Government officials unveiled a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and prevention on ways to combat youth violence in Delaware.
The report came out of the wave of violence among youth that has led to dozens of homicides each year. While Wilmington has been the epicenteof youth violence, suburban areas and smaller communities have also been affected. (See full report below).
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The work is entitled Accelerating Youth Violence Prevention and Positive Development: A Call to Action. Outgoing Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Rita Landgraf, lead the state’s efforts over the past few years to support implementation of the CDC’s recommendations. She was joined by a number of
She was joined by a number of city, state and county officials including new City Council President Hanifa Shabazz.
The group’s report is the outgrowth of a move by then-City Council member Shabazz in 2013 when she asked the Centers for Disease Control to come to Delaware to help Wilmington reduce incidents of violent crime.
Shabazz asked the CDC to conduct its work within the context of youth violence being a public health crisis that needed a cure. The CDC reviewed the history of individuals who had committed violent crimes through their lifetimes and issued a report almost a year later which became the basis for today’s release of the advisory council’s work.
The Centers for Disease Control report recommendations, according to a release:
- Foster violence-free environments and promote positive opportunities and connections to trusted adults. Establish universal services for all youth living in high needs neighborhoods. Expand the capacity of community centers to provide year-round quality programming after school and evenings, 7 days a week and invest in a year-round employment program for young and young adults, i.e. “earn and learn.”
- Intervene with youth and families at the first sign of risk with selected services for youth at moderate risk. Develop a multi-tiered identification and referral system to be accessed by families, schools, community organizations, and health care providers with options for self-referral to connect youth to needed services with case management; test this approach in a middle or high school, community school, or health care provider.
- Restore youth who have gone down the wrong path. Coordinate indicated services for high risk youth active with the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF). Increase the level of support for youth transitioning back to the community by developing a one-stop “Youth Wellness Center” at community centers, modeled after the Hope Commission Achievement Center.
- Protect children and youth from violence in the community. Increase support for outreach programs that engage the community in creating a culture and environment that prevent violence and promote positive youth development. Support existing efforts to embed trauma informed practice in every aspect of working with youth and their families to foster community resiliency to combat the negative impact of adverse childhood experiences on individual and community health and well-being.
- Integrate services. Develop and pilot a model for the integration of services for children, youth, and their families engaging school districts, schools, community organizations, hospital systems and key state agencies; would include a common platform for sharing student data and service information and have a school-based coordinator to make the connections to needed services. Create a State level Children’s Cabinet with an advisory group of representatives from the non-profit, business, and philanthropic communities, to integrate policies, programs, services, data sharing and resources at the state systems governance level.
- Address policy issues that have unintended adverse consequences for youth. Includes difficulties with the sharing of client data among State agencies (e.g. DHSS, DOE, DSCYF), schools, and hospitals to improve early detection of problems and connections to needed services with case management. Also, the transitioning of youth back to traditional public and charter schools from alternative settings to complete their education and graduate.
The CDC Community Advisory Council met in recent weeks with top elected officials, legislators and community representatives to discuss its recommendations and has received commitments of support.
Recommendations will face tough sledding in Dover, due to the $350 million budget shortfall.
