School Safety Center, Westlake Village, California John Firman, Director of Research, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Alexandria, Virginia Pamela L. Riley, Director, North Carolina Center for the Prevention of School Violence, Raleigh, North Carolina Jeffrey A. Miller, Principal, Campbell Drive Middle School, Homestead, Florida William Modzeleski described new legislation affecting school security. The Federal Safe Schools Act, as part of the Department of Education (DOE)'s Goals 2000 program, has made $20 million in discretionary funds available to local boards of education. The Drug Free Schools Act has been amended to include efforts at reducing or eliminating school violence. DOE's action plan includes building public awareness about violence prevention in schools, facilitating local partnerships, developing statewide policy and uniform data collection, and providing interagency training and technical assistance on best practices. Dr. Ronald Stephens said that students who were interviewed by the National School Safety Center in California about violence prevention recommended: 1. Enforcement of existing rules on campus. Only a small percentage of the students cause the disruptions. 2. Regular locker checks for weapons and contraband. 3. Special programs for kids who "mess up." Rather than expelling them to the street where they continue to terrorize others, they should be given something productive to do. School administrators are just learning what students already know about their schools: certain areas in the school are unsafe; students, teachers, and school staff are being attacked more frequently; and there is a lack of coordination among stakeholders. What promotes crime on campuses? Dark hallways, inadequate supervision, lack of response to victims, and fewer after-school activities are all things that weaken school safety. Five national trends are already making real changes in school security: 1. Crime tracking and record keeping. 2. Targeting children who need special attention or special behavioral plans, not just troublemakers. 3. Training to prepare teachers to deal with violence. 4. Interagency cooperation. 5. Safe school planning. New York City has been keeping records for 21 years on schools, crime, and violence. The highest rate of attack on teachers in a school setting occurred in the 1993-1994 school year. Administrators need to know where the problems are and who is involved in order to develop effective strategies. The youngsters who create most of the problems have often had a long history of disruption. Better information sharing on juveniles who have committed crimes is a major national concern. Although colleges and universities have mandated crime reporting, there is nothing similar for kindergarten through 12th grade. The California State legislature has recently passed a law requiring that teachers be informed of students who have a background of criminal misbehavior. In Texas, law enforcement now has to notify the school within 24 hours if a juvenile has been detained. More than 1,000 teachers per month in this country are assaulted and injured seriously enough to require medical attention. A report by teachers from Omaha, Nebraska, raised questions about when teachers can use reasonable force to protect themselves from students they fear. Many districts have no policies dealing with use of force, school crime and violence, and transfer of students with records of violent offenses. Some innovative programs were briefly described. Interagency cooperation is necessary to meet the needs of children. John Firman described an Illinois program that brought together police, school safety officials, and administrators to build teams to work on school safety issues. Five different groups become involved when a youngster performs a delinquent act: law enforcement, social services, schools, probation, and mental health. The University of Virginia is developing course curricula around multidisciplinary conflict resolution teams. In Florida, an important segment of a new education program involves getting the community to realize their role in establishing a drug-free environment and protecting students' health, safety, and civil rights. The schools have opened doors to other agencies to bring in resources for students, families, and the community as a whole. Jeffrey Miller said his district instituted evening sports events and better lighting to counter graffiti and gang conflict. Youth organizations, such as Youth Crime Watch, have also been effective in Dade County. The Safe Schools Bill in Florida opened public schools to provide after-school activities for children 10 years of age and older. Mr. Firman suggested schools need to have a safe school plan (strategic plan) with contributions from students, teachers, school administrators, police, social services, probation, and public and mental health practitioners. The plan must concentrate on prevention--school site assessment, education in values, and conflict resolution. It must have a response plan for managing crises and spell out post-intervention activities. Mr. Firman said that the emerging theme is the use of a team approach to develop a systemic solution. He has had experiences with principals who did not know the law concerning weapons. In those examples, the relationship between law enforcement and the school was very poor. School administrators have been trained to keep out of the limelight and the press. This creates resistance to working with law enforcement. Relationships need to be rebuilt, with new partnerships added. The Illinois Police Training Academy in Springfield made its campus available for school safety and security facilitator training. A multidisciplinary faculty brought teams from different jurisdictions to stay at the state police academy. Lack of continuity, lack of funding, and political infighting are still problems. The public should be informed about what really works, and evaluators must assess the effectiveness of new strategies. Teambuilding in the community can improve school safety, and community policing can expand law enforcement's role in this area. Research on school safety and school violence should guide the tactics selected. Evaluation is a critical need. Dr. Riley described North Carolina's statewide safe schools program, funded in 1993 by a discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Even in rural areas, more violence has occurred in schools. Students have been getting into trouble at an earlier age. The study recommended enacting anti-weapon laws and swift and consistent handling of violent student behavior. Most students are law abiding and will exert pressure on other students who are disruptive. The business community helped get the statewide program started. The program includes negotiation, peer mediation, school resource officers, school- based crime stoppers programs, and student incentive awards. Education and Skills Development Moderator: Rebecca Atnafou, Assistant Director, Education Development Center, Newton, Massachusetts Panelists: Dennis D. Embry, President, Heartsprings, Inc., Tucson, Arizona Nancy P. Gannon, Director, Education Division, Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, Washington, D.C. Bebs B. Chorak, Deputy Director, Juvenile Justice Programs, National Institute for Citizen Education in the Law (NICEL), Washington, D.C. Lawrence Dieringer, Executive Director, Educators for Social Responsibility, Cambridge, Massachusetts Dr. Dennis Embry discussed PeaceBuilders, which is a model for youth violence prevention. The PeaceBuilders approach is now being studied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is described in a paper Dr. Embry prepared for the conference, "Reducing Youth Violent Crime By 50% With Proven Research-Based Interventions Through A Community-Wide, Partnership Approach." In his presentation, Dr. Embry noted that more than $200 million in federal funds has been spent on violence prevention research, but "there is too much talk and not enough walk." The research on substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anti-social behavior are all tightly connected in terms of the "pathways to failure" they identify. According to Dr. Embry, 30 years of research shows that juvenile crime can be predicted by fifth grade with 80 percent accuracy based on three simple measures: teacher ratings of social skills and aggression, a child's rate of referrals to the principal for fighting, and observed aggressive behavior on the playground. There are a shocking number of violent incidents in schools today. It is critical to consider the research on resilient youth--children who succeed in spite of various adverse circumstances. Violence is not a disease, but rather, an adaptive response to a predatory society. There are three areas in which the difficulties of troubled youth are very well documented. PeaceBuilders is a cognitive-social- imitative competence model. First, in the cognitive and behavioral area, these youths are hostile and they misread neutral cues. Second, in the social area, they disrupt the classroom from 11 to 14 times per hour. The third area is imitative: Troubled youths are less likely than others to imitate socially competent models. To reduce violence by 40 to 50 percent, resilient environments must be created to encourage cognitive-behavioral, social, and imitative competencies. PeaceBuilders delineates specific, discrete actions, scripts, and tools designed to enable "the whole village to raise the child." The approach creates a common language that emphasizes praise and righting wrongs. For example, children are asked to become peace monitors rather than peer mediators. In addition, PeaceBuilders deviates from the traditional approach of targeting exclusively "high risk" children and families, in part because this tends to result in the loss of social status. Society as a whole must stop reinforcing inappropriate behavior. Nancy Gannon, who was formerly a special education teacher and counselor in Boston, noted that the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence promotes Straight Talk About Risks (STAR), which includes curricula for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. There are 200 million firearms in circulation in the United States. Adults also need to be reached with anti-violence messages. Students as young as third and fourth grade are making decisions to possess weapons such as guns and knives. They must learn to recognize the risks involved not only by receiving information, but also by achieving a cognitive and affective acceptance of the information. Even this is not enough; they must also develop personal risk reduction strategies. With younger students, the Center emphasizes "safe and smart decisions." This involves the development of critical thinking, decision-making and self-perception skills. Fear, anger, and depression are the main reasons why children report carrying guns. Children must learn to develop a repertoire of positive alternatives. These include positive communication skills, social problem-solving skills, leadership skills, and affirmations. A sample lesson plan from STAR called "Someone You Know" asks students to (1) identify feelings, (2) practice problem-solving skills, and (3) get peer feedback about whether or not their risk reduction strategies would work. Students are given a scenario to consider. For example, a friend who has problems shows you a gun he bought for $50. The friend says, "Now people will know who's boss." After students propose what they would do in such a situation, they are given affirmations to recognize their good work on the problem. Bebs Chorak began her presentation on the NICEL law-related education program by asking the audience what they wanted of children and youth. Responses included, "be decisionmakers, become self-reliant, develop interpersonal skills, accept responsibility, develop a commitment to the community, find a place in the community, love themselves and others, and accept and respect differences among people." She then had the audience role-play a child custody scenario in groups of three, with one member playing the part of the juvenile court judge, one the child, and one the lawyer for social services. Audience members concluded that youths who participate in such an exercise might increase their understanding of the legal system and learn some lessons about empathy. Ms. Chorak noted that law-related education is now moving in the direction of "resiliency building." Lawrence Dieringer said that Educators for Social Responsibility helps schools develop pro-social learning environments, and that it develops curriculum materials on conflict resolution and other topics. The Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program (RCCP) began in 1985 in New York City with the involvement of three principals. One of these was Patrick Daly, who was shot and killed last year at the Redhook housing project. Three-quarters of the RCCP schools are in New York City, and the rest are located throughout the country. RCCP has curricula for grades kindergarten through 12. Administrators and educators at RCCP schools receive a 25-hour introductory course, which is followed by 8 to 10 RCCP staff site visits to provide classroom and other ongoing support. RCCP includes regular classroom instruction, peer mediation programs, administrator training, and parent training. Its main focus is to work with the adults in the school. Mr. Dieringer mentioned Gardiner's work on multiple types of intelligence, noting that schools usually recognize only two of at least seven possible types. Yet the development of interpersonal intelligence, or the ability to understand one's own and others' feelings, is very much a part of the conflict resolution curriculum. Among the key concepts involved are understanding peace and conflict, communication, anger and other feelings, cooperation, problem solving, negotiating, mediating, affirmation, appreciating diversity, countering bias, and envisioning a positive future. A goal of the RCCP approach is to change the whole culture of a school. This must go hand-in-hand with efforts to change individual behavior. Two evaluations of the program have been conducted by Metis Association, Inc., in New York City. In a survey of teachers, 87 percent said they thought the program was having a positive impact on their students. Mr. Dieringer said two important lessons learned over the past 9 years were to (1) think long term and ask for a minimum commitment from the school of 3 to 4 years, and (2) remember that the principal must model the behavior being advocated. A discussion followed in response to questions about the role of the media, media literacy, and the possible use of drama in the approaches just discussed. Dr. Embry noted having seen positive responses to children doing plays about parenting skills. Mr. Dieringer mentioned that children created commercials in connection with Hatebusters in New York City and Peace Increasers in California. Ms. Gannon said the STAR program has activities for youths and parents together to encourage critical viewing skills, and that the National Parent Teachers Association has a packet of material on critical viewing. Ms. Chorak said the NICEL curriculum has lessons related to this. Dr. Embry noted that Peace Builders also has a component for parents about decreasing television viewing. Ms. Atnafou said the violence prevention curriculum by Deborah Prothrow-Stith also addresses this, and that the ERIC Clearinghouse lists other resources. In response to a question about how to assess the potential effectiveness of various programs, Dr. Embry suggested asking the following: How well does the program fit the scientific literature? How easy is it to implement? What is the program's capacity for generalization across the community over time? How developmentally appropriate is it? How can it be used to create scripts for many people? Do children have a passive or an active role in it? Can it be introduced in the workplace so that parents can be more easily reached? Home/School/Community Partnerships Moderator: Richard Murphy, Director, National Campaign for Youth Development, and Former Commissioner, New York City Department of Youth Services, Fund for the City of New York, New York, New York Panelists: Connie Roberts, Director, New Beginnings, Department of Social Service, San Diego County, California Ray Anthony Torres, Special Agent, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, GREAT Program, Washington, D.C. Len Berman, Program Officer, Public Welfare Foundation, Washington, D.C. Shawn Dove, Co-Director, Countee Cullen Beacon Community Center, New York, New York Richard Murphy opened the session by observing that although the home and the community have changed dramatically over the years, schools have not, even in their use of an agrarian calendar. Connie Roberts stated that San Diego is a diverse area with a population of 2.5 million, where 20 to 25 languages are used by schoolchildren, and many immigrants are new. New Beginnings, a collaborative effort to help children and families by improving service delivery, began in 1988, when San Diego was suffering from increasing rates of teen pregnancy, poverty, and rape. New Beginnings is not a program or a project, Ms. Roberts said, but more a strategy or approach to bringing communities and families together with social service agencies. New Beginnings currently works with 35 schools in the county. The strategy does not require new money, but instead uses existing money differently. Also, New Beginnings is not a single model for all of the communities it serves; rather, it lets community residents help arrange the way it works. It has no lead agency. New Beginnings focuses on all families, not just high-risk families. The strategy aims to treat families as whole units. Moreover, it helps families change the way San Diego County services are delivered. Ms. Roberts said New Beginnings is currently measuring outcomes to see if this approach makes a difference. Ray Anthony Torres described GREAT (Gang Resistance Education And Training), a federally funded program modeled after DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). Mr. Torres said he was a product of the inner city in New York. What kept him from trouble was seeing a kid die of a drug overdose and having a great role model, an uncle who was a police officer. After working the streets for ATF, Mr. Torres was thrust into the classroom to teach the GREAT program. He reported being stunned at how lost many of the kids seemed. Many of the students in seventh grade were already hard-core gang members. However, he said, the 10-week program had a positive effect on them. When he was teaching, Mr. Torres said, school attendance went up. One reason was that graduation from the program involved a trip to a water park, which he said was important to inner-city kids. To keep students' interest up, instructors are taught to be energetic, to walk around the classrooms often and to state their objectives and the lessons over and over. Mr. Torres lamented that some students' parents do very little for their children. He sometimes had to travel to students' homes to get parents to sign release forms so the kids could go to the water park. The program uses police officers because they have the authority of experience. They know about gang violence and gang laws. There is also a version of the program for third and fourth grade students. GREAT is active in 44 States. A study is currently underway to test the effectiveness of the program. Len Berman described a national funding collaboration for violence prevention work. It is based on a 1993 meeting in New York City of 200 foundation representatives. This public/private venture will put together, in 1995, a pool of funding that communities can use to plan and implement violence prevention measures. The collaboration's goal is to have $15 million of available funding. The group has invited 450 community foundations to participate. Each of approximately 12 selected communities can obtain up to $75,000 from the national collaborative, to be matched with $25,000 from local sources. Each community will decide what it wants to do and how to proceed. Shawn Dove described New York City's Beacons as a movement of school-based community centers. The city contracts with community-based organizations to run the Beacons, but some city employees also work there. He said it is important to quit talking about youth violence, youth pregnancy, and other youth problems, and instead to start focusing on a youth development model. With the development of the Beacon community centers, he said, when 11:00 p.m. rolls around, kids are found at the community center, not on street corners. When his Beacon center opened its doors, the staff created a teen council and let its members develop programs and activities. The youths chose to line the nearest street with trees and to replace a cigarette billboard with one that advertises the United Negro College Fund. The building in which the Beacon Center is housed has a nurse and clinic, game rooms, meeting rooms (for adult and other meetings such as Narcotics Anonymous), and space for a General Educational Development (GED) program. New York City now has 37 Beacons. Mr. Dove said it is significant that the Beacons brought some parents into the schools for the first time under non-crisis conditions. Now many parents spend time at the centers. Violence prevention requires youth development, Mr. Dove said. Beacons give youth a chance to be members of the community itself. Improved School Climate Moderator: Ruby Takanishi, Executive Director, Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Gus Fr¡as, Criminal Justice Specialist, Office of Education, Los Angeles County, California Julian Klugman, Western Regional Director, Community Relations Service, U.S. Department of Justice, San Francisco, California Joseph H. Wehby, Research Assistant Professor, FAST Track Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Executive Director, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Washington, D.C. Ruby Takanishi introduced the panel members and said the speakers would go beyond school boundaries to discuss the impact of communities and families on school climate. Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic foundation, was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Dr. Takanishi directs the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, established in June 1986 to place the challenges of the adolescent years higher on the nation's agenda. The council builds on the work of many organizations and individuals to stimulate sustained public attention to the risks and opportunities of the adolescent years and generates public and private support for measures that facilitate the critical transition into adulthood. Gus Fr¡as explained that he has a personal understanding of the complexity and difficulty of improving school climate. He grew up in a gang- infested, East Los Angeles neighborhood where children had to run to and from school to avoid the gangs that surrounded the schools. The "elders" of these Chicano gangs told the students that "men do not run, men make others run." Elementary school children were recruited by the gangs and introduced to guns. Mr. Fr¡as told the audience that some of his elementary school friends were murdered, as was his best friend in high school. School administrators usually do not know what is really happening, he said. Children across the country must cope with these situations. They must learn how to ask for help, and adults must be there to help them. Expectations in the education field are high. To confront the challenges in schools requires self-knowledge and an understanding of communities. To meet these challenges, educators should address the needs of students in an interdisciplinary manner. Mr. Fr¡as provided structure for this argument with an overhead of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. He emphasized that the fundamental needs must be addressed first. Most programs overlook these needs. Educators should remember Maslow's hierarchy and try to seek a balance in their programs. If students are taught to balance their own personal needs, they will not look to gangs to substitute for families. Identifying the dynamics of a child's environment is critical to program development. There are six environmental factors affecting children: family, media, guns, community peer pressure, drugs, and schools. With these factors in mind, the Gang Risk Intervention Pilot Program (GRIPP) was created by the California legislature in 1988. With money from the State Asset Forfeiture Distribution Fund, GRIPP was designed to help reduce or reverse the rising tide of gang violence in Los Angeles County. Mr. Fr¡as discussed the findings of a 3-year evaluation of 18 model violence prevention and intervention projects that were part of GRIPP. GRIPP sought to close the widening gap between schools and the surrounding neighborhoods. Mr. Fr¡as explained that after a great deal of hard work, GRIPP brought together an informal "partnership" between schools and their respective communities. Various model programs for different age groups were started. After a year, they found that half of the programs were not effective. To be successful, Mr. Fr¡as recommended that programs for gang prevention and intervention in public schools be guided by a school advisory committee. The core team of committee members should have a shared vision and should include representatives from the school's administration, teachers, parents, senior custodial staff, and law enforcement. In conclusion, Mr. Fr¡as commented that independent program evaluations must reflect new programs' strengths and weaknesses. Poor experimental programs have no place in the schools. Julian Klugman has been the Western Regional Director of the Community Relations Service (CRS) for the U.S. Department of Justice for 23 years. Over its 30-year history, CRS has sought to prevent or resolve community conflicts and tensions arising from actions, policies, and practices perceived to be discriminatory on the basis of race, color, or national origin. CRS provides services, including conciliation, mediation, and technical assistance, to people and their communities to help them resolve conflicts that tear the fabric of an increasingly diverse society. In the beginning, CRS focused on fights and school segregation. Today, there are many different groups with major cultural differences, and schools are desegregated. According to Mr. Klugman, the crisis in the 1990's in his region is ethnic gang members killing each other. He emphasized that the problem is big, and it is fueled by high unemployment and the recession in Southern California. Mr. Klugman outlined the agency's problem-solving approach when dealing with multi-racial situations. The first step is admitting there is a problem. Second, the problem must be stated or defined in a constructive way. Third, the people involved in the problem should be included in problem solving. Fourth, behavior has to be changed first; attitude changes will follow. Money is often spent trying to change attitudes without connecting to a system of behavior. Finally, the CSR approach calls for development of a work plan with clear, short-term action steps. In the last 3 years, CRS has come away from the mediation table and into the community. Staff are trying to pro-actively mediate racial disputes. Mr. Klugman briefly described two recent programs. In the Student Problem Identification and Resolution Program, CRS uses its problem-solving approach to address conflict in multi-racial schools and districts. It is a 2-day process in which students develop recommendations and a work plan to improve racial harmony. A principal's student advisory council is also established as an ongoing mechanism to work directly with school administrators and faculty to address racial and ethnic issues in both a preventive and reactive manner. In the second program, CRS staff are preparing to go into a public housing project in East Los Angeles. Using their problem-solving techniques, they plan to train police officers and youth and form a committee to work on all identified problems. If this pilot project is successful, Mr. Klugman expects to use it in the wider Los Angeles area. Dr. Joseph Wehby stated that early intervention is the key to preventing violence. While the development of problem behaviors begins early in life, even prenatally, 90 percent of the money available for solutions is spent after violence has occurred. Only 10 percent is spent on prevention. He contends that more spending should be directed to prevention. After an extensive literature review, Dr. Wehby concluded that school-based prevention programs have limited success. He suggested that the programs fail when they focus on short-term intervention and look at limited behavior. Long- term, comprehensive intervention is needed to give children the best chance to succeed. Dr. Wehby explained that the FAST (Families and Schools Together) Track program was developed with long-term, comprehensive intervention in mind. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the program was implemented in Nashville, Seattle, Durham, and rural Pennsylvania. Researchers used the following factors to select program participants: (1) the school the student attended, (2) the kindergarten teachers' ratings of the child's behavior and school readiness, and (3) results of interviews with parents of disruptive children. Using these criteria, 960 children were selected for the program. Dr. Wehby reported that intervention is particularly needed at two points: school entry and during the transition to middle school. Researchers are still trying to identify the most successful interventions for various ethnic groups. Preventive intervention components of the FAST Track program include parent training, family case management, tutoring, and peer pairing. The emphasis on parent training is intended to get parents more involved in the academic progress of their children and to acquaint them with the teacher. The 22-session training programs were held on weekends. Each family in the program was assigned a family coordinator. The coordinator would call or visit to update the parents on their child's progress. The coordinators were problem solvers who tailored the program to the needs of each family. Tutoring on reading was provided to the students three times a week. Generally, the sessions occurred twice during the school week and once on Saturday, during the family session. Peer pairing, the final component, involved "friendship" groups of children. The children would get together on Saturdays when the parents were in training. They were taught social skills, such as how to initiate play and what to do when rejected. Ellen McCulloch-Lovell explained that the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities is looking at ways that arts and humanities programs reach youth and prevent violence. Over the last 25 years, these kinds of programs have offered creative outlets for otherwise destructive behavior. Ms. McCulloch-Lovell pointed out that the Dance Theater of Harlem grew out of the unrest in that community following Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. Programs in the arts tend to involve many community organizations, increase parental involvement with youth, foster students' enthusiasm and self-respect, help students develop self-discipline, and provide contact with caring adults. In fact, the College Entrance Board finds that students with hands-on participation in the arts score higher than other students on verbal and math tests. Ms. McCulloch-Lovell noted that arts are not included in the current Crime Bill, but the Goals 2000 program of the U.S. Department of Education does include art programs in schools and communities. Measurable results like the College Entrance Board's findings support requests for arts programs. Ms. McCulloch-Lovell highlighted two examples. The Manchester Craftsman Guild in North Pittsburgh sponsors an after-school program in ceramics and photography. This program keeps at-risk students off the streets and motivates them to achieve. In Fort Myers, Florida, 2,000 students were involved in art-related programs. Researchers found that the violence rate in the targeted schools dropped 20 percent compared to surrounding areas. Ms. McCulloch-Lovell concluded by observing that arts and music are universal interests. Dr. Takanishi summarized the discussion by saying it is unfortunate that politicians are unwilling to support such programs in connection with crime prevention. The Carnegie Council argues that all adolescents have basic needs for evolving into healthy members of society. Young people need respect, identity, and power. Adults must continue to support and fight for programs that direct children away from violence and toward success.Information Sharing Issues in School-Based Coordinated Programs Moderator: William Delk, Principal, Northside Middle School, Norfolk, Virginia Panelists: John C. Alluisi, Database Manager, Management Information Systems, Norfolk Public Schools, Norfolk, Virginia Thomas J. Connelly, Director, Special Counseling Programs, Wappinger Central School District, Wappinger Falls, New York Michael A. Aquino, Investigator, Anaheim Police Department, Anaheim, California William Delk quoted Robert Long, founder of the School Management and Resources Teams (SMART) program, who said that problems in the schools must be claimed by the school district that has those problems. SMART is funded in 20 pilot sites around the Nation by the National Institute of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to being an excellent resource, the SMART program frees the principal from being the primary disciplinary figure in the school system. The SMART team, instead, reviews problems and finds strategies to solve the problems. John Alluisi gave a brief overview of SMART, describing it as a reality-based methodology for studying and resolving delinquency and discipline problems. All referrals for these problems are collected in a central database for the school. Development of an Incident Profiling System (IPS) involves classifying and profiling a full range of misbehaviors, separating discipline violations from law violations, and providing computerized records of incidents occurring in schools. This process identifies areas where discipline has been applied inconsistently. Information is kept with strict regard for confidentiality. Monthly reports go to the school principal, the school SMART team, and the district SMART team. The principal and the school team can develop action plans to address problem areas appearing in the data. At the district level, the local police may attend when law violations are involved. By collecting information systematically, Mr. Alluisi said, school officials could see that two- thirds of all discipline violations and all law violations were attributable to the same 9 percent of the students. Thomas Connelly has spent 29 years in the administration of public schools in New York state. He described himself as practical, always looking for methods that work. The SMART program has worked well for him. He said the easily usable information of the SMART system gives principals and their staff material for problem solving and analysis. The SMART team in Mr. Connelly's area includes community members, youth representatives, and a psychologically trained management team. Their actions are determined by consensus. Connections to the juvenile courts and police have been developed to the point that officials from those organizations will occasionally consult the SMART team members before making decisions on individual students from their district. Two other sample programs they have initiated are "Off Your Rocker," which enlists retired persons to work with the youth, and "PINS," Parents In Need of Support, which helps families adjust to difficult changes. The SMART data helped drive the changes, get the funding, and assess the impact of these new approaches. Investigator Michael Aquino works in the gang unit of the Anaheim Police Department. He conducts training in the schools on gang recognition and gang prevention, and he deals with situations involving established gang members in the schools. After having investigated numerous drive-by shootings, Investigator Aquino contacted the school district to work out a joint tactic for reaching youngsters to counter the influence of gangs. His experience shows that parents are usually not well informed about what their children are doing--even the parents of "good" kids. The SMART program has given him material for the training he conducts in schools. He has a full- time partner in the school district who coordinates with him on gang prevention efforts. The students have particular respect for his firsthand experience with the violence and suffering produced by gangs. Investigator Aquino also conducts staff development instruction for the community and schools, parent awareness training, and training to counter drug involvement. He sits on the district level disciplinary and attendance boards as well. He emphasized that the arrest of a student does not mean that the student is going to be "thrown away." Sometimes, arrest is actually the best way to intervene in the young person's gang involvement. He said he has often received thanks from the youth themselves for arresting them and altering their course. Mr. Delk added that the SMART information allows the school administrators to look at patterns and find better strategies to get problem-creating students on a better track. Alternative Development Programs for Adjudicated Youth Moderator: James C. Howell, Director, Research and Program Development, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Panelists: LaWanda Ravoira, State Director, Practical and Cultural Education (PACE) Center for Girls, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida Yitzhak Bakal, Executive Director, North American Family Institute, Inc., Danvers, Massachusetts O.B. Stander, Chief Operating Officer, Associated Marine Institutes, Inc., Tampa, Florida Dr. James Howell introduced the presenters, who operate a range of alternative programs for adjudicated youth. Dr. LaWanda Ravoira described the Practical and Cultural Education (PACE) center as a multiservice program founded out of the recognition that, because there was a lack of gender-specific alternative programs for girls, girls were incarcerated more often for lesser offenses than boys. PACE began in 1985 as a small volunteer-run program in a church and now has seven chapters throughout Florida. The program has had a 75 percent success rate and has served more than 1,500 girls ages 12 to 18. PACE is an educational alternative to institutions or incarceration. PACE receives State, Federal, school board, and private funding. It is a fully accredited high school that is attended voluntarily, at no cost to the youth. Students are required to pursue completion of a high school diploma. The PACE high school program includes remedial, high school credit, GED, and college preparation classes. The gender sensitive Life Management Curriculum comprises independent living skills, art and drama, parenting, human growth and development, health and physical fitness, and career development. Classes are designed to educate, motivate, and build self-esteem. The teacher to student ratio in all classes is 1 to 10. Individual, group, and family counseling is provided to assist the student and family in finding solutions to their individual problems. Staff are available 24 hours a day to assist the students and their families in times of crisis. PACE emphasizes community involvement. PACE developed partnerships with juvenile judges who gave girls the option of participating in PACE or being institutionalized. Referrals have also been made to PACE from the school board, health and human services agencies, the juvenile justice system, and parents. Participants must volunteer in at least two projects while enrolled in the program. PACE also established the National Girls Caucus, which has 500 members who advocate programs for girls nationally. Dr. Bakal said that there is a false underlying assumption upon which many programs for youth are based--that every youth involved in the juvenile justice system wants to change. While practitioners are inclined to think that all youth would like to participate in a productive program, some youths in the community do not want to change their lives. Dr. Bakal's work at Camp Roulston, run by the North American Family Institute (NAFI), seeks to stimulate these unmotivated youths. Camp Roulston is a boot camp based on the concept that youths can be helped only if they want to be helped. Youths need motivation to become involved in the process of change. The camp has a 3-month program that includes peer and group processes in three stages. The first stage places heavy emphasis on the military aspect of the program, where an extensive daily work routine and strict code of discipline are established. In the second phase, the military component is de-emphasized, and there is greater focus on recognition of accomplishments. The third phase emphasizes teamwork and developing a peer culture. Dr. Bakal recognized that the shift from a highly regimented residential program to community life is difficult. Typically, 3 to 4 out of 10 youths recidivate. Aftercare is an essential element to success in any program for youth. NAFI offers aftercare services seven days per week to youths who finish the camp program. It is also developing a community component to network resources and services. O.B. Stander operates camp programs through the Associated Marine Institutes (AMI). There are 40 programs in 8 States. Each program is a separate organization with a separate board of directors. The organization's first international program is located on the Cayman Islands. AMI's camp programs are not boot camps, but they are work-oriented and focus on establishing a strong work ethic. The ratio of residents to staff is three to one, and there are no locks or bars at the facilities. The program begins with an orientation. Campers are driven to the vicinity of the camp and must hike into the precamp orientation center. Later, the new residents hike on to the full camp. In Phase I, campers sleep in a bunkhouse and work all day either on chores, academics, or community service. Campers move