Violence Prevention and Intervention

CH/SFSC works to address gang and crew violence by implementing an ecological approach to youth violence prevention and intervention.

Based on the Gang Intervention Partnership (GIP) model, our comprehensive approach includes community crisis intervention, wrap-around family support services, and youth engagement and workforce development. With these tools, CH/SFSC has led several successful multi-agency initiatives to respond to youth violence and ensure that youth are safe and enrolled in school and/or employed:

• In 2010, CH/SFSC completed its 10th year leading the U.S. Department of Justice's Northwest Washington D.C. Weed and Seed Initiative. Weed and Seed is a community-based approach to promoting community safety and neighborhood development. The strategy includes a two-pronged approach: law enforcement and prosecutors cooperate in "weeding out" criminals who participate in violent crime and drug abuse, while "seeding" brings social services to the community that encompass prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood restoration. A community-oriented policing component bridges weeding and seeding.
  
  
• Since 2003, CH/SFSC has led the Safe Communities initiative (formerly known as the Gang Intervention Partnership). Through this multi-agency gang prevention and intervention initiative, community partners have collaborated successfully to disrupt gang recruiting tactics, arrest and prosecute gang members involved in crimes, monitor cases involving early indicators of gang participation, and mediate conflicts between rival gangs. CH/SFSC provides case management and engagement opportunities for gang/crew-involved youth and their families, using solution-focused brief therapy techniques and targeted street level outreach strategies.
  
  
• In 2010, CH/SFSC was awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Neighborhood initiative, which allows CH/SFSC to provide additional services and support at the Parkview Recreation Center. Through this initiative, CH/SFSC provides direct street-level outreach with the highest risk population in the area, enables gang/crew conflict resolution and mediation, and identifies, recruits, and trains a core group of youth leaders -- many of whom are gang and crew members.
  
  
• In 2008, under the leadership of Council member Jim Graham, and in partnership with East of the River Clergy, Police Community Partnership and Peaceoholics, CH/SFSC helped to create the Citywide Coordinating Council on Youth Violence Prevention (CCCYVP). CCCYVP enhances the communication among youth violence prevention partners throughout DC by synchronizing services, offering ongoing training and support, and developing close relationships with political and police administrators. Funded through CCCYVP, Safe Passage is a public safety initiative linking law enforcement, businesses, private security firms, and current neighborhood outreach staff in Columbia Heights to create "safe passage" in the business corridors. Also funded through CCCYVP, Crossing the Lines is a youth leadership and conflict resolution program designed to engage 20 of the community's youth from five different crews.

Looking Forward 2011

In January 2011, CH/SFSC will expand these efforts by launching the Building Solutions Together initiative (BST), which will strengthen and replicate our youth violence intervention model for high-risk youth (ages 14-24) in Wards 1, 2, and, 4. BST will reduce youth violence and violent crime by expanding the Gang Intervention Partnership (GIP) model and implementing a community-based, multi-disciplinary approach that will support youth and their families, redirecting youth to positive development opportunities.