The California Cities Gang Prevention Network

January 2007 by John A. Calhoun

PURPOSE: The network intends youth violence prevention and reduction of gang-related violence and victimization through cross-city peer learning, identification of an implementation of best practices and initiation of state policy changes to support local practice. The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (the Institute), in partnership with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) has launched this three-year, nationally-unprecedented Thirteen-City Gang Prevention Initiative.  Participating cities, including, Richmond, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Oakland, Oxnard, Stockton, San Jose, Fresno, Salinas, Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley portion) and San Diego, are forging comprehensive city-wide plans that interweave prevention, intervention, enforcement and the community’s “moral voice” before fear alone dominates the government’s response and drives policymakers toward prison-only solutions. The Network is supported by grants from the California Wellness Foundation, the California Endowment, The East Bay Community Foundation, the Richmond Children’s Fund, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

PROJECT GOALS:

• Get in front of the gang issue before policies based on fear divert funds from essential infrastructures (e.g., schools, police, services for children and youth) to corrections.
• Reduce gang-related violence and victimization.
• Establish or improve a collaboration in each city that appropriately blends prevention, intervention, and suppression, and that involves city leaders and community stakeholders.
• Identify and document city responses to key program and policy questions (e.g., essential approaches to anti-gang efforts; what doesn’t work; who must be involved, etc.).
• Forge a vibrant peer-learning network among 13 participating cities.
• Identify state policy and practice that would support effective community practice.

POPULATION SERVED: The initiative focuses on people living in high violence/gang-impacted areas. Emerging policies, however, will impact the health and well-being of all in the community.  

PROJECT WORK:
Teams from each city meet regularly to improve collaborative approaches, learn from other cities, document effective practice, and promulgate lessons learned for local, state, and national consumption.  The project will:

• Hold two meetings per year supplemented by monthly conference calls with team leaders to facilitate sharing of local successes and obstacles/challenges;
• Develop a Resource Bank for mutual assistance;
• Create sub-networks among participating cities on key topics;
• Convene a statewide advisory board annually(including representatives from the health, criminal justice, legislative, service, funding, and advocacy sectors);
• Issue bi-monthly bulletins and two “Strategic Briefs” per year;
• Recommend policy changes on the state and federal levels to abet local efforts; and
• Produce documentary evaluation.

LEADERSHIP: The Institute, with an annual budget of $2.5 million (including major grants from national funders such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation) helps municipal leaders take action on behalf of children, youth, and families in their communities.  As part of its work in five core program areas (education and afterschool, youth development, early childhood development, the safety of children and youth, and family economic success), the Institute has worked to identify and promote promising city strategies for responding to the needs of young people who have dropped out of school, are unemployed, are involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems, or otherwise lack meaningful connections to family and community.  Created as a special entity within the National League of Cities, the oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments throughout the U.S., the Institute provides assistance to city leaders, compiles and disseminates information on promising strategies and best practices, builds extensive networks of local officials working on similar issues, and conducts research on key challenges facing municipalities. In existence since 1907, NCCD is a California-based, private, nonprofit research and consulting firm specializing in child welfare, juvenile justice, and adult criminal justice issues.  NCCD conducts research, promotes reform initiatives, and works with individuals, public and private organizations, and the media to prevent and reduce crime and delinquency.  

PRINCIPALS:  Senior staff and consultants from both organizations will be intimately involved. Institute participants include: Clifford Johnson ,executive director and former director of programs and policy at the Children’s Defense Fund; Jack Calhoun, the Institute’s point person and former president of the National Crime Prevention Council, vice president of the Child Welfare League of America, U.S. Commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, and Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services; Andrew Moore, senior consultant to the Institute,, who has written and spoken extensively about and provided technical assistance for youth programs and policy. The NCCD team includes Dr. Barry Krisberg, president, Dr. Angela Wolf, Senior Researcher, and Fabiana Silva, Research Associate who will coordinate the Network’s meetings and provide overall logistics and writing support. Dr. Wolf, a community psychologist, will conduct the process evaluation and will serve as NCCD’s point person. Dr. Krisberg, a world renowned expert on juvenile justice, is the recipient of numerous awards, a member of the faculty of several universities, a published author, and a member of the Expert Panel to Investigate the California Youth Authority.

IMPORTANCE OF THE INITIATIVE:

• Each participating mayor and police chief believes passionately that the gang issue is both stubborn and worsening. City officials have described the situation as “worrisome, and only the tip of the iceberg.”
• As safety is basic to personal and civic health, as gang violence has not only killed and wounded but rendered some segments of California’s communities dysfunctional, the work is based on a three-pronged approach: stopping the violence and victimization; intervening with those on the edge; preventing gang participation through the development of individual and community well-being strategies. In jurisdictions where gang and youth violence have been reduced, suppression, intervention, and prevention are naturally interwoven.
• Each city has felt alone, struggling with the gang issue in isolation.  They desire to be part of a peer network, which provides the opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned across jurisdictional lines and to help craft state policies that would support local efforts.
• The initiative is classic prevention: it gets in front of the problem before expensive and draconian solutions are demanded.
• As a national first, the initiative aims to reduce violence and victimization, help build communities that don’t produce gangs, and provide lessons learned to the rest of the nation.

CONTACTS:   Dr. Barry Krisberg, President, NCCD, Dr. Angela Wolf and Fabiana Silva, 1970 Broadway, Suite 500, Oakland, CA 94612, 510-208-0500, bkrisberg@aol.com, awolf@sf.nccd-crc.org, fsilva@sf.nccd-crc.org; Clifford Johnson, Executive Director, Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, 1301 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20004, 202-626-3013, cjohnson@nlc.com and Jack Calhoun, President, senior consultant, National League of Cities, 2147 Royal Lodge Drive, Falls Church, Virginia 22043, hopematters@verizon.net.