C CHALLENG GES IN OU COMM UR MUNITY

O OUR YOUTH AT RISK

W With an est timated 2009 9 p population of 31,065 by n y t the U.S. Census, g geographic cally, the city c i only 2.6 square mile is es i size and nearly in d s surrounded on all side es b the City of Richmon by y nd.
Sa Pablo is one of 20 cities in Cont Costa County, California. A pa of the nine-county San an f tra , art h Fr rancisco Bay Area Contra Costa Co a, ounty was the 9th most populous county in Californ in 2000 nia h at 994,900 residents and ranked 4th to 5th in househo income level statewide. Contr Costa t ra old Co ounty includes 15 school districts, 12 unincorporate areas and the county is broken into three 5 ed n jurisdictions: East, Central and Wes County. These geographic clust st ters are formal on in the nly ense that some au uthoritative bodie serve one of th three areas, su as the West C es he uch Contra se Co osta County Scho district into wh ool hich San Pablo fa lls. Sa Pablo itself is the smallest and poorest city in Co an t ontra Costa Coun nty. With an estim mated 2009 po opulation of 31,06 by the U.S. Ce 65 ensus, geographic cally, the city is o only 2.6 square m miles in size an nearly surroun nd nded on all sides b the City of Ric by chmond. (Other b bordering geogra aphic areas include El Cerrito, El Sobrante, and unincorporated c E county areas.)

an e p and Sa Pablo grew by over 50% in the 50-59 age group between 1990 a 2000 but is a very young cit overall. In 200 33% of the Sa Pablo populat ty 00, an tion was age 18 o younger, 50% of the or


population was under 30, and only 11% of the population was 60 and older. In comparison, Contra Costa County was slightly older in the year 2000 with 28% of its population age 18 or younger, 40% of its population under 30 and 15% of its population age 60 or older. San Pablos reputation as a low-income city holds true in U.S. Census data. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, San Pablos median household income was nearly half that of Contra Costa County on the whole. The 2000 median household income in San Pablo was $37,184 compared to $63,675 in Contra Costa County overall. Furthermore, 18% of San Pablo residents lived below the poverty level in 2000, compared to only 8% of Contra Costa County residents. Thirty-one percent of the female-headed families lived below poverty level. Contra Costa ranks 6th in its yield (44%) of high-school graduates meeting UC/CSU requirements. It has a better than-average showing (18th) in its incarceration rate, with 141 out of 100,000 youth in Juvenile Hall. But Contra Costa ranks in the bottom 20 counties for self-inflicted injury (40th), with 53 of 100,000 youth afflicted, assault (44th) affecting 29 per 100,000 youth and the student/counselor ratio (49th) with 1,344 students per counselor.1 A 2009 survey conducted by CCISCO and the Pacific Institute to document the availability of programs serving youth from the West County communities of Richmond, San Pablo, and North Richmond indicated a lack of quality programming for youth ages 15-20. West County is home to approximately 10,994 youth aged 15-20; of these 3,710 are low-income. Their survey of programs tallied 2,409 program spaces, enough for less than one-quarter of all West County youth (22%).2 The majority of San Pablo youth attend a local middle school and a few primary high schools in Richmond. Data from the California Department of Education indicates that majority of youth attending these schools receive free and reduced lunch, are youth of color; predominately of Hispanic or Latino decent, and are English Language Learners. Other research indicates that youth are experiencing a high rate of academic failure, truancy, school drop-out and a percentage of youth self-report belonging to a gang. The initial community mapping exercise indicated a scarcity of local, specialized services such as outreach, life skills, truancy and drop-out prevention, case management and/or work experience opportunities for high-risk or ganginvolved youth. The Cities of San Pablo and Richmond combined face some of the most significant challenges in the fight against violent crime with gang-related violence playing a major role in the level of crime in San Pablo. The San Pablo Police Department identified 20 active gangs in 2008.

Data from the California Department of Education indicates that majority of youth attending these schools receive free and reduced lunch, are youth of color; predominately of Hispanic or Latino decent, and are English Language Learners.

