Efforts to Effectively Reduce
Youth and Gang Violence
in the City of Long Beach
Association of Criminal Justice Research
California
October 2006
Presented by:
Dr. Lydia A. Hollie, J.D., M.A.Ed.
Chair
City of Long Beach
Youth and Gang Violence Prevention
Task Force
Learning from the Past
• On November 4, 2003, the City of Long Beach Human
Relations Commission (HRC) presented an Interim
Report and Re-examination of the Problems of Youth and
Gang Violence in the City of Long Beach. The report
reflected the impacts that youth violence has on the
quality of life for youth and human relations in the city.
It was approved by the community leadership, the Long
Beach Police Department, unanimously adopted by the
City Council, and implemented.
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Key HRC Recommendations
• Convene a task force representative of the major leadership
sectors of the community to develop a citywide comprehensive
approach to implement recommendations from the HRC report
over a three-year period.
• Train gang conflict mediators as a resource to the Human Dignity
Program’s Hate Crimes Response and Intergroup Conflict
Resolution Teams.
• Develop a public awareness campaign to communicate relevant
anti-gang messages.
• Strengthen relationships with ethnic specific community based
organizations.
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Living in the Present with Hope
Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
“Reducing Violence…Saving Lives” captures the essence of the
Long Beach Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
and reflects its ultimate goal. It is a 40-member group charged
with pursuing solutions to wide-ranging issues that significantly
affect the quality of life for our youth. It represents every major
leadership sector of the community as well as reflects the
demographic diversity of the community. Members were
selected specifically for their expertise and interest in youth and
youth violence prevention.
• Mission: The Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
envisions a community where youth are highly valued, well
educated, skilled for the 21st century workplace, healthy, law
abiding, and contributing members of society who respect the
rights of others and themselves.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Purpose: To inform, consult, and work in collaboration with
civic leadership, city agencies, and educational and youth leaders
as to the appropriate preventative measures, responses and
strategies related to issues of delinquency, conflict, violence, and
gang-related activity.
• The Task Force identifies the overarching objectives from the
Human Relations Commission (HRC) report, identifies possible
approaches, ensures alignment of the strategic direction and
recommends strategies to implement the recommendations from
the HRC Report. All participants have agreed to keep the Task
Force’s work public and measurable.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Specific duties of the Task Force include:
– Needs assessment of at-risk youth and young adults, evaluate available
resources and propose ways to address unmet needs.
– Increase public awareness of the resources available to combat youth
violence and gang involvement, and of strategies to reduce the problem.
– Research and report to the civic leadership, educational leaders and/or
community partners funding the appropriate risk assessment instruments to
respond to and treat the juveniles and young adults at risk of violence
and/or vulnerable to gang involvement.
– Conduct performance evaluation of services and programs in the
community, e.g., the evaluation of each funded program for sustainability of
efforts.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Areas of focus:
– Media and Community Awareness Subcommittee
• Enough is Enough Community Dialogue, 41-hour telethon
– Youth Engagement and Violence Prevention Subcommittee
• $70,000 Pilot Gang Divergence Project – targeted youth with light
gang affiliations received intensive intervention services
– Early Childhood Education Subcommittee
• Kindergarten Festivals
• Support state and federal legislation regarding early childhood issues
– Workforce Development Subcommittee
• Co-host Summer Opportunities Fair as a large community event to
provide youth productive activities over their summer vacations
• $2 million in Workforce grant dollars acquired
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
A centerpiece of the Task Force’s efforts are highlighted by the
following statistics from L.B. Workforce Development:
• More than 5,000 youth accessed services or referral information through the
Youth Opportunity Center.
• More than 1,000 youth were placed in training, internships or employment.
• More than 300 youth were placed in part-time or full-time employment.
• 93% of participating youth successfully completed their planned services.
• 86% of the 14-18 year olds in academic-based programs increased skill levels
in math and/or reading by at least one grade level.
• 70% of those same youth were found to still be employed, in training, or
continuing with higher education 9 months after program completion.
• 70% of the 19-21 year olds served were placed in employment.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Executive Committee: The Executive Committee, composed of
the highest leadership of the city to reflect the diverse interests
impacted by youth violence, provides oversight of the
implementation process, as well as direct support for resource
allocation.
• Resource Team: The Resource Team, composed of City and
Long Beach Unified School District staff, is responsible for
providing staff support, reviewing the City’s current youthserving policies and programs, identifying programs by goals and
targeted population and activities, and benchmarking programs
from other cities.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• The Task Force meets on a monthly basis, the second Monday
of each month. Meetings include reports on recent youth and
gang violence, presentations by subject matter experts,
information sharing on local and national best practices,
breakout sessions, and facilitated discussions. The meetings are
open to the public.
– Guest presenters included Professor Diego Vigil of UCSD,
and Father Boyle of Homeboy Industries, Inc.
