The District must move quickly to identify youth most at risk for violent behavior, realign anti-violence programs into a coordinated strategy and assure precious resources are going to the hardest-hit neighborhoods, a new report on youth violence concludes.
To combat youth violence, a new report says D.C. must:
» Assure parks and recreation is part of violence response team.
» Support programs that serve at-risk girls.
» Train all police in gang and crew awareness and identification.
Source: A Blueprint for Action
The $125,000 study commissioned by the D.C. Council and released Friday finds that many critical components for fighting the scourge of youth violence, gangs and crews are already in place.
But the District, according to the study, has done little to coordinate “disjointed” programs into a broader citywide strategy, to share information among community partners, to publicize youth violence prevention efforts and to improve education and mental health services.
“Countless prevention and intervention efforts have been launched with great fanfare, almost always to slip away quietly for lack of political, financial or community support,” said Jacquelyn Henry, executive director of the Healthy Families/Thriving Communities Collaborative Council, which wrote the report.
Money for the study was added to the 2009 budget by Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who represents Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan, three hot spot areas for street crew-related violence. The latest victim: Rahiem Moore, who was shot and killed Wednesday night on the 1300 block of Columbia Road NW as police stood nearby.
“When I feel like we’ve reached the crescendo of madness,” Graham said, “the next thing happens.”
The District has an estimated 2,500 active gang members and 5,000 others who are “loosely affiliated.”
The report urges immediate action by Mayor Adrian Fenty to develop a coordinated response to high-profile youth violence, to assess the city’s capacity to handle the problem, to redirect resources to those areas highest in need and to intervene with the most at-risk youth. Graham said he would introduce emergency legislation next month to address the short-term goals.
In the long term, the report recommends establishing a high-level Gang and Crew Prevention Commission led by a gang czar of sorts, and developing a comprehensive citywide violence-prevention plan. It also suggests numerous actions in the education, health, work force development and justice areas.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray said the effort must also consider the “influence of family” and “how we get parents to be more responsible about their children.”