on to Phase II when their academic and performance goals are met. At that point, they can earn money for their work and move into a nicer bunkhouse. Phase III of the program involves community placement. A 3-year followup study indicates that the program has had a 65 percent success rate, with only 35 percent recidivism. Mr. Stander said that the key to success in his and any program is to instill hope in the youth. No person can value life if he or she has no hope for the future. Substance Abuse Prevention Moderator: Paul J. Goldstein, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Panelists: Anne T. Ganey, Project Coordinator, Community Drug Prevention Project, Mankato, Minnesota Phillip L. Hobbs, Principal, Eastmoor High School, Columbus, Ohio David L. Rosenbloom, Project Director, Join Together, Boston, Massachusetts Deborah Galvin, Public Health Analyst, U.S. Public Health Service, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Rockville, Maryland Dr. Paul Goldstein began the session with a discussion on how substance abuse and violence are related. He described three relationships. Psychopharmacological violence is usually induced by alcohol and commonly results in domestic violence incidents. It can be caused when an individual ingests drugs, undergoes a mood alteration, and acts out violently. The likelihood and extent of violence is dependent upon the drug, the dosage, the individual, and aggravating circumstances. Psychopharmacological violence can be precipitated against an individual by that person's own actions. For instance, the loud drunk at a bar may inflame others in the bar to start a fight and cause his or her own victimization. Psychopharmacological violence may also be purposive on the part of the substance abuser. Gang members sometimes take a certain drug to reduce their level of anxiety about committing a violent act. Finally, psychopharmaco- logical violence can also be associated with the absence of a drug. This is typically known as withdrawal syndrome. Economic compulsive violence occurs when drug users feel compelled to commit crime in order to sustain their drug use habit. System-related violence is connected to the business of selling drugs and is typically more lethal in nature. Violence may occur as a result of a drug user's inability to pay a dealer or as punishment of a dealer for cheating a customer. As project coordinator of the Community Drug Prevention Project, Anne Ganey works with 40 different communities on drug prevention. Fourteen of these communities have formed community prevention groups, and their strategies have been evaluated for effectiveness in dealing with youth drug use prevention. Ms. Ganey described youth empowerment strategy as an ongoing, upward spiral. Youth need to be involved in the definition of problems. The groups start by providing the youths with knowledge and skills. This leads to opportunities that build confidence. Confidence encourages feelings of success, leading to more opportunities. The more opportunities, the more empowered the youths become. Ms. Ganey identified eight specific strategies that the community prevention groups successfully incorporated into their programs. The first strategy was a community forum in which the youth planned, recorded, facilitated, and helped to identify and solve problems. This forum gave the youth an opportunity to express opinions and develop skills. Youth also developed family events as part of the planning. A town hall meeting was suggested as a way to help the community come together. Other strategies included media advocacy, conferences, leadership training, a multicultural leadership institute, peer mediation, and counseling. Phillip Hobbs has worked with the Drug-Free Schools Program for 7 years. In 1990, he became principal of Eastmoor High School, which was regarded as the most violent high school in Columbus, Ohio. He described the school as "out of control," with 68 expulsions and 147 fights. Working under the guidance of the Drug-Free Schools Program, Mr. Hobbs developed strict discipline and positive student rewards programs at Eastmoor High. In 1994, Eastmoor High School was the recipient of the U.S. Department of Education's National Drug-Free School Award. The school had only 6 expulsions and 28 fights. Though the school won a national award, Mr. Hobbs emphasized that it still has guns, drugs, and violence problems. Because these problems will always be here, strategies must be constantly revised, and young people must be involved. There are six correlates under the Drug-Free Schools Program that Mr. Hobbs identified as essential for an effective drug prevention program. First, assess the program. Information on what effect the program is having on drugs and violence needs to be collected and analyzed annually. If the data reveals that the program is not having the desired impact, the program must be revised. Rules and policies must support drug prevention and violence reduction. Mr. Hobbs stated that youths want rules that are fair, yet firm. An opportunity for counseling should be offered to a youth involved with drugs or violence. However, if the youth refuses to attend assessment sessions, disciplinary policies should be firmly enforced. Special codes of conduct for athletes and other popular groups should also be designed. Programs that emphasize leadership training and peer mediation should be developed. Staff training in violence and drug prevention should be offered. Parent involvement should be encouraged. Finally, schools should promote community involvement. Schools need to reach out to community agencies and businesses and utilize the resources they have to offer. Partnerships between the schools and these groups can provide positive role models to the students, as well as leadership training, tutoring, and incentives. The Adopt-A- School partnership, last year alone, provided more than 90 tutors for students. The staff also has a student intervention program and many hours of staff development in the areas of violence and drug prevention. Dr. David Rosenbloom is the project director of Join Together in Boston, which is a resource for communities developing strategies against alcohol and drug abuse. Since late 1991, Join Together has provided assistance to community anti-drug coalitions in more than 40 States; published two national surveys of community anti-drug activity and other publications to help coalitions be more effective; established a national Fellows Program; created a national computer network; and convened three public policy panels to look at barriers communities face in their efforts. Join Together is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Rosenbloom stated that communities will be more effective in their efforts if they have coalitions that link prevention, law enforcement, and long-term recovery. To date, he has identified 2,500 coalitions with successful programs. There are six questions that Join Together asks when assessing the strengths and weaknesses of local coalitions. What harms are you trying to reduce or prevent in your community? Groups should be as specific as possible in answering this question. Who else in town can we get to help us achieve our goals? Members of the business community should be approached for support. How can you get key community groups to work with you? Dr. Rosenbloom pointed out that it takes time and persistence to build partnerships. What do you do to encourage and sustain leadership efforts? This is an important issue to address, as more than 20 percent of community coalitions change leadership within 5 years or less. Does your coalition have a formal strategy and program known to the community? Activities of the program must relate to and work toward the program's goal of prevention. How will you know if your plan is working? What mechanism do you have in place to adjust it? A strategy must be developed to assess the plan's success. Deborah Galvin works with the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Youths are exposed to risk factors related to school, personal or family issues, and negative peer associations. Inability to deal with these factors may lead to drug use, school truancy, teen pregnancy, suicide, and violent crime. Ms. Galvin reported that alcohol and other drugs are associated with 62 percent of assaults, 52 percent of rapes, 49 percent of murders, 68 percent of manslaughters, 50 percent of traffic fatalities, 38 percent of child abuse incidents, 50 percent of spousal abuse incidents, 20 to 35 percent of suicides, and 69 percent of drownings. CSAP has developed a comprehensive model of primary prevention that focuses on the person, family, peers, school or work, and the community. Methods of intervention include education and information, personal development, alternatives, standards and norms, and community mobilization. Through coalition-building, communities can mobilize to focus on school and work. Wellness programs are examples of community partnerships helping personal development. Finally, family support programs involve community mobilization for the family. Ms. Galvin reported that national evaluations of CSAP's community partnerships have been completed. The most common obstacles to a successful program include an unclear definition or purpose, turf battles, lack of time management, and personal conflicts. The most successful programs are well- organized and have high levels of staff commitment. The studies also noted that disagreements on strategy within a program are healthy, but all must agree on the partnership's function. In order for a partnership to succeed, it needs participatory decisionmaking and cooperation. Specific criteria for membership and parental involvement also encourage success. Finally, Ms. Galvin identified several strategies that have been successful at various programs. These include developing viable employment opportunities, involving gangs in partnerships with the community, and violence training using PREVLINE. PREVLINE is an electronic communications system that allows citizens to share prevention ideas with others around the globe. It offers information concerning alcohol, tobacco, and prevention of other drug problems.Concurrent Workshops: Community and Neighborhood Community Policing Moderator: David W. Hayeslip, Program Manager, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Billy J. Sifuentes, Senior Officer, Austin Police Department, Austin, Texas Charles H. Ramsey, Deputy Chief, Patrol Division, Chicago Police Department, Chicago, Illinois Richard H. Girgenti, Director of Criminal Justice and Commissioner, New York Division of Criminal Justice Services, Albany, New York Gary W. Cordner, Professor, Department of Police Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky Dr. David Hayeslip introduced the panelists, who discussed community policing strategies, emphasizing successes as well as problems in implementation. Officer Billy Sifuentes stated that there is denial by the community in Austin, Texas, regarding the level of violence and gang problems in the city. Community policing brings the reality of crime to the forefront by encouraging dialogue between the citizens and police. Chief Elizabeth M. Watson initiated community policing three years ago as a means of enhancing the life of Austin's citizens and improving the city's standard of living. Officer Sifuentes identified four problem areas to consider when implementing community policing. Police opposition. There are many police them who refuse to subscribe to the concept of community policing. Many resent being forced into what they regard as a social worker's role and feel that community policing strips them of their badge and power. Officer Sifuentes stressed that community policing has always been around, just under different names. To overcome police officer resistance, departments must develop a training program for them before a community policing program is initiated. Political infighting. It is sometimes difficult to bring political foes together to work effectively on a common goal. Before inviting key community and police members to be a part of a community policing program, it is first necessary to look at potential personality conflicts that may hinder development. Youth involvement. Officer Sifuentes advocated the involvement of young people with the community policing effort. In addition, community policing should include projects directed toward the youth, such as strategic interventions for high risk youth, officers in the schools, and gang programs. Police officer rotation. Because police officers rotate frequently in their assignments, training must be constantly provided for new officers assigned to community policing tasks. Deputy Chief Charles Ramsey is project administrator for the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS). Officially begun in 1993, CAPS was implemented as a prototype in five of Chicago's 25 police districts. These five diverse districts were studied to determine which strategies were essential to the success of community policing programs. He described three of these strategies. Building partnerships. Deputy Chief Ramsey stated that CAPS differs from most community policing strategies because there is already a strong relationship between police, community, and city government. In establishing and maintaining a relationship with the community, police must recognize that the role of the community may vary depending on the problem. In prioritizing problems, police should consider what is important to the community. In Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley has made CAPS a top priority for all city agencies. City agencies receive training on CAPS goals and operations so that each agency understands its individual role in the community policing effort. At the same time, police have become more aware of agencies that are better equipped than the police to service citizens' special needs. Recognizing that conditions such as street light defects or vacated buildings may contribute to criminal activity, special procedures have been set up to facilitate the city's response to calls for service. Deputy Chief Ramsey reported that 85 percent of all calls for service under CAPS were taken care of promptly. In addition, a strong relationship between city government and police is important when resources are scarce. Police departments need to take advantage of the technology and assistance offered from city government. Then, collectively, services can be provided without straining any department's resources. Developing a strategic plan. Deputy Chief Ramsey stated that there are no pre-packaged community policing strategies. Instead, each strategy must be customized to meet the needs of a particular community. In 1993, Superintendent Rodriguez published Together We Can, which established the Chicago Police Department's vision of community policing. Chicago combined what was believed to be the best elements of traditional policing, community policing, and problem-oriented policing. As resistance to new ideas often stems from lack of understanding, department heads must communicate the meaning and importance of their plan to their employees and citizens. Training. Police departments need to operationalize the community policing concept. This entails developing role responsibilities for specific ranks. Lieutenants need to understand exactly what they must do and how they are important to the success of community policing. The police, community, and city government must be instructed in problem-solving. Though some crime problems are chronic and will never be completely solved, the police and community members, working together, can have an impact. Time management should be a part of the curriculum. For the past 30 years, the 911 telephone emergency number has managed the Chicago Police Department's time. Now, the officers themselves need to learn to prioritize responsibilities to meet the goals of the strategic plan. Community policing will not solve all crime problems. It is an ongoing struggle that demands an adjustment in philosophy as the community changes. Police departments need to be able to adapt to these changes and be pro-active in their efforts. Richard Girgenti said that his perspective on community policing is from the state level. He focuses on strategies that deal with youth violence. He identified a seven-point strategy that uses the school system: 1. Making the school the focal point of violence reduction with programs such as a youth security plan for the summer, safe corridors, and neighborhood task forces. 2. Refocusing patrol resources and practices. The record of each arrested youth should be checked. The number of officers assigned to youth should also be increased. 3. Refocusing the investigative patrol's duties to include youth crime incidents. 4. Revising police department policies for schools. 5. Revising and expanding training. 6. Creating a juvenile information database. 7. Developing a partnership with parents, the board of education, principals of the schools, the media, and housing and transit police. Mr. Girgenti mentioned developing a youth center, youth courts, parent programs, mentoring, and curfews as possible strategies to consider for dealing with youth violence. He emphasized truancies as critical. There is a relationship between truancy and the increase in juvenile crime. Mr. Girgenti asserted that there must be coordination among various police task forces. Data systems must be developed on police contacts so that a complete picture of youth activity can be determined and responses can be coordinated. Consistent rules should be developed. Strategies must work with parents, schools, and the media. All strategies should be evaluated for effectiveness. Finally, officers should be trained on adolescent psychology, interaction with youths, and youth issues. Dr. Gary Cordner conducts research for NIJ on the effectiveness of community policing. Based on empirical studies of 59 cities, he has developed a scheme to help understand the complex dimensions and effects of community policing. Dr. Cordner said there are philosophical dimensions to community policing that stress underlying ideas and beliefs. These include a broad-based foundation, community input, and neighborhood variation. Changes may be necessary in an organization to permit implementation. These might include personnel upgrading and diversification; decentralizing and "despecializing" the organization to allow a flattened hierarchy; and a management style that stresses values over rules. Other strategic changes differ from the traditional model of policing, such as focusing on geographic issues rather than time of day or type of crime, and preventing crime rather than catching a criminal. Programmatic changes could include re-oriented operations emphasizing foot patrols, mini- stations, and citizen contact. Problem solving rather than case solving, getting the community engaged in its own protection, and identifying problems are primary concerns. With community policing, police officers may spend less time driving around and more time walking the beat. Police products and services may include changes in the level of police visibility, referrals to service agencies, the number of tickets or calls handled, and actual arrests. Perceptions of equity, legality, accountability, and integrity may differ from traditional models of policing. New goals under community policing may include preventing crime and disorder, increasing trust and confidence in the community, and protecting citizen liberty. Dr. Cordner stressed that no conclusive evidence proves community policing affects any of these issues. Positive change in the community could be only the result of assigning more police to one area or the product of a few hand-picked police officers who would have done a good job regardless of the principal philosophy. In general, however, community policing promotes better police and community relations. Attitudes and levels of job satisfaction have improved among police officers involved in community policing. Finally, Dr. Cordner stated that community policing does reduce the community's fear of crime and disorder. Increasing Employment Moderator: Marion W. Pines, Senior Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland Panelists: Robert J. Ivry, Senior Vice President, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), Entitlement Program, New York, New York David Lah, Labor Economist, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. Dennis Lieberman, Labor Economist, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. William Spring, Boston Compact, Boston, Massachusetts Marion Pines's program, Maryland's Tomorrow, initially served approximately 3,000 students in 75 secondary schools, but has grown to serve over 5,000 students in the second year, 6,650 students in 78 schools in the third year, and approximately 8,000 students in 80 schools each year since. The program now operates with a State grant that has grown to $8.5 million. In the 1993 to 1994 school year, a middle school component was added in several jurisdictions, with an additional $1.4 million. In addition to the State General Assembly's support, the Maryland's Tomorrow high school program is able to leverage funding from