Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative News

News from Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative | October 31, 2013

October: A Month of Learning, Donating, and Celebrating

Peace House

Building a Playhouse, Building Lives

Seattle youth who participated in this summer's CWEST program working on a playhouse construction project saw their efforts come to fruition on October 5, when the playhouse they built was auctioned off at El Centro de la Raza's 2013 "Building the Beloved Community Gala."

Youth from SYVPI in the City of Seattle Youth Employment Program banded together with students in the woodshop class at Chief Sealth International High School to build a 36 square-foot wooden playhouse. The team members came from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, but even students who were members of rival gangs put aside their differences to "lend a hammer" to what became known as the Peace Playhouse.

Over 20 students worked on the playhouse over the summer and learned an assortment of skills from math, to organization, to how to operate various hand and power tools. The finishing touches were put on the playhouse this fall. Inspired by the mission of El Centro de la Raza, the youth made the generous decision to donate the product of their hard work to the Gala. As El Centro noted in its auction brochure, the playhouse "was made by peace, for peace."

"The SYVPI summer construction class was the best summer program I have run," said Nan Johnson, Wood Shop/Applied Math, Apprenticeship and Construction Exploration teacher at Chief Sealth. She would like to see it opened up to more students next year.

See the playhouse and watch the kids in action using the link above or go to http://vimeo.com/75778358.

A Week Without Violence

Seattle Parks Teen Programs and its Youth Violence Prevention Team (YVPT) celebrated a "Week Without Violence" October 11 - 18. Over 600 youth between the ages 12-19 participated in free fun activities around the city. This week of events gave them a chance to express their feelings about violence in their community while providing fun, safe alternatives through recreation programs and activities.

Staff and youth together developed relevant events and activities for youth throughout Seattle to engage with other caring adults, engage in pro-social interactions and build community. Activities included a film screening of "The Butler" followed by a youth discussion, Late Night swim, Skate for Peace party at Southgate Roller Rink, Whirlyball in Edmonds, Peace on the Beach celebration at Golden Gardens, and a Youth Service Awards ceremony.

"This event brought together Initiative and non-Initiative enrolled youth to celebrate in a violence free atmosphere and to acknowledge those in our communities that are positive peer models for others to follow," said Jeron Gates, Senior Coordinator/Youth Violence Prevention with Seattle's Parks and Recreation Department.

Parks and Recreation hosted the service awards at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute where 32 individuals were recognized at a dinner for their outstanding service during the year giving back to the community, making a difference in others, having initiative, and leadership skills. Recreation leaders, family and friends celebrated the accomplishments of those providing exemplary service to their community.

SYVPI volunteer Holly Greenspoon attended the event and is lending her journalism skills to a profile of award recipient Akeda Jones. The article will appear in either next month's eNewsletter, or on the website.

SYVPI Team Receives National Gang Center Training

On October 16, members of the National Gang Center (NGC) conducted an all-day intensive training for SYVPI partners to look at the composition, functioning and management of Intervention Teams.

NGC's Intervention Team model aligns with SYVPI's current practice of case consultation among investment areas and assists the Initiative in moving to the next level by providing tools, protocols and best practices for focusing on youth who are at the highest risk or gang-involved. The training was customized to SYVPI's organizational structure and builds on the training SYVPI partners received from NGC in July of this year.

The NGC web site features the latest research about gangs; descriptions of evidence-based, anti-gang programs; and links to tools, databases, and other resources to assist in developing and implementing effective community-based gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. It also offers an analysis of the findings from nearly 16 years of data collected by the annual National Youth Gang Survey of 2,500 U.S. law enforcement agencies.

SYVPI is grateful to NGC for the expertise and time provided by the trainers to assist us in better serving our most vulnerable youth. Thank you, National Gang Center!

Seahawks Partnership Continues to Grow

SYVPI Director Mariko Lockhart, Network Coordinators Marty Jackson and Jamila Taylor, and SW Intake & Referral Specialist Maly Phouangpheth met in October with Kelly Creeden, Managing Director of A Better Seattle & Community Initiatives for the Seahawks. On the agenda was some strategic planning around the organizations' continued partnership.

The most recent example of the Seahawks' commitment to reducing youth violence is their participation in Starbucks' one-week campaign in support of Coach Carroll's A Better Seattle. Starbucks donated $50,000 to launch the campaign and invited customers and fans to make donations at participating western Washington Starbucks locations or online. On October 23rd, Coach Carroll and several Seahawks players honed their barista skills by helping to serve up lattes at a half dozen Seattle-area Starbucks. The donation will go to funding the ongoing efforts of street outreach workers in Seattle, Renton, Kent, Tukwila, Auburn and SeaTac.

Q13 ran a feature story to promote the October 23rd A Better Seattle/Starbucks Day. It included comment from SYVPI Outreach Worker Johnny Jefferson from the YMCA's Alive & Free program. Link to the video here.

Meetings between SYVPI and the Seahawks are ongoing and, among other things, will develop training camp visits into comprehensive career exposure and learning experiences for youth.

Reinier Neightborhood Community Training

SYVPI's Byrne Grant Update

In past editions of this eNewsletter, we have reported on the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovations Grant awarded to SYVPI in August 2012. In partnership with local community groups, police, researchers and trainers, the "Byrne Grant" provides almost $1 million to SYVPI over a three year period to develop and evaluate place-based youth violence prevention strategies in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood.

Some exciting developments have taken place recently with this project, now known as Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth. Last Saturday, October 26, approximately 80-85 Rainier Beach community members - primarily residents and business owners -participated in an all-day training at the South Shore K-8 School. The training marks the beginning of these community members' service on the Rainier Beach Community Task Force.

The Community Task Force is made up of teams of individuals assigned to work on one of the five geographic areas in Rainier Beach identified as having the highest levels of youth crime. Over the next several months, these teams will receive additional training to develop a greater understanding of the issues and the skills necessary to formulate recommended strategies for addressing youth crime.

Gregory Davis, an active member within the Rainier Beach community, attended the training. "It is sure to serve as a catalyst for on-going neighborhood revitalization and a focal point for bringing together the existing public safety initiatives within Rainier Beach," said Davis. He added, "The cross section of community representation at Saturday's training was evident and energizing." Strategies adopted by the Community Task Force will be carried out through a variety of means, including grants and contracts.

Community members learned about the opportunity to serve on the Task Force through a comprehensive recruitment process undertaken by the City of Seattle and Seattle Neighborhood Group (SNG). Barb Biondo of SNG is leading the project coordination efforts. "I was very inspired by the turnout on Saturday," said Biondo. "I love the Rainier Beach community and was excited to have such a large and diverse group thoroughly engaged in the Community-Based Problem-Solving training. I look forward to working with this Community Task Force on tackling long-term youth victimization and youth crime hotspots. I think we can make a difference."

To learn more about Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth, contact Barb Biondo at barb@sngi.org. Interpretation services are being provided to each language group throughout the project to help ensure the process is representative of the community.

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Safe Youth, Safe Community is a newsletter published by the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. Our mission is to prevent and reduce youth violence, which has disproportionately affected communities of color in Seattle, through coordinated community mobilization to identify youth at risk of perpetuating or being a victim of violence and connect them with needed support in reaching their full potential. For more information, please visit our website www.safeyouthseattle.org.