No COLORS: 100 Ways To Stop Gangs From Taking Away Our Communities
"No community wants to admit it has a gang problem. Yet that denial and the unwillingness to address youth violence as a community problem will have tragic consequences."
"Nearly Every Community in America has Issues Related to Violence.
We have solutions."
- Front Cover
- Table of Contents
- The Mayor’s Task Force
- Executive Summary
- Benchmark Research
- Proposed Budget Estimate
- Community Partners
- Strategic Plan Overview
- The Pier Model
- Prevention
- Intervention
- Enforcement
- Reentry
- Funding and Sustainability of the P.I.E.R. Model
- Coordination of the P.I.E.R. Strategic Plan
- P.I.E.R. Strategy - Next Steps
- Appendices
- Contact Information
Strategic Plan to Reduce Young Adult Violence and Gangs in Newport News, Virginia: P.I.E.R. Strategy
STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW
Community Strategic Plans to address crime and violence began in the United States in 1987 when the U.S. Justice Department and the Office on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention launched a juvenile gang suppression and intervention research program under the direction of Dr. Irving Spergel of the University of Chicago.
Since their initial research strategic planning, models have been successfully implemented in a number of small, medium and large communities throughout the United States. Examples include: San Jose, Los Angeles, Memphis, Salinas, Boston, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Richmond, and North Miami Beach, to name a few.
The research nationally has clearly indicated the need for a community to develop and maintain a strategic plan that acknowledges the issue as well as provides a direction to address it. Currently the United States Justice Department, under the direction of Attorney General Eric Holder, continues to endorse this philosophy. The power and advantage of strategic planning are evident in its emphases:
- Problem Identification
- Community Mobilization
- Collaboration of Efforts
- Assessment of the Results
Over the last year, the Mayor’s Task Force has developed a strong community-wide strategic plan to address the current situation of youth and young adult violence in the City of Newport News. The following information in this report will provide a recommended strategic plan from the Task Force.
Early in the process of conducting gang data, community demographics and analyzing family and youth at risk information, it became evident that while much had been done to address the rising level of gangs and violence in the City, a strategic plan was noticeably absent.
Throughout our process, we were contacted and approached at community meetings by well-meaning local leaders and program directors. It was obvious in our analysis of existing programs that they were well intended but did not appear to be tied to an overall strategic plan which addressed the problem of gang violence.
Mayor’s Committee on Teenage and Young Adult Violence
The Mayor’s Task Force—inpartnership with People to People and the National Center for the Prevention of Community Violence, and Christopher Newport University—has developed a plan of action, in accordance with the May 2010 City Council Resolution, to reduce gangs and youth violence in the City. Research has shown that in order for communities to be successful in reducing youth and gang violence, a proven strategic plan must be adopted and deployed within the community at risk.
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