South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs

Monthly Update

August 2012

In This Issue
South Coast Youth Intervention Project
Cal-Grip II
Quarterly Meeting
Los Prietos Survey
Presentations
Next Meeting
 
Wed., October 17, 2012
3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Quarterly Leadership & Executive Council Meeting
Goleta Valley Community Center
5679 Hollister Avenue
Goleta, CA

Quick Links
 
 
 
 


Valuable Support

Josh Molina, who some of you might know from his work as a journalist with the Daily Sound, will be working with the Strategy Team to help us with the delivery of information. We have been working hard at making coordination efforts happen. Mr. Molina will be helping us to tell the story of the Task Force and of our efforts so that it is precise in delivery every time we reach out to the general public. We are excited and thankful to count on his expertise and support.

Service Provider Summit
 
 

A Service Provider Summit is planned for Friday, August 24, 2012 in the Samala Show Room inside the Chumash Casino from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. The agenda for the day is packed with information and panels that will give service providers' current information on trends happening in the community. A presentation by the Drama Kings has been added to the lunch time of the agenda. We hope you will be able to attend and that you can help spread the word for this conference. Everyone who plans to attend the summit needs to register. The registration deadline is this Friday, August 17th.

Greetings!

This update provides highlights of the work in the South Coast.  More details will be provided at upcoming meetings. The goal of this update is to keep you informed. If you need further information on items in this report please contact me.

Sincerely,

Saul Serrano
Interim Task Force Coordinator
[email protected] 805-964-8857  ext. 152
South Coast Youth Intervention Project 

 

The South Coast Youth Intervention Project is an effort to track data from a number of agencies working with the target population. Due to privacy laws and protection of confidentiality, previous efforts to capture data at a large level were not possible, which in turn caused gaps in delivery of services. interventionproject UCSB has stepped up to work on this project and be the hub for information. So far the program includes schools, probation, law enforcement and community agencies for youth with probation gang terms and conditions who have agreed to participate in the project.

 

The project will be able to identity gaps in services for the participating youth and families. It will also allow the UCSB team to make recommendations of what services are not being utilized which could benefit youth. The project will also be able to highlight which interventions help youth demonstrate success.

 

As of last month, a new technology component has been added to the project. Human Tools is an organization which works with data and technology. They will be working to develop an online comprehensive database for this project. The information will be collected through UCSB and housed by Human Tools who will be the protecting agency of the information electronically and physically. The Human Tools team has worked on a number of projects throughout the nation and has expertise in hosting online information.

 

With this addition to the process, families will be able to log on and access the same information that is being tracked by multiple organizations and also access  programs and interventions they might not have been aware of previously.

Cal-GRIP II

 

A report was submitted to the state with updates and highlights of the Cal-GRIP II grant for the South Coast. The Cal-GRIP grant helps fund case management services for youth that are part of the target population, who either have Probation gang terms and conditions or are at high risk of being involved in youth violence. Although the number is not a large number 14 seniors out of 17 seniors graduated high school, a 77% graduation rate for the group of seniors in case management programs. This is not an easy group of students and would have probably not graduated high school based on their school record prior to being a part of the Cal-GRIP II case management. With the help and support from various programs and adults they were able to improve their school attendance and complete credits to graduate high school. Some of these youth have enrolled at SBCC and will continue their education; a few have registered in vocational programs.  

 
Quarterly Meeting Leadership & Executive Councils, July 18, 2012

 

At the last Quarterly meeting for the South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs held on Wednesday, July 18 2012, members of the Executive and Leadership Councils had an opportunity to participate in a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) exercise. With the help of graduate students from UCSB, great facilitation, and participation from members, information was generated that gave insight as to our current status as well as direction in areas where we can improve.

 

The information is currently being processed to produce a report that will be shared with all members highlighting the priorities members expressed through the SWOT process. This activity allowed members to give insight and an opportunity to discuss direction and gaps in our efforts as the South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs. We are enthusiastic that a process like this will only help to strengthen our efforts.

 

Los Prietos Boys Camp Survey

 

Dr. Jill Sharkey and staff from UCSB are working on a comprehensive report of the Los Prietos Boys Camp Survey which was conducted last year and highlighted at the April 2012 quarterly meeting. They are approximately half-way through the process and should have a final report completed in September. We anticipate that we will be sharing the report at the next quarterly meeting in October. The report will provide insight from rich amounts of information shared by youth at Los Prietos as to how as community leaders we can help youth make changes and possibly leave the gang lifestyle behind.

Presentations

 

saul at council 

The South Coast Task Force has been conducting update presentations with members of the City Councils for City of Carpinteria, City of Goleta, and City of Santa Barbara who have expressed interest in being informed on the work that goes on within the Task Force. The feedback has been positive and encouraging from all cities. Questions have come up from various cities which has brought great insight to the needs of each community. One more presentation is scheduled in the month of August for the County Board of Supervisors.