the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), as well as local educational and private resources. Ms. Pines reminded everyone that the United States is one of the few economically developed countries without school- to-work transition programs. Robert Ivry told the audience that 17 years ago he worked with the Youth Incentive Entitlement Program. That Federal program guaranteed jobs for student participants. The program was active in 17 communities across the country, included jobs in private, nonprofit businesses and government agencies, and was open to all participants who met the selection criteria. Many lessons were learned from that program. When jobs were made available, youths came forward in droves--they are not lazy. Even though most of the jobs were entry level, the youth and the employers were happy. Although there was initial concern that there would not be enough jobs, over 11,000 jobs were created and subsidized by the Federal Government. Also, 20 percent of the students were retained in their jobs after high school graduation. The gap between white and African- American unemployment rates was eliminated. One year after high school graduation, participants were more likely than non-participants to be employed. Unfortunately, the guarantee of a job was not enough to keep students in school. Also, funding was only available for employment, not educational experience. The program emphasis was on creating jobs, not monitoring the educational records of participants. Mr. Ivry highlighted a few of the ways the Youth Employment Skills (YES) program is similar to its predecessor, the JTPA. It allows participants to apply what is learned in the classroom to the workplace, it provides an orientation to the work culture, and it facilitates access to jobs with rollover potential. Improving on the Youth Incentive Entitlement Program, skill building is emphasized, rather than job development and placement. YES provides ongoing support after job placement, such as counseling to assist with transition to the workplace, troubleshooting worksite problems with supervisors, and encouraging further schooling and upgrade training in combination with work. Finally, Mr. Ivry said that the program would look at other aspects of the youth's life, not just the four hours on the job. That is the key to sustaining a positive program. William Spring quickly reviewed the history of youth employment programs and the general job market in the country. He suggested that gradual progress has been made, but warned that, because labor market data are varied and complex, economists are often wrong in their analyses. Mr. Spring described the Boston Compact as a commitment on the part of the Boston business community to employ at-risk youth from the Boston school system. Employers assume joint responsibility with the school and mayor to make this program work. Employers are given no subsidy and are asked to interview participating students before hiring from a different source. Career specialists work with the students to help them make better connections with employers. Results of this program have been impressive. The employment rate for black youth in the Boston area much exceed the national rates. Without systematic, city-wide, structural changes, employment programs will not succeed. Job service coordinators and counselors are needed, and the educational system is difficult to penetrate and change. In conclusion, Mr. Spring stressed vision and long-term thinking. Most youths can perform entry- level jobs. Assistance for youth must combine work and learning in a community-wide, labor market- wide system. He urged the audience to forget the illusion of statistical significance and think instead of the next sensible step toward building a meaningful and cooperative employment system. Dennis Lieberman presented information on the School to Work Opportunities Act. Sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, this initiative maintains that a good high school education leading to a good job and a college education will result in a productive and satisfying life. School to Work Opportunities will integrate work- based and school-based learning. School-based learning is classroom instruction based on high academic and occupational skill standards. Work- based learning is work experience, structured training, and mentoring at job sites. Courses will be developed to integrate classroom and on-the-job instruction, match students with participating employers, train job-site mentors, and build and maintain bridges between school and work. According to Mr. Lieberman, a national school-to- work network may be developed in the future, with a program in each state. To start that process, competitive grants are being offered to states to develop and implement such programs. Grants will also be awarded for local school-to-work programs. States and localities may customize these programs. Ms. Pines interjected that the program described by Mr. Lieberman is not a vocational education program. "Building a system" and making the connection between classroom and workplace learning will take years. It is critical that employers feel they are co-owners and partners in this endeavor. David Lah gave the audience more background on the Youth Employment and Skills (YES) program that is proposed in the Crime Bill. The idea behind the program is that communities matter, not just individuals. The program idea is designed to serve a larger part of the population. According to the program plan, communities with populations between 12,000 and 75,000 would be eligible to compete for grant funding. Their proposals should target areas with high crime rates and poverty levels of 30 percent or higher. Mr. Lah said the goal of the program would be to increase the employment rate in the target areas by 75 to 80 percent. Men and women between the ages of 16 and 25 would be eligible. The program aims to place people in positions that lead to a career, not short-term jobs. Ms. Pines concluded the workshop by pointing out that the key to a successful employment program is to pull the community together behind the program. Leadership, vision, resources, and power must be present. Since no strategy can stand alone, a system must be woven that makes sense to all contributors. Community Development Moderator: Marvin R. Cohen, Director, Children, Youth, and Families Initiative, Chicago Community Trust, Chicago, Illinois Panelists: Sheryll Cashin, Director, National Economic Council, The White House, Washington, D.C. Karen Dates, Network Operations Specialist, Mayor's Office of Employment Services, Baltimore, Maryland Benson Roberts, Vice President, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Washington, D.C. Marvin Cohen said that any effort directed at youth violence must have total community involvement. Even the best programs of support will work for only short periods of time unless a number of things are happening. Housing development or economic development may seem far afield from the issue of youth violence, but it is almost certain that if communities are in disarray, housing is dilapidated, and parents have no job prospects, neighborhoods will not solve youth violence problems. Sheryll Cashin described federal community development programs that help establish linkages between youth development, employment, and economic opportunity. In reference to the murder of 13-year-old Anthony Stokes, she commented that his father was on work-release and his mother was in jail. The only strong parental figure in Anthony's life was the coach at his youth club. Anthony was an aspiring athlete and lived with his 77-year-old grandmother. How is community development to solve problems like this? The interagency task force on which she serves looks at employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth. In the new budget year, her agency is trying to stress youth employment that is closely linked to the world of work. Young people in communities like Anthony's need to be socialized relatively early to the world of work. They need education that is contextually relevant and access to the formal networks that lead to jobs. Ms. Cashin said that discrimination statistics on black males are depressing. Neither white nor African-American employers want to employ young black males from disadvantaged circumstances. The market is failing these youths. Two new programs are particularly relevant. The Youth Employment Skills (YES) demonstration program provides subsidized jobs for youths ages 16 to 25 in 20 neighborhoods. These jobs are time- limited and emphasize networks and connections to subsequent job opportunities. Programs that show substantial linkages to continued private sector employment opportunities will be preferred for these grants. The National Community Economic Partnership is also relevant to crime prevention and youth violence. Community development corporations (CDCs) have been around for about 20 years. They provide outreach, community stability, and linkages to employment opportunities. The third program directed toward addressing crime and youth violence is the Empowerment Zones program. This brings partners together to develop comprehensive strategies. All kinds of interventions are needed in impoverished areas around the country. Federal funding is already going into these areas, but the assistance is not coordinated. For example, HUD is working with labor unions to develop apprenticeships in the building trades. Empowerment Zones are designed to help a community bring these pieces of assistance together to form a comprehensive strategy. Mr. Roberts briefly described the unprecedented partnership that supports Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). HUD and 10 major corporations and foundations have pooled over $87 million to invest in 23 cities to accelerate neighborhood renewal. LISC supports CDC's in these cities to establish or strengthen local partnerships that will address critical community needs. For kids in low income, inner-city neighborhoods, life is different from other neighborhoods. There are fewer positive cues about life for the youths in disadvantaged neighborhoods. It is easier to get in trouble when there are no youth programs in the neighborhood. It is harder to study in crowded public housing units. Outside public and private organizations cannot do the job alone. Communities need to take responsibility for the future and assert behavioral values. In a healthy neighborhood, people look out for each other. In a neighborhood in disarray, the people are afraid to do this. Mr. Roberts pointed out that LISC involves both public and private institutions, emphasizing community ownership, problem identification, and cooperative solutions. Perception of what is possible for a neighborhood is critical. In many inner-city areas now, the popular perception is that no improvement is possible. The public sector will not invest, and the private sector does not believe anyone can be held accountable. To turn this around, tangible progress must be observed--housing must be built, and banks must be brought back to neighborhoods. The community needs to see that it has accomplished things for itself. In communities like the South Bronx, an amazing transformation has taken place over the last 15 years, almost entirely attributable to the initiative of community residents. Karen Dates discussed the need for aggressive networking between youth service providers. The Youth Providers Network operates through the mayor's office in Baltimore. Youth service practitioners come together for seminars, technical assistance, and professional development. About 600 national, regional, and local professional organizations participate in the Baltimore area Network. For a successful effort, the youths themselves also need to be involved in the initiatives. The Youth Leadership Forum, a part of the network, develops conferences, newsletters, and other activities for youth. Another of the network's activities was to send out requests for proposals to local organizations to find out what they could contribute to improve opportunities for high school dropouts. GED training, remedial skills development, job placement, and other support services came from this. Mr. Cohen discussed the $30 million given to family initiatives in the Chicago Community Trust. For its 70th anniversary, the Trust commissioned a study to look into the condition of children's services in the Chicago metropolitan area. The study found that there were virtually no children's services. Systems were utterly fragmented, subject to complex bureaucratic lines of communication, impossible funding regulations, and interagency competition or turf struggles. Only remedial measures for children's problems, such as criminal justice systems, welfare programs, and substance abuse issues, were addressed. Today's communities are different from those of the 1950's when youth service systems were initiated. Now, the overwhelming majority of families have either two working parents or a single working parent in the home. In that context, the ability of communities to lend support to families is seriously eroded. The Trust is trying to change the dominant mode of support in Chicago from one that only addresses children's distress to a system that encourages their capacities at all ages. This means attention to recreational opportunities, character development, team work, and day care that is developmental, not custodial, for the early years. Mr. Cohen pointed out that existing community development systems often rely on state and federal funding. However, leaders need to restore the capacity of community-based nonprofit organizations to provide the needed services. Government cannot ameliorate the problems of violence without integrated services. Making the linkages between agencies and programs is part of the rebuilding effort for communities. The authority to configure the services must be located at the community level, although financial support may come from the State or Federal level. Only if people in the community have that degree of control will the new programs be culturally sensitive and workable.Juvenile Justice Programs Moderator: John J. Wilson, Acting Director, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Gordon Bazemore, Associate Professor, School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Rich Gable, Director of Technical Assistance, National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Donna Martin Hamparian, Juvenile Justice Consultant, Columbus, Ohio Patricia Balasco-Barr, Administrator, Youth Services Administration, District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. John Wilson noted that, historically, a dichotomy has existed between prevention and punishment. He said the comprehensive strategy recently published by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is an attempt to "marry" prevention and enforcement strategies. Mr. Wilson then asked the audience to estimate the percentage of serious and violent crime that is committed by youths under the age of 18. Audience responses ranged from 16 to 80 percent. He said the actual figure today is closer to 12.5 percent. According to the FBI's 1992 Uniform Crime Report, youths under 18 accounted for 16 percent of total arrests. Mr. Wilson also said there has been a 24 percent increase in child victimization in recent years. Solutions to these problems must involve empowering community-based organizations, schools, and teachers. They must promote the known protective factors that keep youth from involvement in crime, drugs, and delinquency. It is important, as the Attorney General consistently emphasizes, to gear efforts to ages zero to three. It is also important to work with older youth, to develop a broad spectrum of graduated sanctions, and to control the small segment of youths who must be controlled to protect public safety. This panel focused on youths who were already involved with the juvenile justice system. Rich Gable remarked that programming for juveniles is more sophisticated today, with a considerable body of research and experience on which to draw. In 1992, OJJDP commissioned the development of a What Works Directory, which now exists in draft form. One caveat is that the National Center for Juvenile Justice did not independently evaluate the programs contained in the directory. The project began with a literature review to determine the essential components of any juvenile program (e.g., clear goals and objectives, needs assessment and community involvement. Juvenile justice practitioners, including probation administrators and staff and judges, were then surveyed and asked to recommend programs for inclusion in the directory. One thousand programs were nominated. These were sent surveys, and between 600 and 700 responded. The final draft directory contains 425 programs. Program information includes average length of stay, staff size, daily rate, and other information, including primary mode of intervention. Types of intervention include academic instruction, behavior management, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and vocational or other training. Mr. Gable then discussed key elements of successful efforts to assist youth. First, youth need legitimate opportunities to experience success. They are motivated by a natural desire to succeed, and it is especially important to develop youth-initiated activities. A second critical component is accountability. Third, programs must recognize the importance of strong families and good parenting and support parents' desire for their children to succeed. Fourth, the society as a whole must convey an intolerance for losing our youths. Their development is essential for a strong economy. Fifth, most children can be helped by relatively inexpensive activities and alternatives. Finally, the most appropriate interventions are at the neighborhood level, not at the State or even the community level. Neighborhood residents need to develop new alternatives. They cannot continue to import services from downtown agencies. One example of this is the Community Intensive Supervision Program in Pittsburgh, which provides nonresidential, after-school, and evening care. All participants live within six blocks of the program site. Dr. Gordon Bazemore discussed old and new paradigms of justice. In the old, retributive model, neither the victim nor the offender is ever asked to be part of the solution. The new, restorative model attempts to take a balanced approach by equally addressing three concepts: (1) competency development, (2) community protection, and (3) accountability. Further, the balanced approach recognizes three clients: the victim, the youthful offender, and the community. The balanced approach involves developing performance objectives. With regard to accountability, for example, objectives would center on how the offender's actions can restore the victim's and community's losses. The competency development approach involves a more tangible way of measuring success. Offender competencies may be enhanced through work, active learning, community service, and other experiences. Patricia Balasco-Barr began by saying that juvenile justice agencies need to "find the vision." After 15 years in child welfare services, she calls juvenile justice system children "our children," as opposed to the term "the thugs," used by some of her predecessors. Ms. Balasco-Barr emphasized that youth risk and needs assessments need to drive program development. There are too many programs that no one uses, and too many needed services for which no program exists. If administrators cannot persuade others of this approach through philosophical argument, they should remember that money works. They can redirect existing budgets. All of the systems--schools, courts, and service contractors--must accept back the children who have special needs. Their criminal behavior is a symptom of family and childhood problems, a sign that there has been a family breakdown for a long time. Helping these youths also involves preventive intervention with their younger siblings. It is well known that after youths have been returned to their communities and families, the positive changes they experienced at the residential facility must compete with negative community norms. There is very little research about the results of asking parents, "How can we help you and your child? How can we help you bring your child home?" As Attorney General Reno says, the government cannot rear children. Ms. Balasco-Barr noted that "some people make a whole lot of money by not solving juvenile problems." Resistance comes from those who are vested in institutions such as residential facilities and foster care. Thus it is important to educate all professional peers as well as the community. Compliance must be monitored and evaluations conducted. It is important to assess staff use of resources, the way staff are treating children, and service contractors' performance. Ms. Balasco-Barr also recommended that administrators include restitution or community service requirements in the contracts. The message must be conveyed that children still have a right to services. Adjudicated youths also should be able to receive quality welfare services simply by walking in and being in need. Donna