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

• Job readiness and employment supports for out-of-school youth are in short supply.• There is a significant lack of program accountability by both public and private funders.• Information sharing across agencies and with community partners is hampered by a lack of connected data bases.• Confusion over confidentiality laws as well as the laws themselves restrict coordination of services and limit theability to track high-risk youth.• Youth violence prevention efforts under way at the MPD Division level are poorly publicized and not utilized todevelop a broader citywide strategy.With regard to the state of the art nationally, this report finds:• Gang assessments are necessary to determine the scale of the problem.• Community input and ownership are essential to effective programs.• Suppression efforts alone do not reduce youth violence.• Youth violence is not an isolated phenomenon, but is rooted in the socioeconomic conditions of a community.• Successful violence prevention efforts focus on evidence-based, best or promising strategies to strengthen theprotective factors in the life of a youth.• Successful violence prevention models have strong and consistent support from both political and communityleaders.• Successful models are both community-based and community-driven.• Programs and supports are most successful when they are strengths-based, youth-driven and family-centered.• Successful models place heavy emphasis on partner development, community capacity building and networkdevelopment.• Funding must be sufficient to meet the need, invested in a clearly defined strategy, encourage models of best practiceand be sustained over the long run.• New mechanisms for managing community-based efforts are necessary to allow for flexibility, accountability topartners and funders, and responsiveness to the changing needs of the population of focus.• Clearly defined systems of accountability driven by an outcomes focus are essential and must be reflected in contracts,data collection and reporting.RecommendationsFinally, the Blueprint details 12 distinct recommendations. The first four are focused on short-term actions that willstrengthen and better coordinate existing gang and crew intervention activities. Recommendations 5 through 12 relateto the development of a longer-term strategy to plan for and implement a comprehensive gang, crew and violence preventionstrategy for the District.Phase One Recommendations1. Create a joint working group of the CCCYVP and the core Focused Improvement Area (FIA) team (including MPD,the City Administrator’s Office, and other agencies as identified by the Mayor’s Office) to develop a coordinated responseto high profile youth violence.2. Expand capacity of Critical Incident and Targeted Youth Outreach Teams.3. Support the Citywide Coordinating Council for Youth Violence Prevention (CCCYVP) in its role to coordinate andstrengthen the work of its partners and grantees.4. Resource and implement place-based strategies for safety and de-escalation, particularly in schools and publichousing sites.Long-Term Recommendations5. Establish a citywide, multidisciplinary, multi-agency Commission tasked with advising the City regarding coordinatingand streamlining resources dedicated to gang, crew and other youth violence intervention and prevention efforts.vi