1 California Wellness Foundation, California Youth Violence Prevention Scorecard. 2002. http://www.preventviolence.org/download/Score11_8.pdf

2 The Pacific Institute, Access to Quality Youth Programs. 2009. http://www.pacinst.org/reports/measuring_what_matters/issues/youth_programs.pdf

SOCIALIZING YOUTH
...youth need to feel as though they belong- to their families, church, community, school or other positive, pro-social groups...
Community Crime Prevention Associates (CCPA) Evaluators remind us that youth need to feel as though they belong to their families, church, community, school or other positive, pro-social groups in the City of San Pablo. Strong bonds and relationships are critically important to normal, healthy youth development. The presence of a caring and supportive adult is one way to help socialize youth. Youth without the presence of caring and supportive adults in their lives may be attracted and pulled over to the anti-social mindset and lifestyle. After all, the antisocial lifestyle also offers youth a way to gain and keep respect, sense of family and connectedness, sense of accomplishment and upward mobility, sense of safety, money, way to be engaged, rite of passage, and sense of structure and direction.

Who is pulling for the Pro-Social Side?

The urgency to surround youth with pro-social influences may be greater now than ever. Policy makers and other community leaders need to determine what resources are available to counter the anti-social influences of gangs, certain parolees, and other anti-social adults. Experts on gangs and law enforcement officials agree that anti-social influences, such as gangs, have a wellorganized team with a thoughtful game-plan. The pro-social team needs to ensure that it too is organized and working together. Does the community know who should be pulling on the prosocial team and in what order? Does the community know if there are enough people pulling on the pro-social side?

The urgency to surround youth with pro-social influences may be greater now than ever.

ANTI-SOCIAL PULL

PRO-SOC CIAL PULL

P Parents T Teacher/Coaches P Pro-social peers N Neighbors C Community-base youth worker ed rs P Parks and Recrea ation workers P Police and probation officers

Adults on pro obation Gang members m Anti-soci peers ial Drug-usin peers ng Parents who us drugs se Par rents who break the law

Char racterized By: Anti-social pee ers Beliefs, values, and attitudes fa avorable to crime Substance abu use Condones viole ence as way to so olve conflicts Poor self-mana agement skills Poor attitudes toward work and d/or school Poor parental supervisor, monit toring, or conting gencies Other family problems, includin child abuse p ng Anger/hostility y

Characte erized By:

Meaningful and hig level of participation in home, s gh school

nd an community High expectations at home, school and community Ca aring and suppor rtive adults at hom school and co me, ommunity Be eliefs, values, and attitudes unfav d vorable to crime High level of struct ture Sk and assets su as problem so kills uch olving, decision-m making sk kills, hope for futu ure

Does the commun s nity know if there are enough pe e eople pulli ing on the pro-social side? e l

Positive Youth Development

...assisting youth to achieve their full potential is the best way to prevent them from engaging in risky behaviors...
The Positive Youth Development approach suggests that assisting youth to achieve their full potential is the best way to prevent them from engaging in risky behaviors. Youth development assets and the role of resiliency will be incorporated into the program and evaluation design. It will be the way we do business. The City of San Pablo will require youth developmental assetbased evaluation designs for a number of our youth programs, requiring community-based contractors to demonstrate their ability to implement asset-building program components, and supporting the effort to garner community-wide buy-in about developmental asset theory and approaches. The 40 Developmental Assets were developed by the Search Institute, a non-profit organization that studies and supports approaches for the healthy development of children and youth. The Search Institute surveyed hundreds of thousands of young people and from their findings they identified 40 experiences and qualities that have had an incredible positive influence on young people from diverse backgrounds. The asset concept is that children, youth, and adults need positive external support and internal strength in order to succeed in life. One critical component to youth developmental asset theory is resiliency. Resiliency is a concept first popularized in the early 1970s. Robert Brooks of Harvard University explains: The hallmark of a resilient child includes knowing how to solve problems or knowing that there is an adult to turn to for help. A resilient child has some sense of mastery of his own life, and if he gets frustrated by a mistake, he still feels he can learn from the mistake.3 The extensive research of Bonnie Benard, Senior Program Associate of WestEds School and community Health Research Group, on resiliency indicates that the three core variables of resiliency are: 1. High expectations of the youth in the home, school, and community; 2. Meaningful participation of the youth in the home, school, and community; and 3. Relationships with caring and supportive adults in the home, school, and community. Caring and Supportive Adults