Hamparian noted that juveniles tried as adults are not counted; the last attempt to do this used 1978 data. Today's statistics on juvenile offenders, therefore, are estimates. However, finding solutions to today's problems is not the same as redefining juvenile offenders. The juvenile justice system, said Ms. Hamparian, is not supposed to be a punishment, yet about 20 percent of juvenile offenders are processed through the adult system. New York, where youths ages 16 and 17 are treated as adults, has the most punitive system in the country. Thirteen-year-olds there are tried for murder in adult court, as are the 14- and 15-year-olds who commit the most violent offenses. There is an appeals process, but it can take longer than a year. Meanwhile, youths during this waiting period are doing "dead time" in juvenile facilities. Ms. Hamparian said most states have a judicial waiver provision (only two do not). Two to four percent of formally handled cases get to criminal court through these judicial waiver processes. Further, "new and inventive ways of punishing" juveniles are being promoted now, for example, "two strikes" provisions keeping youth in juvenile facilities until they are old enough to go to adult prisons. In most prisons, she said, there is no age grading. Thus the youngest prisoners are likely to be subjected to violence by older prisoners or staff. Recidivism rates are higher among juveniles tried as adults than among those tried as juveniles for the same offenses. "What can be done?" Ms. Hamparian asked. She said gun control bills must be passed, especially ones that would control automatic weapons. Members of Congress should be asked tough questions about the Crime Bill. For example, "What should we do with a 13-year-old in an adult prison?" The OJJDP violent offender initiative, which was shown to be effective 10 years ago, needs to be revisited. Jurisdictions should also consider the new Reclaim Ohio initiative. This initiative promotes more community-based options for violent offenders, with a goal of reducing commitments to state institutions. If counties reduce the number of juveniles referred to the State, they receive State funding for community alternatives. Weed and Seed Moderator: Terrence S. Donahue, Acting Director, Executive Office for Weed and Seed, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Beverly Watts Davis, Executive Director, San Antonio Fighting Back, San Antonio, Texas Theresa G. Lipo, Manager, Resource Development, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago, Illinois Elizabeth N. Johnson, Director, Department of Recreation, City of Trenton, New Jersey Richard C. Weatherbee, Law Enforcement Coordinator, U.S. Attorney's Office, Denver, Colorado Terrence Donahue explained that the Weed and Seed concept aimed to take back neighborhoods from criminal influence and, using existing resources, to introduce sustaining "seed" elements in order to keep the neighborhood a favorable place to live, work, and raise a family. The Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded funds to 21 pilot demonstration sites. There are 10 small jurisdiction sites, two multi-jurisdiction sites, and 12 expansion sites. Six of the sites will participate in a national performance review. Seven of the sites will also be test sites for joint ventures with the newly formed Corporation for Community Service. Beverly Watts Davis emphasized that organizing prior to the arrival of Federal funding gave a big advantage to the effort in San Antonio. The law enforcement part of the alliance is critical, since removal of criminal influences from a neighborhood can not be done without it. Law enforcement, however, cannot build up the community afterward. Neighborhoods had to realize they "owned" both the problems and the workable solutions. Having Federal support as a Weed and Seed site was particularly helpful for getting cooperation from local and State human service and health agencies. With Federal program support behind them, the community organizers could, for example, overcome bureaucratic resistance to collocating support service offices in a particular neighborhood. Even before the gun and drug dealers are removed from a neighborhood, residents and stakeholders have to plan for the end of the program, its institutionalization with the partners, and resources that can sustain an ongoing effort. Theresa Lipo works for the Chicago Housing Authority. Using support provided by the Weed and Seed project, the public housing authority was able to improve local and state agency support, transportation, and services in the Ida B. Wells neighborhood, a selected Weed and Seed site. Ida B. Wells has an unemployment rate of 93 percent and, in 1991, experienced 697 Part I crimes. After a 4-month undercover narcotics investigation, the police made 732 arrests in a 1-week period. Within 4 days, 600 housing authority staff participated in establishing new security systems and identification cards for residents. Afterward, community policing officers opened a substation in the neighborhood. Substation activities include planned recreation and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). There is also a popular Community Justice Service Center for ex-offenders. This combines adult probation functions with State funded education, job training, and drug abuse prevention and treatment referrals--Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC). Residents often visit the center for tutoring or referrals of some kind. The center offers core advocacy and assistance to victims of crime, patrol officer training, grandparent-to-youth programs, and midnight basketball. One of the most difficult projects has been the rehabilitation of the highrises in order to attract mixed income families. Joint social or sporting events with nearby working class neighborhoods have begun to relieve the isolation of the public housing families. Elizabeth Johnson described efforts in Trenton, New Jersey, to get collaboration among community, police, recreation, juvenile justice, and local government. The steering committee, formed through the Weed and Seed initiative, first focused on law enforcement collaborations. The city prosecutor and the U.S. Attorney worked together to remove violent offenders. Two new mini-stations were established, bringing the total number of mini- stations in Trenton to four. After effects were seen from the increased law enforcement, the committee began community development activities. Family support and effective school functioning were critical. The steering committee provided a help component for mothers and State funding for new housing starts. Community volunteers made significant efforts. Nonprofit organizations provide part-time training in conflict resolution and similar techniques. Through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, additional funding for resident services has been secured. Ms. Johnson stressed the value of the active support of the mayor and attorney general. Trenton has applied to be recognized as an enterprise zone. If recognized, the new programs will receive additional resources. Trenton will participate in the National Service Program. The theme of their efforts will be "community capacity building." Four teams of participants have been chosen. A small local baseball stadium has been built and has already provided a positive focus for the neighborhood. Richard Weatherbee is the law enforcement coordinator with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver, Colorado. He described the impact of Weed and Seed as gaining effectiveness through the simultaneous focus of various community resources at a problem. A brief way to describe the effect is that it reduces anonymity. When the police are less anonymous, their services are made more human. When residents know each other, there is less opportunity for crime in their neighborhood. When criminals or local creators of disruption cannot be anonymous, their activities will be hindered. Weed and Seed narrows the distance between Federal programs and the taxpayers in a community. Improved access to programs that reduce risks and encourage protective factors can develop. Mr. Donahue encouraged community organizers to prepare for and seek information about the Weed and Seed initiative now, before any Federal expansion is authorized. In that way, they will be prepared to make best use of any help available. Private foundations, charities such as United Way, and Department of Defense organizations such as local army bases can also contribute to community revitalization.Reducing Gun Violence in the Community and the Home Moderator: N. John Wilder, Deputy Mayor, Criminal Justice and Drug Control Policy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Panelists: Arthur Kellermann, Director, Center for Injury Control, Emory University School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia Anne E. Parry, Director, Institute for Choosing Nonviolence, Chicago, Illinois Willie G. Lipscomb, Jr., District Court Judge, 36th District Court, Detroit, Michigan Andrew L. Vita, Deputy Assistant Director for Law Enforcement Programs, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Washington, D.C. David W. Cummings, Group Supervisor, Uptown Taskforce, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, New York, New York John Wilder stated that the seriousness of America's problem with gun violence is evident in the increasing attempts to form partnerships against guns and violence. The problem of gun violence is reflected in the numbers of young men, especially African-Americans, being killed and incarcerated. He emphasized that all segments of the community must come together to solve the violence. One such effort involves the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine at Emory University, which have recognized the importance of injury as a national and international problem by establishing the Emory Center for Injury Control. The primary goal of the center is to reduce the toll of morbidity, mortality, and costs of injury through an integrated program of research, service, and education. Dr. Arthur Kellermann declared that the medical community has a major stake in preventive approaches. For any illness, the medical community knows that it is not sufficient to treat a patient and send him or her back out to the same situation that caused the illness. This applies as well to patients treated for injuries resulting from gun violence. The District of Columbia, Dr. Kellermann noted, has a homicide rate seven times higher than that of any other western democracy. The rate for homicides among blacks is 37 times higher than any western democracy, and for whites it is three times higher. For every gun-related death, there are five serious injuries, and this does not include those that do not require hospitalization. Dr. Kellermann stated that guns and violence are inextricably linked. If the guns are taken away, the violence will drastically change. Violence in the absence of guns means less potential for serious or fatal injury. Two factors contributed to the proliferation of guns and violence in recent history--the escalation in 1985 of the availability of cocaine and the manufacture of semi-automatic weapons. He also pointed out that not all guns are alike. Handguns kill the most people--more than rifles, shotguns, and other firearms combined. Dr. Kellermann noted that there are more than 200 million guns in the United States, and it is not possible to get them all. The focus must shift from the supply of guns to gun transactions, especially the flow of weapons through the hands of youth. The strategy for doing this must include several elements: 1. Demanding reduction. 2. Impacting on the illegal market (straw purchases, secondary transactions, and thefts). 3. Preventing weapons use. The first step, he noted, is collection of information that would show who has guns; how, when, and where they were obtained; and any other useful data. This information can be used to inform policy, develop strategies, try different ideas in different cities, and see what works through Federal, State, and local joint efforts. Anne Parry introduced the Rainbow House Institute for Choosing Nonviolence, which offers training to educators, social service providers, and other adults in the approach popularly called "Choosing Nonviolence." Through hundreds of presentations on community, interpersonal, and domestic violence, Rainbow House staff became convinced that adults need to better understand violence and identify nonviolent alternatives before they can teach children to do the same. She asked, "How is it that we have turned into a society that produces boys who become men who are violent towards women, and girls who become women who think they deserve abuse?" Violence is America's "learned national behavior" and must be unlearned in order for anything to change. High school is too late to address violence prevention because by then violence has already been learned. Elementary school is better, but violence prevention at a younger age is better still. Head Start is the place to begin. In order for children to learn nonviolence, "adults must create safe places--violence-free zones." When people are in safe places, they can make choices that are nonviolent. Ms. Parry contended that America's violent behavior can be changed just like smoking was changed--through legislation and by redefining "cool" behavior. She also noted that everyone fits somewhere on the continuum of violence. People must examine themselves to see where they fit and take stands to change their own behavior. The continuum includes killing at one end and watching violence on television at the other. To make a contribution to preventing violence, Ms. Parry suggested that people refer to the Take Ten Guidebook, a book she developed that offers numerous activity ideas for teaching nonviolence. Andrew Vita stated that, in an age of increasing violent crime and decreasing resources, "we must make innovative use of resources, forge innovative partnerships, and take advantage of emerging technologies." As the agency that regulates the firearms industry, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) established an initiative called Stop the Armed Violence Epidemic (SAVE). SAVE can be applied to any type of community and is tailored to the needs of that community. One component of the initiative is a study that examines the scope of the violence problem in a particular community. It pulls together all possible federal and community resources to reduce violence through understanding and interrupting the "firearms violence dynamics" in that community. Mr. Vita explained that, in order for gun-related violence to occur, four elements must exist simultaneously: perpetrator, victim, firearm, and motive. If any one of these can be eliminated, there will not be firearm violence at that particular time. SAVE works to help communities better address eliminating these elements. ATF also works with state and local law enforcement and school boards to trace firearms recovered from juvenile crimes committed in a school or in a school zone. ATF has a national 24- hour, toll-free hotline to which people can report any information on firearms. As a final note, Mr. Vita cautioned against the use of gun buy-back programs because they give criminals an opportunity to dispose of weapons without accountability. These weapons are evidence that cannot later be linked to an owner or user. David Cummings described a program begun in 1990 involving a joint effort among the New York Housing Authority Police Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the ATF. The program, called Project Uptown, addresses drug trafficking and violence in public housing and primarily focuses on confiscation of guns. Project Uptown involves 12 ATF special agents, 20 housing police, and two HUD special agents. Since stopping the program began, there has been a 40 percent decrease in gun- and drug- related violence in public housing, as well as decreases in other criminal activity. Project Uptown has also been established in Baltimore, Maryland, and will soon start in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Chicago, Illinois. Judge Willie Lipscomb showed slides of gunshot wounds as an example of what he presents to men who participate in a voluntary referral program in his district court. If all programs worked, he stated, the problem of gun violence would still exist, because there is no commitment by American society to change it. Because men are disproportionately affected by this issue, men must make a particular commitment to change. Their lives are important. Since stopping gun violence is not on "America's agenda," he stated, "men must put it on their own agenda." To illustrate his point, he compared the problem to the situation of breast cancer. Breast cancer is not perceived as an issue for men, so women have taken it on and advocate for themselves. Men must take the same approach with gun violence. Judge Lipscomb noted that there were 2,500 handgun cases in his own district court annually. All of these cases were processed without any intervention. In his referral program, people who are adjudicated for gun-related offenses voluntarily attend. More than 2,300 people have already been referred and 1,340 participated. Participants meet weekly with ministers, social workers, doctors, and lawyers. Anyone can attend. The program, which is unfunded and staffed by volunteers, is like a school session. Presentations are followed by discussions. There is emphasis on historical figures, especially African and African-American, and on helping participants develop a sense of history. The goal of the program is to build self-awareness and understanding. Hate Violence Moderator: Judith M. Filner, Program Director, National Institute for Dispute Resolution, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Michael Lieberman, Associate Director and Washington Counsel, Anti-Defamation League, Washington, D.C. Cheryl Schwartz, Director, Youth Services, Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Community Services Center of Colorado, Denver, Colorado Ronald Wakabayashi, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, Los Angeles, California Jamie Battaglia, Administrative Assistant and Intern, Healthy Boston Coalition for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, Boston, Massachusetts Judith Filner said hate violence is not a pleasant topic and is therefore the forgotten violence. The panel, she said, was about approaches to combating bigotry and prejudice among youth. She said the government does not pay much attention to bigotry, prejudice, or hate violence. Michael Lieberman observed that while the Anti- Defamation League (ADL) has its roots in the Jewish community, it quickly added the goal of ending discrimination of all types. Any comprehensive violence prevention strategy must include awareness of and training on prejudice and bigotry. Penalties for crimes can be enhanced based on the motivation of the perpetrator. Similarly, other laws impose more severe penalties depending on the identity of the victim (for example, police officers and children). ADL research shows that in 1993 almost 1,900 acts of violence or vandalism were committed against Jewish victims or targets, the second-highest annual total in ADL's research. Mr. Lieberman noted that because hate crimes have a greater potential for creating riots than other crimes do, the police support hate-crime reporting. Some youths are members of neo-Nazi skinhead groups, and wherever those groups arise, Mr. Lieberman said, hate violence follows. However, he added, the vast majority of hate crimes are perpetrated by persons not associated with any group. Therefore, broad-based training against prejudice is appropriate. Most hate crimes are committed by one's neighbors, their children, or one's co-workers. High school civics classes should teach students the fundamental principles of America, which celebrate diversity. Society cannot outlaw anti- Semitism or disapproval of homosexuality, but it can affect the people who turn to hate crimes. Cheryl Schwartz observed that if hate crimes in general are the forgotten violence, hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are especially forgotten. She read the FBI definition of "hate crime," which calls it any crime against a person or property that is motivated in whole or in part by bias against race, religion, or sexual orientation. Homophobia, Ms. Schwartz said, is the root cause of hate crimes against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Such violence often goes unchecked in schools because many school administrators are afraid of homosexuals, have institutionalized homophobia, and are afraid to discipline gay- bashers. Most local school districts provide gays, lesbians, and bisexuals with no special protection against bias. Ms. Schwartz said that in instances of violence against gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, other gays, lesbians, or bisexuals are sometimes the perpetrators. They often become gay-bashers, she said, in order to disprove their homosexuality. Some join skinhead groups. She added that even if they have publicly announced their sexual orientation, some gays, lesbians, and