– Community forums held on education, conflict mediation,
and juvenile delinquency, and sponsored related workshops.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Completed citywide criminal activity analysis and identified
specific Police beats as the initial point of focus:
– LBPD and Department of Parks Recreations and Marine
worked together collaboratively to place Mobile Rec. sites
within the targeted area.
– 3-year Delinquency Plan for the City of Long Beach
developed as part of a grant application to the Board of
Corrections.
• CSU Long Beach Community Issues Forum partner
• CSU Long Beach Center for Community Engagement partner
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
• Partnered closely with the City's Workforce Development Board
Youth Council to strengthen outreach and programming for
city's most at-risk youth.
• Youth cohort worked with a facilitator to design a youth-driven
outreach campaign for the Youth Opportunity Center's services.
• That campaign resulted in those same youth appearing on
billboards, bus shelter ads, and posters widely distributed
throughout the community.
• Focus placed on "2nd chance" opportunities: programming to
connect older, out-of-school youth with vocational career paths
such as entrance in the construction trades.
• More than 200 young adults and residents have accessed those
programs in the last 18 months.
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Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
Recognition of Efforts
• City of Long Working Together to Serve Management Conference
Award in the category of Best Effort to keep Long Beach Safe
• City of Long Beach Human Dignity Program Award, shared
with Charter Communications, Press Telegram, and Leadership
Long Beach
• 100 Best Cities Award, Pacific Region
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Envisioning a Promising Future
• The Task Force will intensify its efforts in the following areas:
– Identify and incorporate youth stakeholders and other CBOs
from the target area for inclusion in the overall effort.
– Encourage community input and improve communication
networks to increase awareness of the Task Force’s efforts in
the target area and citywide.
– Enhance/continue current curricular efforts within both the
Long Beach Unified School District and City Parks programs,
e.g., comprehensive health education, use of research validated
curricula, and the use of supplemental programs as appropriate
for the community (anger management, violence prevention).
– Explore and implement ways to involve past and active gang
members in a meaningful way.
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Envisioning a Promising Future
• The Task Force is the designated Weed and Seed Strategic
Violence Prevention Oversight Entity
– The Weed & Seed Grant Application Steering SubCommittee consists of Task Force Members, Long Beach
Department of Health and Human Services (grant writer),
the local U.S. Attorney General’s Office, CBOs, and local
community members.
– The grant is a community based, comprehensive multi-agency
collaboration to address law enforcement, crime prevention,
ex-offender reentry, and neighborhood restoration through
the redeployment of existing public and private resources.
– The grant is for 5-year period, totaling $1 million.
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Envisioning a Promising Future
Media and Community Awareness Subcommittee
• Enough is Enough Community Dialogue, Part 2, will follow
up with the community from the first dialogue to
ascertain changes in perception about crime reduction,
neighborhood restoration, and violence prevention.
Early Childhood Education Subcommittee
• Efforts involve ongoing coordination between both City,
LBUSD, and CBO’s to track program investment and
success as well as identify promising programming
approaches appropriate for the target area.
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Envisioning a Promising Future
Youth Engagement and Violence Prevention Subcommittee
•
•
Identify successful models for implementation: Primary Prevention –
Classroom training targeting all students, i.e., K-12 curriculum, DARE,
etc. Secondary Prevention – Emphasis on “at-risk” kids through
teaching, mentoring, etc. Tertiary Prevention (and Intervention) –
Targeting kids already exposed to criminal justice system, e.g.,
Shortstop, etc.
Diligently seek to obtain feedback from youth on which prevention
efforts they believe are the most promising and effective.
Workforce Development Subcommittee
•
October 2006
Continue to collaborate with the Workforce Development Board’s
Youth Council to implement strategies to increase youth employment
services through grant and program development, and through
increased outreach of services available to youth through the Youth
Opportunities Council and other youth-serving organizations.
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Parting Vision
The day will come when the local newspaper
headlines read, “News Alert! Among Our Youth:
Death, Injury, and Incarceration Declines to
Zero. Peaceful Co-Existence is Steadily on the
Rise.”
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References
• Long Beach Human Relations Commission. (2003). An interim report on the
problem of youth and gang violence in the city of long beach. CA: City of Long
Beach. Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services website:
http://www.ci.long-beach.ca.us/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=1677.
• Long Beach Workforce Development Bureau. (2006). Bureau statistics.
CA: City of Long Beach.
• Long Beach Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task
Force. (2005). Annual report. CA: City of Long Beach.
• Long Beach Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task
Force. (2006). Policies and procedures. CA: City of Long Beach.
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For further information, please contact:
Anita Dempsey, Human Dignity Officer
City of Long Beach Human Dignity Program
Dr. Lydia A. Hollie, Chair
City of Long Beach
Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force
333 West Ocean Boulevard
13th Floor
Long Beach, California 90802
(562) 570-6958
Ms. Dempsey’s email: Anitra_Dempsey@longbeach.gov
Dr. Hollie’s email: cbg2010@earthlink.net
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