Responding to Gang, Crew and Youth Violence in the District of Columbia

CHAPTER 3: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DISTRICT EXPERIENCEaround project is attempting to divert multi-system involvedyouth from out-of-state residential placements.Addressing unmet mental health needs of children andyouth must be recognized as a core element of youth violenceprevention and the existing gaps in services shouldbe acknowledged for the public health crisis that they are.9. Job readiness and employment supports for out-ofschoolyouth are in short supply.While there are no published data on the number of out-ofschoolyouth served by various programs funded by theDepartment of Employment Services, community leadersknowledgeable in this field estimate that it is less than 600youth annually. Over the past two years, the District’s emphasishas been almost entirely on the summer youth employmentprogram. However, there has been nocommensurate increase in funding for year-round out-ofschoolyouth programs. Services lacking include pre-employmenttraining, job placement, coaching and retentionsupports, and subsidized employment.In addition, the District’s capacity to re-engage youth byproviding GED classes is inadequate. In 2006, accordingto the American Council of Education, there were only 524District residents of all ages who passed the GED.sharing system across human services agencies has recentlybeen discontinued. Due to this lack of access toshared data, youth and families who are involved in multiplesystems are very likely to have multiple and inconsistentcase plans and little continuity of services.Stakeholders acknowledged that as a result, too manyyouth fall between the cracks.12. Confusion over confidentiality laws as well as thelaws themselves restrict coordination of services andlimit the ability to track high-risk youth.While much information can be shared if parents orguardians sign a waiver of confidentiality, there are stilllimitations. Stakeholders acknowledge the privacy rightsof children, but express frustration that confidentiality restrictsthe ability to best serve them.13. Youth violence prevention efforts under way at theMPD Division level are poorly publicized and not utilizedto develop a broader citywide strategy.There are a number of creative, strengths-based and family-focusedyouth violence prevention activities under wayat the PSA level. However, little information about theseefforts is available to the public, the work is not being uniformlyevaluated, and the lessons learned are not informingdecision-making across District government.10. There is a significant lack of program accountabilityby both public and private funders.There is a consensus of opinion that the city and otherfunders have far to go toward establishing measureableoutcomes for programs. They have failed to: invest adequatelyin evaluation, require quality data collection and toweigh prior performance consistently when making fundingdecisions. 47 The outcomes regularly tracked by programsare process focused or are limited to numbers ofunits of service, not improvements in outcomes for participants.As a result, there is often weak confidence inthe effectiveness of current efforts, even those that arewell-funded.11. Information sharing across agencies and with communitypartners is hampered by a lack of connected databases.Following nearly ten years of effort, the District’s plan todevelop the Safe Passages Information System (SPIS) data47 Funding stakeholders, Mosaica interview, September 200826