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Decrease in Youth on Probation with Gang Terms and Conditions
The Santa Barbara County Probation Department continues to see a decrease in youth on probation who currently have gang terms and conditions. In addition, there is also a decrease in the Los Prietos Boys Camp population. As a result of this on April 23rd Los Prietos decommissioned one of the two dorms at the camp. The remaining dorm will continue in operation, and if the need and population rise, the decommissioned dorm would reopen to accommodate youth referred by the courts. The decommissioning ceremony was a bittersweet event. Current and past community members who have been a part of the programs at Los Prietos were in attendance to witness the decommissioning of the dorm flag.
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Community Violence Reduction Input: Proyecto Heroes
A successful community forum to gather input was held on May 31st at Franklin Elementary. The forum featured a panel of school board representatives, school staff, and a parent. Following the panel participants gathered in small groups for discussion. The groups were mixed between monolingual English and monolingual Spanish participants with translation provided to both. The purpose of the smaller breakout groups was to discuss how schools can help the community decrease violence. CALM, in collaboration with UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, has initiated work on a three-year community research grant awarded to the Santa Barbara region. The focus of the grant will be to assess work done in the past as well as reports generated about community violence. The group will be hosting a number of forums to gather information from community members about current needs to address violence. The South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs is working in collaboration with Proyecto HEROES staff and partners throughout the grant. UCSB Gevirtz Graduate School of Education will be doing the evaluation for this project. At the end of the grant the effort will generate recommendations that will help with future funding and direction based on community input.
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Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference
A small cohort from the South Coast attended this year's annual Gang Prevention and Intervention Conference held at the California Endowment in Los Angeles. Attendees were from programs, schools, law enforcement and governments throughout the world. The focus this year was on addressing trauma and root causes of gang involvement.  On the first day of the conference the California Cities Gangs Prevention Network met. Cities in attendance were the following: Long Beach, San Jose, San Diego, Oxnard, Fresno, Salinas, and Santa Rosa. The South Coast Task Force on Youth Gangs (Carpinteria, Goleta, Santa Barbara and unincorporated county) is still participating as a guest in network meetings. The network is developing membership guidelines so that other cities who are interested will have the opportunity to join. The Conference helped us meet with others doing similar work in other parts of the California and share with others the work we are currently doing in our region. Ismael Huerta from the Santa Barbara School District attended the conference and he was able to share about his work with youth in the Santa Barbara Area. Overall it was encouraging to learn that our region is on a good path and aligned with similar efforts happening in other parts of California.
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School Discipline Restorative Approaches
At the start of June the Santa Barbara Unified School District held Restorative Approaches (restorative justice) training for teachers from Dos Pueblos High School and San Marcos High School. The two-day training was a full walk-through of the philosophy and implementation of the restorative approaches. Teachers responded in a positive way to the alternative approach to discipline. Teachers and staff also had an opportunity to role play and go through the various processes and witness how effective the approaches can be used with fidelity. The goal of the training is to expand the alternative discipline approaches to all schools K-12.
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