bisexuals still gay-bash. Criticism of homosexuality contributes to low self-esteem, depression, truancy, self-destructive behavior, and even suicide. Ms. Schwartz gave results of a study her center conducted that showed that 93 percent of kids in the program are sexually active, 21 percent say they have never used protection (condoms) during sex, and many of the rest use the devices only intermittently. The study was based on a survey of 30 youths at the center. Ms. Schwartz's organization collects and reports hate crime statistics. It also educates the youth on how to look for and recognize hate crimes. Mr. Wakabayashi said that hate crimes also victimize the community. For example, a vandalism attack against an ethnic community center affected the center physically and raised fear among the people who used the center and among people at other nearby ethnic community centers. He noted that the ethnic, local press often spots hate crime trends before the mainstream press. Los Angeles County experiences many types of conflict that can lead to hate violence. Mr. Wakabayashi noted that about 40 Korean store operators are shot there annually, and there is also conflict between black and Latino gangs for the drug trade. Immigrant or ethnic groups that are relatively new to the United States are unlikely to have organized groups to represent their interests in bias-oriented conflicts. The ADL is sophisticated, he observed. In contrast, the Koreans had no such organization during the recent riots in Los Angeles. Jamie Battaglia, who is homosexual, related the story of her difficult high school years. As a senior, she began the process of announcing her homosexuality publicly, or "coming out." She went to the school's headmaster, said she was gay, and asked that he institute education about homosexuality for the student body. He said that as she was one of only two homosexuals in the school, he did not want to start a program until there was a problem. As Ms. Battaglia told her friends about her sexual orientation, the word got around the school that she was homosexual. On several occasions she was called names, and once she got into a fight with another student. She missed 80 out of 180 days of school, and her grades dropped to failing level. The school counselor said she did not know how to deal with Ms. Battaglia. The student responded, "Why can't you just accept me for what I am?" Three weeks before graduation, she quit school. She later obtained her GED. Ms. Battaglia said her family was very supportive throughout her troubles. Keynote Address and Town Hall Meeting Albert Gore, Jr., Vice President of the United States, (Transcript of Presentation) About 25 years ago, Life magazine published a picture of every soldier who had been killed during 1 week in Vietnam. The feature shocked and moved many people. The tragedy was measured in 242 names and faces--lost lives, not body counts. Last week, Newsweek tried something similar. However, in this article discussing the number of Americans murdered in a week, it could not show every victim in that 1 week because there were 500 of them. Think again about Vietnam. We lost 55,000 American lives in that war. It took 15 years to lose those 55,000 people. Almost that many are murdered right here at home every 2 years. The epidemic of violent crime in America shocks all of us, but even more shocking is that the victims and perpetrators keep getting younger and younger. Nearly 1 million 12- to 19-year-olds are raped, robbed, or assaulted every year. Last year, 2,200 murder victims were under age 18. There has been an 85 percent increase in the number of teens arrested for murder between 1987 and 1991. Why? Among the significant aspects of the problem are drugs, guns, poverty, and racial inequality. Anyone who thinks we can find our way out of this tragedy simply by incarcerating more people for more time does not understand either the problems or the solutions. Young people need stable communities and families in order to develop a sense of right and wrong, the desire to work, and the understanding that families are important. Young people must also know that violent behavior will bring swift and certain consequences. The key is to strengthen the bonds between young people and the institutions we value most: church, family, school, and community. These institutions are interrelated in a community and are central to the Clinton plan for community empowerment. Communities, like their problems, are complex, and solutions to problems must take account of the fact that each community has many related aspects. The community empowerment approach attempts to address these aspects through community policing, world class schools, and attracting small business. The federal government will reward innovative communities with grants, tax credits, and other helpful programs. I ask representatives on the Hill to vote for the Crime Bill when it comes up again. It is overwhelmingly a no-nonsense package of police, punishment, and prevention. The country wants a ban on assault weapons, wants offenders to know that violent behavior will result in swift punishment, and wants to keep guns out of the hands of minors. The country wants enhanced punishment and something done to prevent crime, to keep kids away from entering a life of crime. Community schools, work opportunity, and anti-gang programs will help. The votes against the Crime Bill, which was only slightly different than that which had already passed the House of Representatives (and actually contained less prevention funding), were truly political games. I can't understand why anyone would be against taking assault weapons out of the hands of children. We have to give our children something to hold on to--something that will not land them in jail or the hospital. Government alone can't keep our youths on track. We must all look out for each other. We can succeed and we are succeeding, whether working to reduce violence in Baltimore, mentoring in Berkeley, or getting national service off the ground here in Washington. The fact that we can't reach every child is no reason not to reach the ones we can. You who are working in the communities must keep on working. You are changing people's lives. The poet Milton wrote, "Childhood shows the man as morning shows the day." When we give our children love, attention, and support, we will produce a caring, responsible adult, capable of working with the next generation. This administration will work with you to realize your vision. Let us reclaim our streets, pass this Crime Bill, and fight back. Bill Clinton, President of the United States, (Address via Video) The hallmark of American democracy is people working together in partnership to make life better for others. Nowhere is that spirit more evident than at this conference. All violence is deplorable, but when it is directed at the most vulnerable members of society--our children--we must act decisively. Our children are being killed. We must stop this violence before it destroys an even larger part of our nation's future. I applaud the leadership shown by youths here today. We need to build on your efforts and coordinate them with national efforts. With its funding for prevention, the Crime Bill will give youths in search of direction something to say yes to--in billions and billions of dollars' worth of prevention programs. Community leadership is the key. We must begin by rebuilding our communities in fellowship. As a father, a citizen, and your President, I thank you. I pledge the full commitment of my administration in this effort. Town Hall Meeting [Note: The Town Hall Meeting was arranged into three panels with different contributing panelists. The first panel was moderated by Vice President Gore and Ms. McMillon; the second and third were moderated by Deputy Secretary Kunin and Ms. McMillon.] First Panel Moderators: Albert Gore, Jr., Vice President of the United States Doris McMillon, Television Journalist, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Donna Shalala, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Henry Cisneros, Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C. Lee P. Brown, Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Washington, D.C. Richard Riley, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Vice President Albert Gore asked the panelists what they were currently doing to help communities prevent youth violence. Secretary Donna Shalala said the Department of Health and Human Services is providing money for communities to put together their own strategies and helping to organize people into programs like the Beacon schools in New York. What makes such programs work, she said, is listening to young people. They have a better sense of what will work for themselves and their friends. Secretary Henry Cisneros said the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is putting a considerable amount of money and effort into safety in public housing and sports activities. In the Robert Taylor housing units in Chicago, 300 shooting incidents occurred in one week in April. Five young people were killed on a single weekend. Together with the city government, HUD identified $29 million to put into law enforcement and prevention activities. HUD has also put extensive effort into recreational activities in which adults provide guidance to young people. Mr. Cisneros was stunned that members of Congress objected to federal funding of midnight basketball. This program gives those kids something healthy to do. Dr. Lee Brown said his office's overriding goal is to reduce the demand for drugs. There is a direct relationship between drug use and crime and violence. He observed that the Crime Bill allocates funds for drug courts and drug treatment. Dr. Brown has personally seen the community policing strategy work in numerous towns and cities in America. Mr. Gore added that if a drug addict asks for help, it is not extravagant for the government to make such help possible. Secretary Richard Riley said that, where good learning and partnerships within the community take place, one finds very little violence. Peer mediation and conflict resolution programs have been increased in the new budget. Afternoon and evening programs at schools are tremendously helpful and need to be increased, he added. Youth representatives at the conference then posed questions to the panel and moderators. A youth from Little Rock, Arkansas, said that members of the youth caucus at the conference would like to see a national youth council formed that would work with the Federal departments and the administration. This youth council would like to meet with Mr. Gore to give him their insights on solutions to youth violence. Mr. Gore responded that he thought a meeting would be a great idea. The people closest to a problem, he said, almost always have insights that you cannot get anywhere else. Another youth said that one of the major causes of youth violence is a lack of self-knowledge. He asked when the Federal Government would create a curriculum that promotes multicultural education? Mr. Riley answered that the Goals 2000 Act recognizes the country's diversity and encourages the teaching of foreign languages and multicultural arts. A youth from Seattle asked what the panel members would promise to do regarding decreased community- level funding of youth violence prevention programs. Mr. Gore said the country needs both punishment and prevention, as provided in the Crime Bill before Congress. The prevention approach would be coordinated at the local level. Another youth asked what the country could expect from the Federal Government to strengthen the family's system of love and support. Mr. Gore said the government wants to help families who are trying to stay together. He mentioned the increase in the earned income credit and said the administration's plan for welfare reform would reverse the incentive for fathers to leave their families. Doris McMillon then asked the gathered youths how many of them had seen shootings, knew people who were shot, or knew kids who carry guns to school. Many hands went up after each part of the question. A young man from Denver asked that more effort be made to seek out help from youth. One young woman said a friend of hers was shot in the head in front of the school. The same young woman, when asked whether she was afraid to go to school, replied, "I'm not afraid to go to school, but a white kid might be." Another young woman observed that when she walks down the street where her grandmother lives, she often hears gunshots. A young man from Indiana mentioned that the attitude, "It doesn't concern me, so why should I worry?" contributes to the problem. His inter- school student council sponsored a "Stop the Violence" rally. Second Panel Moderators: Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Doris McMillon, Television Journalist, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Beverly Watts Davis, Executive Director, San Antonio Fighting Back of United Way, San Antonio, Texas Lieutenant Jose Garcia, Director, Santa Ana Weed and Seed Project, Santa Ana Police Department, Santa Ana, California Shawn Dove, Co-Director, Countee Cullen Community Center, New York, New York Eva Feindler, Chief Consultant, Institute for Mental Health Initiatives, Washington, D.C. [via satellite from the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California] Bill Curry, Head Football Coach, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky [via satellite] Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin introduced the new panel of community leaders and asked them, "What works?" Beverly Watts Davis said her group allowed young people to come up with their own programs, such as midnight basketball and Dive-in Movies (films shown around a swimming pool). Kids have even started their own T-shirt companies. Regarding community involvement, Lieutenant Jose Garcia said apathy is like a disease. Once it starts to permeate a community, the community begins to die. It is important not to give up, he said. People should keep fighting for what they believe. Shawn Dove said his group, too, let the young people develop their own programs. He described the community center's teen lounge and workshops, among other features. He said, "You need to reach the parents, too. If you start to reach the young people but the parents' attitude is unchanged, it will not work." The programs have to reach the whole community. The entire family can come to the school-based community center. He said that if children are not organized at the community center, they will be organized in the street. The center works holistically by bringing families together in activities. Dr. Eva Feindler said adolescence is a time of tremendous energy and creativity. These youths as peer leaders can be very effective in stopping the escalation of violence and promoting hope in the whole community. Lieutenant Garcia added that efforts to reduce youth violence require money. The unknown resource is the private sector. Businesses are beginning to realize that, in the long run, it will benefit them to invest in the community. He called for partnerships between communities, the private sector, and government. Deputy Secretary Kunin asked Ms. Davis how partnerships were developed in her area. Ms. Davis said they had been very successful with public- private partnerships. Often with Federal funding, there are restrictions that prevent comprehensive coverage of different needs. For example, it may be necessary, in order to hold a meeting, to arrange for child care and food. Federal funds cannot be used for these purposes, but private funds give greater flexibility, allowing for holistic services. She recommended using the military and charities such as the United Way. People will support what they have helped to create. Mr. Dove advised building alliances among all groups that are stakeholders in the outcome of violence prevention efforts. The advisory board for a youth council can have representatives from all interested groups, such as politicians, clergy, and business leaders. Dr. Feindler called on the educational system to use affective training to teach kids about their emotions and about alternatives to violence. An audience member said his company made films and school programs to counter violence. He asked about other ways entertainment and the arts could be used to promote nonviolence. Ms. Davis said her group helps children make their own commercials against violence. Another audience member asked about helping children who are themselves raising children. Dr. Feindler said parenting education should be a part of every high school curriculum. Teenagers, whether they are babysitting or caring for their own infants, need to have instruction in parenting. New York schools are offering courses on how to be a parent. Lieutenant Garcia observed that sometimes girls raising children are no longer in school, so it may be hard to reach them. Ms. Davis suggested having a core of trained teen mothers educate other teen mothers, in order to reach those new mothers who are not attending school. She recommended teaching parenting skills at the hospital, right after delivery of a baby. Bill Curry called his football team a microcosm of society. Team members have experienced some of the same tragedies of violence as in other parts of the country. His team has young people of all races and from all parts of the country. He noted that team members attend cultural diversity workshops and that coaches must learn to listen to young people, something which does not come easy for authority figures. He added that his players serve as mentors for children who have trouble learning to read. One can learn by teaching, he said. His team members learn to develop empathy by helping younger people. Even someone who is surly, or perhaps not a good student, may be very responsive to a fifth grader who doesn't read well. That tutor will come back to his university classes with a new sense of commitment. Deputy Secretary Kunin asked the conference participants about the problem of giving up "turf." Ms. Davis pointed out that it was necessary to stop doing to or for people and to begin to do with people. Most of the larger funding foundations require shared decision- making. Residents must be involved in the power decisions--who gets what, who gets hired, etc. A master's degree is not needed to implement a safe haven. Mr. Curry said his organization worked with the police departments in Lexington, Kentucky, to form partnerships for efforts against violence. As members of an athletic organization, they often participate in activities to foster intercultural understanding. A member of the audience said she was concerned about the Crime Bill's provision for 100,000 new police officers. She said she did not want 100,000 police officers "swooping down" on the inner cities. She felt the police often could not tell the good guys from the bad guys. She further questioned the value of spending $40 million for midnight basketball. She asked what redemptive quality it could be said to teach. Lieutenant Garcia said that the philosophy of community-style policing would help address her concerns about the police. Since 1975, his town of Santa Ana has worked with this kind of law enforcement. The style of policing is a key to its success. The officers do not alienate the people they serve. With community policing tactics, he said, the police would not "swoop down." The panelists left, and Ms. McMillon addressed the gathered youth contingent and distant satellite participants. She asked about gangs and whether midnight basketball would keep them out of gangs. Some youths said that gangs give them a feeling of self-esteem. Another youth claimed that gang members sought a sense of belonging and love, which they were unable to receive in their homes. Some of the youth said midnight basketball would help keep them out of gangs. The youth expressed great interest in being consulted for solutions.Third Panel Moderators: Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Doris McMillon, Television Journalist, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Ruben Chavez, Deputy Director for Outreach Services, Youth Development, Inc., Albuquerque, New Mexico Kelly J. Zimmerman, 1993-1994 National Youth of the Year, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Orrville, Ohio Robert Larson, President and General Manager, Detroit PBS Station WTVS [via satellite] Thomas J. Monaghan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska Jeffrey A. Miller, Principal, Campbell Drive Middle School, Homestead, Florida Donna Healy, Guidance Supervisor, Peabody, Massachusetts, Public Schools [via satellite] Robert Larson said Detroit has developed an organization called City for Youth that has redefined the role of Detroit public media in the community. The organization puts together talk sessions, teleconferences, videos, and campaigns on youth health and other topics. Over 400 organizations and every one of the Detroit media mount campaigns to address community needs. He said it is possible to engage the interest of media in serving the youth. Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin asked panelists how to bring gang members back into the mainstream. Ruben Chavez replied that to make an impact on young people in gangs, it is necessary to approach them as individuals. He said, "We don't get people out of gangs." His group tries, instead, to redirect the negative energy into doing positive things. Thomas Monaghan said law enforcement agencies do a good job of solving crimes in his state, Nebraska, but they have found it is not enough to catch the criminals. It has not been possible to solve problems by incarceration. Therefore, it is necessary to get involved with kids when they are young. He described how the PACT program (Pulling America's Communities Together) solicits ideas from the entire community to design what needs to take place. Citizens want safe streets, stronger communities and families, and stronger statements about values. Kelly Zimmerman said the Boys and Girls Clubs have activities that target a wide range of interests. The clubs try to give kids a constructive place to go from age 6 to age 18. Jeffrey Miller described how, after some hesitation, his school district installed new lights and now hosts midnight basketball games until 3:00 a.m. The program has worked well. The graffiti has stopped, and the participants have been very orderly. They know if things do not go well, the lights will go off. They police themselves. He said he was surprised at the success of these games. Youth Crime Watch and other programs that empower youth have also worked well in Dade County. He recommends these highly. Mr. Larson described the Commission to Prevent Crime, Drugs, and Violence, a national campaign funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Commission includes many radio and television companies as well as public sector members. He said the group invites everyone to join in its partnership. Deputy Secretary Kunin asked panelists for their final advice. Mr. Chavez said leaders need to help people learn to care. He asked leaders to unite around the issue of youth violence and to overcome ethnic differences, because prejudice affects all groups. Donna Healy said it is important to teach kids tools for handling conflict--self-control, cooperation, and problem-solving--from a very early age. Otherwise, they cannot be expected to make good decisions when they get older. Mr. Monaghan called for anti-violence education for children as soon as they are born--even before they are born, through teaching families how to rear children. The environment must be supportive all the way through the child's development. By the time youths are 15 or 16, little can be done. Ms. Zimmerman said that programs work best from the inside out. The programs that are developed and run by the residents of a housing project, for example, work better than those imposed by outsiders trying to correct problems. Several members of the youth contingent stood up to describe the youth programs in which they are involved. One described a program called the Young Adult Police Commissioners of New Haven, Connecticut that promotes midnight basketball and raises money for hospices. Another described Serious Teens Acting Responsibly (STAR), a program formed and directed by teenagers. They arrange leadership training (ability to be assertive in public), mentoring, and other training to help with independent living. In one of their efforts, teenagers bond with 3-year-olds to teach them a range of life skills. Another young man described the New York City Youthline, operated for and by youths ages 16 to 24. The Youthline keeps computerized information on services for youth and agencies that help youth. Crisis assistance is also given. A young woman then described the Jackie Robinson Center, an after-school program that operates out of the public schools in central Brooklyn. The Center sponsors African dance, a marching band, karate, tutoring, and other special interest programs. Leadership is greatly encouraged, and young people run parts of the program independently. The speaker herself co-directs the marching band. A youth from Birmingham, Alabama, spoke about "Project A-Team." Youths from all over that city formed a council to advise city government and provide forums for youth, jobs for the city, and the like. A caller from station KQED in San Francisco noted the importance of including self-esteem training in youth programs. Mr. Miller said his school district had benefited from the new Safe Schools Bill in Florida, which opens schools for after- school activities for children 10 years of age and up. They found they needed to present prevention activities to younger and younger children. An audience member who was a physician for disabled children asked that the disabled not be forgotten in the design of new job programs and opportunities for youth. Deputy Secretary Kunin concluded the town hall meeting by saying, "Working together as partners, we can make our cities and schools safer for our children and give them hope." Plenary Address: Report on Comprehensive Community Planning Sessions Wednesday, August 16, 1994 John A. Calhoun, Executive Director, National Crime Prevention Council, Washington, D.C. Mr. Calhoun thanked facilitators and agency staff for the many hours they spent assisting the community planning groups. He also thanked the community representatives for their enthusiasm and dedication. The efforts of these hard working groups produced a rich array of ideas. A completed report on workshop ideas and suggestions will be forwarded to all conference attendees. Mr. Calhoun noted that during the two and one-half day conference, each city developed its own youth violence reduction program. He highlighted some of their suggestions. First, the groups suggested that the federal government reduce some of the strings attached to projects and give communities more flexibility. They also want more programs that are run by youths. Parenting issues such as family support and leave policies were also noted as areas of interest. In the area of resources, Mr. Calhoun said the groups recommended the possibility of using the armed services. Special taxes in the form of a tax form checkoff were advocated as another way to fund violence prevention programs. Mr. Calhoun pointed out that planners had developed a comprehensive list of who should be involved in the planning process. The work groups recommended that communities look at the positive aspects of their own neighborhoods and try to determine why certain schools and neighborhoods have less crime, more cohesion, and more caring. On the second day of the conference, group participants began to realize that many other communities across the country shared their concerns and have had similar problems. Methods of involving the community were extensive. Of particular interest were the suggestions to (1) involve the media as a partner, (2) get youth to participate, and (3) have fun and food. Planning groups wanted to meet with respective mayors, develop methods for sharing information, and create long-range plans. Mr. Calhoun commented that the community planning groups went beyond the symptoms and problems. They focused on developing a comprehensive violence reduction plan involving the entire community. Community building was seen as a real part of the solution. These groups and the communities they represent are looking for Federal leadership as they think of ways to develop their communities after reducing crime and violence. Mr. Calhoun concluded that participants learned many things during this conference and would bring home new hope. Plenary Panel: Youth Reporting from Caucus Meetings Moderator: Lori Stokes, News Anchor, WJLA News, Washington, D.C. Panelists: Madeleine Kunin, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Peter Edelman, Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. Shay Bilchik, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. The session began with a question: Was the conference designed to focus on the pending Crime Bill or on violence in the streets? Young people at the conference wanted programs to keep youth from going to jail. Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin remarked that conference planning began long before the Crime Bill came up for consideration. Although there is money in the Crime Bill for some of the programs, it is only one tool for change, not the purpose of this conference. A student from Fresno, California, said he felt adults were not listening. Although 44 percent of the youths supervised by the California Youth Authority are Chicano, Chicanos are not represented at the conference. Violence cannot be equated with race. A group of the youth attendees stayed up until 5:00 a.m. talking about what the youth here should be doing. They felt they should be running the conference themselves. The Vice President had been asked for a meeting to discuss forming a National Youth Council. Many youths felt frustrated and angry because their voices were not being heard. The conference needed to focus on successful models that are working in communities. The youth felt they had not had a chance to contribute to this. Lori Stokes asked the youths as a group whether they lived with fear on a daily basis. One student answered yes, but he did not come to the conference to focus on that. Several others agreed. Ms. Stokes then asked what a National Youth Council could do and how it should be organized. A youth representative from Little Rock, Arkansas, said all programs at the national level should have a youth focus in order to represent youth interests and needs. He said yesterday's teleconference made "pretty pictures for TV"; but if the adults want to use the youth, they need to give the youth a voice. Adults need to realize that youth do have viable solutions. Kids on the street have empowered gangs, but they can just as well empower themselves now for positive change. Deputy Secretary Kunin said the youth caucus was given one and one-half hours this morning in a spirit of partnership. The President has expressed his support for the concept of a National Youth Council. The youth members then presented the 15 points upon which the youth caucus agreed: Youth Caucus Recommendations 1. Create a National Multicultural Youth Forum, with youth task forces within Federal agencies to advise government and give youth a voice. 2. Create a national YouthLine to inform young people about youth-serving organizations in their communities. 3. Create safeguards for local funding. 4. Develop youth and adult mentoring. 5. Provide meaningful internships for juvenile offenders in community-based organizations. 6. Support meaningful jobs and job-training programs. 7. Establish youth courts where young people can be judged by a jury of their peers. 8. Create a national conference for youth, addressing the issues which affect the lives of young people. 9. Establish leadership summits at the community level. 10. Ensure that government considers diversity issues (region, ethnicity, sexual orientation) when making decisions on youth violence. 11. Ensure more careful monitoring of children's protective services. 12. Link services with advocacy. 13. Ensure that recreational programs have specific models. 14. Create a national media and entertainment body that will make press releases or at least direct organizations toward promoting positive press information. 15. Enlist the aid of higher institutions of learning on a more frequent basis. One of seven members of a youth court in Brooklyn spoke to the audience. The kids in that court decide appropriate punishments for their peers. Shay Bilchik commented that a youth court can be a viable effort if training is provided. It can be helpful to the juvenile court. He then asked for more information about mentoring. A young man from the Dallas area said he was part of a mentoring project. He commented that the youths who are shooting others have no morals, no love for anybody, no belief in God. He said he wanted to see religion back in the home and school. If teenage fathers knew about God, they would not leave their children, he said. Another youth said he operates a karate school and is often asked to be a mentor. Many programs use doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, but youth may need people to whom they can more easily relate. Ms. Stokes noted that doctors and other professionals could have been in the same difficult situations when they were children. One young man expressed anger about such questions as, "Are you going to make it? Aren't you afraid you're going to be killed?" People have to think positively, he said. Ms. Stokes asked what reporters should do instead of focusing on the negative. He responded that they should do stories on people who are not afraid. Another youth pointed out that there was less coverage and consideration of events like political bombings than of street crime, yet that was violence, too. A young woman from Atlanta said there was very little coverage of youth-serving organizations, and when they were covered, the focus was usually on how much money was needed to keep them open. A youth from Miami said there should be more television programs and newspapers that are "by kids, for kids." Another youth pointed out that television coverage of violent incidents is not always truthful. Kids would like to hear the truth from other kids. Some youth have no morals and see jail as simply a chance to watch cable TV, lift weights, and eat regularly. It costs $35,000 a year to keep someone in prison. That money could go for better programs. Otherwise, younger kids will follow their violent or law-breaking brothers and sisters. If the youth here put their energy and intelligence into a National Youth Council, he said, they could make a difference. Each kid knows of at least five programs that work in the community. Money should be put into those programs. School teacher involvement is also needed. Many teachers today do not care or inforce discipline. A young man from Birmingham emphasized that morals and values should be taught. One part of the country is not more important than any other, he added. A young woman pointed out that youth also need opportunities to talk. Mr. Rodriquez from New Haven commented that there were far fewer camera operators here to cover the youth session than were present for the Vice President, First Lady, and other officials. An adult in the audience commented that politicians do not accept that the youth are the future of the country. Politicians think, "If you don't vote or pay taxes, you don't count." The conference room in this Wednesday session was empty, compared to the day before. A youth asked, "Is our message not important?" A suggestion was made that everyone write their congressional representatives and say they want a National Youth Council. As a group, the youth could make a change. A student from New Mexico, referring to the Crime Bill, asked why the President did not worry more about the hungry people in front of the White House or about gang-governed neighborhoods, rather than fighting other countries' battles. He said all the Crime Bill money should be put into prevention. The United States, he remarked, is not really a free country. Other youths remarked that more schools, not more prisons, should be built. There used to be two parents in the home to instill moral values, and there used to be discipline in the schools. Now, kids have no respect. Deputy Secretary Kunin told the youth caucus members their enthusiasm was good, but they needed to know the facts. One-third of the Crime Bill money is for prevention. The President, the First Lady, and the others here do care. Good schools may be the best crime prevention. She asked what role higher education should play in violence prevention. A youth caucus member wanted, instead, to elaborate on certain facts. If it costs $40,000 a year to keep someone in prison, why could the Crime Bill money not be put into prevention? Mr. Bilchik said a balance with law enforcement was needed. His office hears from youth who cannot get to good programs like safe havens because the streets are not safe. People also want police who are more involved with the community. A young woman from Kansas City complained, "We don't want the police we have now." She said the police were slow to respond, and she did not believe more police were needed. Instead, there should be a forum where adults talk to kids one- on-one, without television cameras. Another youth wondered what people thought more prisons were going to accomplish? He himself had been incarcerated and claimed prisons do not rehabilitate people. Peter Edelman noted that violence problems will not be ended through any one measure. Many solutions are included in the youth caucus's 15 points. These deal with strong families, neighborhoods, schools, jobs, and safety on the streets. With regard to the timing of the conference, he noted that the planners did not expect Congress to still be in session in August. But the Crime Bill is also important, because it is a means to get help to local jurisdictions. There is always resistance to change. The country has been developing these problems a long time, and a long struggle will be needed to resolve them. The Crime Bill is not just about more police; it is also about a different role for police. Although prisons are necessary, simply building prisons will not be enough. A youth representative from Santa Cruz, California, said she did not agree with the "three strikes" provision, because many people make mistakes when they are young. She also said community leaders are already controlling the community. The people do not need more police there; they cannot relate to the police who are already there. She also said there has been little recognition of community activism at the conference. Instead, the focus has been on gang fights. Additionally, there should be more Mexicans teaching Spanish and more opportunities to increase awareness of African-American cultures. A student from the University of Ohio addressed the earlier question about higher education. He said there are a lot of drugs on campus, but not much violence. He noted that he was attending on a scholarship. Youths who live in slums may never see what colleges are like. Scholars, not just athletes, need to go back and communicate with their communities. In the San Joaquin valley, the community could not get a community college, but they were given six prisons. Seventy-eight percent of those incarcerated in California are people of color. School curricula are structured around Anglo- American perspectives. Insufficient consideration is given to the Aztec nation and other cultures. The Chicano movement of the 1960's was similar to the African-American civil rights movement of that period. Both cultures have tribal elements in their history. An adult from the audience emphasized that there should be a commitment from each department sponsoring the conference to have a National Youth Council. One youth reminded everyone to write congressional representatives. A young woman described mock elections held at school and said youths should be able to vote and have their votes count. Another audience member offered Little Rock, Arkansas, as the site for the First National Youth Summit. Mr. Bilchik said his department would be in touch with participants after the conference. Adults need to make a commitment to show love for children. Deputy Secretary Kunin said there had not been enough publicity about the prevention components of the Crime Bill. The Bill contains $7 billion for comprehensive prevention programs. Responding to a question about why there was so much disagreement on the crime legislation, Mr. Edelman said 225 people voted against the Crime Bill because they thought it was "too soft." It banned assault weapons and tried to do too much with regard to prevention. He added that the $7 billion prevention allocation does not restrict local jurisdictions from using it as they wish. For example, many programs are now focusing on prenatal care. Dr. Dennis Embry, who was in the audience, asked the youth caucus how many of them thought it was possible to predict who in elementary school will be in trouble later. He said many studies show that this can be predicted by the fifth grade. He also noted there were many small actions people could take to help turn this around. For example, teachers could send home "praise notes." He also encouraged the youth to volunteer as youth reporters for television stations back home. Ms. Stokes noted that the youth caucus would soon be meeting again, and she encouraged adults to talk to them afterward. Another young woman objected to identifying troubled youth by the fifth grade. This, she said, was the basis for tracking systems and negative labeling. She also said she was angry about the lack of training and rehabilitation in prisons. In contrast to the present conference, she added, Attorney General Reno, at a hearing for the Crime Bill, let the youths speak first. The Attorney General knew if she spoke first, all of the reporters would leave afterward. She complained that the youths were not given time to show their transparencies and do other things they had hoped to do. The youth caucus now would need to meet again, with no adults present. Another youth thanked conference planners for bringing the youth together and said, if he sounded hostile, it was just that he felt emotional