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

CHAPTER 6: RECOMMENDATIONSOverviewIn the absence of dramatic, citywide action, the District’ssmall-scale, isolated youth violence programs cannot abatethe escalating trend of gang and crew activity. This studyfinds that much of the city’s current youth “violence prevention”and “violence intervention” work is in factgeneric programming for at-risk youth. These programsare not grounded in the best-practice principles of youthdevelopment generally, nor are they reflective of effectiveyouth violence-prevention work. The comprehensivestrategy outlined in this report presents a coherent agendafor moving forward by designing the necessary prevention,intervention, and suppression work needed to meaningfullyreduce youth violence and gang involvement.It is recommended that the vision for the District’s youthviolence prevention, intervention, and suppression strategybe to create a city in which youth violence is a rareanomaly. This absence of violence would be accompaniedby high levels of educational attainment among youthand the accessibility of effective supports, services, andopportunities young people need to make a successfultransition to adulthood. Achieving this vision is within ourcity’s reach. The District has a vibrant nonprofit and philanthropiccommunity dedicated to young people, strongchampions in the mayor and City Council members, effectivepublic agency administrators committed to reform,and a complex and comprehensive educational reformstrategy already in motion. What is missing:• The recognition that youth violence prevention and interventionare part and parcel of all the other investmentswe make in young people;• The capacity to connect all the dots between systemsand programs on behalf of individual young people;• The mandate and the resources to rewire our publicand community support systems around the principles ofcomprehensive violence prevention; and• The discipline, and perhaps the patience, to stay ontask to implement this complex strategy over the longhaul.Even in the midst of the great success of the Gang InterventionPartnership (GIP) and other home-grown youthviolence-prevention programs, such initiatives still need ahigher level of local government and community coordinationacross the city in order to eradicate gang and crewviolence. Looking at successful models across the country,we see that the District would be best served by buildingupon the successful strategies of its own experience. Thisreport recommendsthat any effort initiatedbuild upon thestrengths and lessonslearned by the implementationof the GangIntervention Partnership,the Violence InterventionPartnership(VIP), the CitywideCoordinating Councilfor Youth ViolenceVoices from the DistrictBuilding critical response“capabilities requires analignment of the work; andthat’s really where lawenforcement, social serviceproviders and outreachworkers come together at thesame time, analyzing thesituation and developing ajoint response to it.”Prevention (CCCYVP), the Focus Improvement Areas(FIA), and the Metropolitan Police Department’s FusionUnit.The recommendations in this section were developed aftera careful review of national and local programming. Theseare informed particularly by – and in some cases, followdirectly from – the results of interviews with over 40 citystakeholders from government, the funding communityand program providers. The sooner the District acts, themore young people can be redirected from violence to positivepursuits and communities will be safer for all residents.Overarching GoalsThe following recommendations are centered on two essentialgoals that must receive the highest commitment ofpolitical support, appropriate levels of funding, and focusedattention over a sustained period of time to achievethe desired vision of creating a city whose youth are resilientand reach adulthood free of involvement in violence:Goal 1: Create safety in the District by concentrating effortson dramatically reducing violent incidents involvinggangs and crews.Goal 2: Build community by addressing the structural andenvironmental, individual and community factors that giverise to violence.A philosophy that includes a public health approach integratedwith positive youth development, workforce development,law enforcement, and communitydevelopment should be the underpinning of the strategyutilized by the District for the prevention of violence.44