3 National Institute of Drug Abuse Media Advisory. 1998. www.nida.nih.gov/MedAdv/98/MA-1022.html

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r. vis, ed ngitudinal Dr Emmy Werner of the University of California, Dav has conducte decades of lon re esearch on resilien and provides the foundation fo the resiliency f ncy for framework in pre evention and int tervention. Sh writes: he Other buf ffers that we do k know seem to cut across different cultures, t creeds, and races: Theres no doubt about it a close bond w a d t, with competent emotionally stable caregiver see t, ems to be essentia in the al lives of children who overco ome great advers sities. As we know from w uring can come fr rom studies of resilient children a lot of this nurtu unts, uncles, olde siblings. er substitute parents, such as grandparents, au Dr Werner sugges that the presence of a caring a nd supportive adult is especially im r. sts mportant in fo ostering resiliency While policy makers, educators, and other comm y. , munity leaders do not o ne ecessarily have co ontrol over the circumstances that create adversity for youths, they ought to t y y fo ocus on how best to support youth in overcoming it. hs

...th presence of a caring and suppo he g ortive adult is especia t ally import tant in fost tering resil liency.

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DEFINING GANG RELATED POLICE INDICENTS

The San Pablo Police Department will have the responsibility of tracking youth-related incidents and provide decision-makers in the City and community with statistics and trends that inform a wide range of community-based organizations with reduction strategies to help meet the Youth Futures Task Force goals. Three key points were considered in identifying a definition for our use: 1. Studies showed gang membership (or even association) as a strong predictor of individual violence in adolescence; 2. Crimes committed by gang members contribute to fear and intimidation of a neighborhood, community, and city regardless of why the crime was committed; and 3. The aim of the Police Department is to provide decision-makers in the City and community with statistics and trends that inform a wide range of community-based strategies to reduce gang activity in San Pablo.

San Pablo Police Department definition of a gang-related incident

Gang-related incident: An incident where there is a reasonable suspicion that the individual who is involved with the incident has been or is currently associated with criminal gang activity, or where the totality of the circumstances indicates that the incident is consistent with criminal street gang activity.
A gang-related incident is defined as an incident where there is a reasonable suspicion that the individual who is involved with the incident has been or is currently associated with criminal gang activity, or where the totality of the circumstances indicates that the incident is consistent with criminal street gang activity. Establishing a Baseline for Measuring Success With the definition of gang-related crime established, staff will work on developing a consistent, credible method for documenting the number of gang and youth related offenses and arrests. The goal is to establish a baseline year of data and maintain statistical and demographic data each subsequent year in order to track trends over time but without compromising active investigations and intelligence systems and without publicly revealing the identity of suspects, victims, witnesses and involved persons. This system will have to be built and maintained manually to avoid under reporting or over reporting gang related crimes. The Police Department will review every Police report written and route reports of incidents that appear to meet the gang-related definition to expert Detectives for secondary review and confirmation. When active investigations reveal new evidence that cases meet or do not meet

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th definition, the database is updated accordingly. The types of crit he d teria considered c include can (b are not limited to): but d Significant facts support the modus operand of the crime wa consistent with a gang e di as h crime; ts ership by individu uals; Self-report of gang membe Identification by a reliable informant; Displays of indicia (clothing, hand signs, sym f mbols, tattoos, or graffiti) associated with r criminal str reet gangs; The individ dual maintains an ongoing relation n nship with known criminal gang members; and e crime was gang re elated. Information establishes the motive for the c

Re eporting Gang Re elated Crime ervices SubSt will provide a quarterly report of gang-related c taff crime data to the Ad-Hoc Youth Se e Co ommittee. In ord not to compro der omise ongoing inv vestigations and privacy rights, the gangre elated crime repor do not reveal case numbers, ev rts vent dates, name or identifying information, es ad ddresses, location vehicle descrip ns, ptions or licenses etc. s,

...The goa is to esta al ablish a bas seline year of data...wi ithout comp promising active inves stigations and intelli igence sys stems...

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