about the issues. Three months from now, the youth caucus members want to meet in Little Rock, Arkansas. Three months after that, plans had been made to work with influential people in Washington, D.C. The youth asked for names and numbers of people in Washington, D.C., with whom the youth caucus group could work. An adult in the audience from Birmingham, Alabama, said he wanted to help the youth caucus with media issues. His approach in Birmingham was to look at the television station with the lowest ratings and promise 15,000 new viewers (youth) if they would work with youth, report their views, and feature stories of interest to them. The same approach was taken with newspapers. Now the larger stations and newspapers also want these stories. He said to consider what happened with the National Football League. "Fox came in and made a better deal. You have to do the same." Another adult in the audience proposed establishing an "Interim National Commission to Prevent Crime, Drugs, and Violence," half of which would be youth leaders and half adult practitioners. He noted that adults and the youth caucus have not yet had a chance to share information. When youths appear confrontational, others tune them out. Adults and youths should not be fragmented. He invited caucus members to talk about framing such a commission after their meeting. Deputy Secretary Kunin remarked that no one-- neither federal agency people, nor practitioners, nor youth--can accomplish much alone. She said she hoped all participants would leave stronger than when they came. Plenary Panel: Addressing Concentrated Poverty and Crime Moderator: George Golster, Senior Research Associate, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. Panelists: David Rusk, former Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico, author of Cities Without Suburbs, Washington, D.C. Alexander Polikoff, Executive Director, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), Chicago, Illinois Vincent Lane, Chairman, Chicago Public Housing Authority, Chicago, Illinois The panel focused on two points: first, what can be done to address concentrated poverty and the youth violence it spawns, and second, what resources can be marshaled in this effort. David Rusk shared some of the principal findings of his research. Forty percent of America's center cities are programmed to collapse, he said. For 40 years, all urban growth has been of the low- density, suburban style. The elastic cities, which enlarged their boundaries through annexation or city-county mergers, have done well. The inelastic cities, however, have become the poorhouses of their metropolitan areas. The solution requires bringing cities' boundaries out to encompass the real cities, that is, the metropolitan areas. Mr. Rusk blames the urban problem on society's desire to segregate itself by race and economic class. Since the civil rights era, there has been some integration of the black and white middle classes, but there has also been increasing isolation of the black poor, who are now separated from black middle-class role models. Job training and other similar programs are as ineffective as assistance to a man running up a down escalator, Mr. Rusk said. Such a person might manage to get up, though many others will not. The one who does, however, will jump off and leave. Therefore, successful programs often drive successful people--good role models--out of the community. Mr. Rusk told of an Albuquerque study showing that the test scores of a child in public housing rise as the percentage of public-housing children in his school declines. He cited that figure as proof that integration works. Alexander Polikoff suggested small schools as an answer to the problem of urban poverty and violence. Obviously, he said, school violence is a major problem. Teachers are threatened and scared. During the first eight months of the 1993 school year in Chicago, for example, there were, on school property, three arrests for murder and 144 arrests for aggravated battery out of a total of 6,000 arrests on school property. He calls the concept of small schools a simple but profound idea. Big, anonymous schools cannot be made to work, he said. It is impossible for such schools to avoid large-institution rules, formal procedures, and logistical hurdles. Children cannot get to know other students, and teachers cannot know all the children or parents. Mr. Polikoff suggests breaking high schools with 1,000 students into, for example, four schools of 250 students each. In east Harlem, a 1,000-student school was divided into several smaller schools sharing the same building. The result was an improvement in student performance. Other reports show that smaller schools have less violence because kids are better known to staff and well supervised by the teachers. Mr. Polikoff said his proposal is not easy to implement, but it is possible and effective. Small schools also provide a safe haven for students. Vincent Lane said that if the problem of urban poverty and violence is to be solved, things must be done differently. He accused officials of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of scaring local public housing authorities away from trying anything new, such as letting residents manage their own projects. Poverty, he said, is a major industry in the United States. The Chicago Public Housing Authority, of which he is chairman, has 4,500 employees. He would like to reduce that number to 200. Mr. Lane said he could, if neighborhoods would replace high-density, high- rise public housing buildings with low-density, low-rise, mixed-income properties. Most communities reject public housing not because of racism or elitism but because they fear the effect it will have on their largest asset, their homes. Mr. Lane called on neighborhoods to step up to the plate and say, "This problem won't go away unless we do something about it." He said he wants to get government off the backs of the people. Forty or fifty years ago, he said, neighborhoods took care of the unfortunate--through churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other institutions. He said society must reintegrate the poor into middle- class neighborhoods. Dr. George Golster then asked the panelists a few questions. First he asked whether society should build more prisons. Mr. Rusk answered that criminals get out of prison eventually and tend to recidivate. It is more cost-effective to spend the money on public housing. Mr. Lane made a plea for more prevention instead of more prisons. He expressed approval for the Midnight Basketball program, saying that no fights take place at the games, and that to participate, players must obtain their GED's and get job training and counseling. Mr. Polikoff observed that in the 1930's, when society was coming apart because there were no jobs, the government started the Civilian Conservation Corps to give people jobs. The government should do the same type of thing now, he said. He suggested putting the army, which ran the CCC camps, in charge of any new program along those lines. Dr. Golster asked the panel how people in more prosperous neighborhoods could be convinced to accept being part of the solution. Mr. Rusk said it is not necessary to convince them. It is only necessary to convince a majority of legislators or a panel of judges to change the rules. On a referendum, residents of prosperous neighborhoods would never vote to move large numbers of poor people into their neighborhoods. Mr. Lane accused elected officials of lacking backbone. He said that if they voted for something like moving poor people into prosperous neighborhoods, they would have to answer to their constituents.Closing Speaker Carl Upchurch, President, National Council for Urban Peace and Justice, Newark, Ohio On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the March on Washington, Mr. Upchurch wrote a newspaper column about the "do-nothing civil rights organizations of today." The anniversary was "all show," he said, buttons and banners. Young Hispanic and African-American voices were left unacknowledged on a day Dr. Martin Luther King had set aside for addressing their concerns. Mr. Upchurch asked, "How did our youth become tokens?" In his view, there had been no real effort to mentor and pass the torch to this generation. Mr. Upchurch said he was attacking the bureaucratic mindset--bureaucrats concerned only about sustaining themselves. He was calling into question the dedication of such officials to the young. The years of celebrating old battles rather than confronting present issues should have come to an end. "We are killing our youth," he stated. There are no provisions in the Crime Bill concerning racial discrimination, Mr. Upchurch continued. "Witness the slaughter of African-American and Latino men in prisons and AIDS in prison. We have not invited those people to the conference," he said, "because we are not prepared to address their issues." "Let the young people speak," he said. "Encourage them to lead." They are struggling with inferior housing and schools, racism, and shootings. Mr. Upchurch noted that he had no high school or junior high school experience and had been "recycled" by the Bureau for Colored Children. He spent the years from 1971 through 1981 in the maximum security prison at Lewisburg, Ohio. He had been born into a pathological situation, he said, and had been labeled as a sociopath. "Just as Cesar Chavez' voice was stifled," he said, "the conference planners relegated the last smidgeon of time to me." He repeated, "Let these young people speak." A conference for the young people, he stated, should not be politicized. "Let us pray," he said, "that we find it in our hearts to do right by them in the future." Appendix A Solving Youth Violence: Partnerships That Work Washington, DC Speakers Mustafa Abdul-Salaam Executive Director New Haven Family Alliance 5 Science Park New Haven, CT 06511 203-786-5970 203-786-5974 Fax Luis Garden Acosta Chief Executive Officer El Puente 211 South Fourth Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 718-387-0404 718-387-6816 Fax John Alluisi Data Base Manager Management Information Systems Norfolk Public Schools Norfolk, VA 24510 804-441-2458 804-441-2182 Fax Michael Aquino Investigator Anaheim Police Department 425 South Harbor Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92805 714-254-1412 714-778-5784 Fax Rebecca Atnafou Assistant Director CSN-Adolescent Violence Prevention Resources Center Education Development Center 55 Chapel Street Newton, MA 02158 617-969-7100 617-244-3436 Fax Yitzhak Bakal Executive Director North American Family Institute 10 Harbor Street Danvers, MA 01923 508-774-0774 508-774-8369 Fax Patricia Balasco-Barr Administrator Youth Services Administration 801 East Building, Room 1209 P.O. Box 54047 Washington, DC 20032 202-279-6100 202-279-6106 Fax Jamie Battaglia Administrative Assistant Healthy Boston Coalition for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth 14 Beacon Street, Suite 706 Boston, MA 02108 617-742-8555 617-742-7808 Fax Gordon Bazemore Associate Professor School of Public Administration Florida Atlantic University 220 SE Second Avenue Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301 305-760-5663 305-760-5673 Fax Len Berman Program Office Public Welfare Foundation Washington, DC 202-965-1800 Mardia Blyther Peer Counselor Sasha Bruce Youthwork 741 Eighth Street SE. Washington, DC 20003 202-675-9340 202-675-9358 Fax Tyrone Brown Assistant to Director of the Marching Band Jackie Robinson Center for Physical Culture 1424 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY 11216 718-773-3456 718-773-3489 Fax Alicia Byrd Project Director Leadership Development and Theological Education Programs Congress of National Black Churches 1225 Eye Street NW., Suite 750 Washington, DC 20005 202-371-1091 202-371-0908 Fax Michele Cahill Vice President Fund for the City of New York 121 Sixth Avenue, Sixth Floor New York, NY 10013 212-925-6675 212-925-5675 Fax John Calhoun Executive Director National Crime Prevention Council 1700 K Street NW. Washington, DC 20006 202-466-6272 202-296-1356 Fax Michael Canul Vice President/Operations Public Allies 1511 K Street NW., Room 330 Washington, DC 20005 202-638-3300 202-638-3477 Fax Sheryll Cashin Director National Economic Council The White House Room 233, OEOB Washington, DC 20500 202-456-2800 202-456-2223 Fax Ruben Chavez Deputy Director Outreach Services Youth Development, Inc. 1710 Centro Familiar SW. Albuquerque, NM 87105 505-873-1604 505-877-3533 Fax Bebs Chorak Deputy Director Juvenile Justice Programs National Institute for Citizen Education and the Law 711 G Street SE. Washington, DC 20003 202-546-6644 202-546-6649 Fax Lori Clarke Director Home-Based Services Home Start 5005 Texas Street, Suite 203 San Diego, CA 92108 619-692-0727 619-692-0785 Fax Ozelious Clement Executive Director Jackie Robinson Center For Physical Culture 1424 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY 11216 718-773-3456 718-773-3489 Fax Marvin Cohen Director Children, Youth, and Families Initiative Chicago Community Trust 222 North LaSalle Street, Suite 1400 Chicago, IL 60601 312-372-3356 312-580-7411 Fax Rick Collins Deputy Director Delta Service Corps 7th and Main Streets P.O. Box 1437, Slot 1300 Little Rock, AR 72203 501-682-7540 501-682-6752 Fax Thomas Connelly Director Special Counseling Programs Wappingers Central School District 15 Myers Corners Road Hollowbrook, #3 Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 914-297-7260 914-298-8068 Fax Gary Cordner Professor Department of Police Studies Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, KY 40475 606-622-2344 606-622-6264 Fax Ernesto Cortes, Jr. Director Texas Industrial Areas Foundation 1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 120W Austin, TX 78723 512-459-6551 512-459-6558 Fax David Cummings Group Supervisor Uptown Task Force Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms U.S. Department of the Treasury 90 Church Street, Room 1016 New York, NY 10007 212-264-4658 212-264-3689 Fax Karen Dates Network Operations Specialist Youth Providers Network Mayor's Office of Employment Services Youth Services Division 101 W. 24th Street Baltimore, MD 21218 410-396-6722 410-396-6454 Fax Beverly Watts Davis Executive Director San Antonio Fighting Back 850 Drexel San Antonio, TX 78210 210-536-6592 210-532-1256 Fax William Delk Principal Northside Middle School 8720 Grandby Street Norfolk, VA 23503 804-441-1825 804-441-1794 Fax Larry Dieringer Executive Director Educators for Social Responsibility 23 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138 617-492-1764 617-864-5164 Fax Diane Doherty Director Children.s Safety Network National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health 2000 15th Street N., Suite 701 Arlington, VA 22201 703-524-7802 703-524-9335 Fax Terrence Donahue Acting Director Executive Office for Weed and Seed Office of Justice Programs U.S. Department of Justice 633 Indiana Avenue Washington, DC 20531 202-307-5966 202-514-1770 Fax Fran Donelan Project Director of Youth Outreach American Friends Service Committee Mid-Atlantic Region 4806 York Road Baltimore, MD 21212 410-323-7200 410-323-7292 Fax Shawn Dove Co-Director Countee Cullen Community Center 242 W. 144th Street New York, NY 10030 212-234-4500 212-234-4694 Fax Deanne Tilton Durfee Chair United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect 4024 Durfee Avenue El Monte, CA 91732 818-575-4362 818-443-3053 Fax Peter Edelman Counselor to the Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue SW. Washington, DC 20531 202-690-8157 202-690-7595 Fax Michelle Edwards Vice President Board of Young Adult Police Commissioners Department of Police Services New Haven Police Department One Union Avenue New Haven, CT 06519 203-772-7294 Fax Dennis Embry President Heartsprings, Inc. P.O. Box 12158 Tucson, AZ 85732 602-299-6770 602-299-6822 Fax Jeffrey Fetzko Executive Director Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced Children 49 Brahma Avenue P.O. Box 6871 Bridgewater, NJ 08807 908-526-6605 908-526-4433 Fax Judith Filner Program Director National Institute for Dispute Resolution 1726 M Street NW., Suite 500 Washington, DC 20036 202-466-4764 202-466-4769 Fax John Firman Director of Research International Association of Chiefs of Police 515 N. Washington Street Alexandria, VA 22314 703-836-6767 703-836-4543 Fax Vangie Foshee Assistant Professor Curricula Public Health Nursing University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599 919-966-6616 919-966-7141 Fax Leon Franklin Youth Development Specialist Project Choice Kauffman Foundation 4900 Oak Kansas City, MO 64112 816-932-1000 816-932-1100 Fax Marc Freedman Director Special Projects Public/Private Ventures 2742 Martin Luther King Way Berkeley, CA 94703 510-704-8832 510-704-9822 Fax Gus Frias Criminal Justice Specialist Office of Education Los Angeles County 9300 Imperial Highway, Room 281 Downey, CA 90242 310-922-6391 310-922-6781 Fax Rich Gable Director Applied Research National Center for Juvenile Justice 701 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212 412-227-6950 412-227-6955 Fax Deborah Galvin Public Health Analyst Division of Demonstrations for High-Risk Populations Center for Substance Abuse Prevention 5600 Fisher's Lane Rockwell 2 Rockville, MD 20857 301-443-9110 301-443-8965 Fax Anne Ganey Project Coordinator Community Drug Prevention Project Region Nine Development Commission P.O. Box 3367 Mankato, MN 56001 507-387-5643 507-387-7105 Fax Nancy Gannon Director Education Division Center to Prevent Handgun Violence 1225 Eye Street NW., Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20005 202-289-5769 202-408-1851 Fax Richard Girgenti Director/Commissioner Division of Criminal Justice Services State of New York Executive Park Tower, Stuyvesant Plaza Albany, NY 12203 518-457-8462 518-457-1186 Fax Paul Goldstein Associate Professor School of Public Health University of Illinois at Chicago 2121 W. Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60612 312-996-6083 312-996-0064 Fax Albert Gore Vice President of the United States 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Washington, DC 20500 202-456-2326 William Gorham President Urban Institute 2100 M Street NW. Washington, DC 20037 202-857-8700 202-223-1335 Fax Ralph Green Youth P.O. Box 1702 Corrales, NM 87048 505-242-1907 505-242-3003 Fax Eliza Greenberg Counselor Adolescent Substance Abuse Bridge Over Troubled Water, Inc. 47 West Street Boston, MA 02111 617-423-9575 617-482-5459 Fax Donna Martin Hamparian Juvenile Justice Consultant 2031 Concord Road Columbus, OH 43212 614-488-6284 614-487-1963 Fax Ira Harkavy Director Center for Community Partnerships University of Pennsylvania 133 South 36th Street, Suite 519 Philadelphia, PA 19104 215-898-5351 215-573-2799 Fax Michelle Hassell Coordinator of PACT Training Wright State University 9 N. Edwin C. Moses Dayton, OH 45407 513-873-4300 513-873-4323 Fax J. David Hawkins Director Developmental Research and Programs, Inc. 130 Nickerson, Suite 107 Seattle, WA 98107 206-685-1997 Phillip Hobbs Principal Eastmoor High School 417 S. Weyant Avenue Columbus, OH 43213 614-365-6158 614-365-6960 Fax Carolyn Holloway Reverend Multi-Ethnic Center 3 Henry Street New York, NY 10038 212-233-0423 212-406-8071 Fax Marion Howard Director Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health Emory University Grady Memorial Hospital 4001 Briarcliff Road Atlanta, GA 30345 404-616-3513 404-223-3071 Fax James Howell Director Research and Program Development Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention U.S. Department of Justice 633 Indiana Avenue Washington, DC 20531 202-307-0586 202-514-6382 Fax Janice Hutchinson Acting Administrator Child and Youth Services Administration Commission on Mental Health Services 2700 Martin Luther King Avenue, SE L Building Washington, DC 20032 202-373-7225 202-373-6581 Fax Merita Irby Program Officer Academy for Educational Development 1825 Connecticut Avenue Washington, DC 20009 202-884-8273 202-884-8404 Fax Robert Ivry Senior Vice President Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. 3 Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 212-532-3200 212-684-0832 Fax Elizabeth Johnson Director Department of Recreation, Natural Resources and Culture City Hall 319 E. State Street 1st Floor Annex Trenton, NJ 08608 609-989-3169 609-989-4290 Fax Michael Johnson Project Coordinator Raising Ambition Instills Self Esteem 605 North Eutaw Street Baltimore, MD 21201 410-558-0785 410-752-5016 Fax Derek Jones Listener Department of Youth Services New York City Youthline 44 Court Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 718-403-5269 718-522-7529 Fax Ivan Juzang Founder and President Motivational Educational Entertainment Productions 4601 Market Street 1st Floor Philadelphia, PA 19139 215-748-2595 215-748-3223 Fax Arthur Kanegis President Future WAVE 105 Camino Teresa Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-982-8882 505-982-6460 Fax Arthur Kellermann Director Center for Injury Control Emory University School of Public Health 1462 Clifton Road NE. Atlanta, GA 30322 404-727-9977 404-727-7261 Fax Susan Kelly Director Division of Family Preservation Services Michigan Department of Social Services 235 S. 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