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News from Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative | January 22, 2015
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2015: New Happenings in the New Year
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Diversity in Media: 2014 Matching Grant Project |
Turn Your Ideas for a Great Youth Project into a Reality
Do you have an idea for a project that will move SYVPI youth away from violence and onto more sustainable paths? Have you been thinking, "I hear youth saying they want to ... but no place is offering it?" Or why doesn't somebody....?
If so, watch for a special edition of this e-newsletter coming soon about our 2015 Community Matching Grants (CMGs). Approximately 10 grants of up to $25,000 each will be awarded, with preference given to organizations with annual budgets of $500,000 or under. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 27th, and projects must take place before the end of the year. We will also be providing information about our new easy online application process.
Application information is available now in the What We Do - Community Matching Grants section of the SYVPI website.
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Newly Revised Website Ready for a Spin
A newly revised version of the SYVPI website, which went live this month, is offering new resources for youth, parents, and our SYVPI partners. Among the new features are weekly updates to the YMCA's Hot Jobs list, resources for families, more detailed information about the work that SYVPI does and who does it, more and better access to articles about youth violence prevention, and a site map to make it easier to find what you are looking for on the site.
These updates were made possible with assistance from former Central Network Coordinator Jamila Taylor. Jamila's web skills, her background with SYVPI (she started with the Initiative
when it began in 2009), with youth and our community, and her desire to build a website that would continue to grow and improve, were invaluable.
Visit the website at www.safeyouthseattle.org to take it for a test drive.
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Welcome Our New Staff
SYVPI welcomed two new staff members in January; both of them will be with the Initiative for just one year.
 The first is Christa Valles. Christa will be responsible for the research and hands-on work necessary to ready SYVPI for a meaningful program evaluation. This includes conducting a community needs assessment, assessing the functioning of the current data collection system, reviewing different types of evaluation methods, and updating SYVPI's logic model--the description of the resources that go into the program, the activities the program undertakes, what is produced by these activities, and what changes or benefits are produced as a result.
Christa will also assist in preparing materials to update City Council and the Mayor's Office on SYVPI's readiness to begin the evaluation process. Results of the evaluation itself will provide evidence of SYVPI's impact on the community and help us determine how we can become even more successful in reducing violence among youth in Seattle.
We are also excited to bring Jen Mills on board. She will provide half-time administrative  support to the Director's office. She will be facilitating communications among SYVPI, its partners, and the community by writing the monthly SYVPI E-newsletter, maintaining the SYVPI website, directory, and listservs, preparing for and taking minutes at our monthly Whole Team meetings, scheduling appointments, and the infamous "other duties as assigned."
Jen has an extensive administrative background with a wide variety of public and private community support agencies, and is also an artist with a Master's degree in Fine Arts in Ceramics. During her off-hours, you are likely to find her in the studio creating ceramic sculpture and drawings.
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Report to the Community: New Data, New Format
One of the ways that SYVPI acknowledges the role of the community has played in bringing the Initiative into being and continues to play in sustaining it, is by providing a formal Report to the Community each year to share how we are doing. The format of the report, like the Initiative itself, has changed over time.
This year's report is a simple two-sided sheet which gives a brief overview, updates statistics, and shares a moving success story from one of our youth. It doubles as a poster that you can display in your workplace especially if youth are likely to visit.
View or download the entire report here: http://safeyouthseattle.org/ourimpact/progress-reports/ or pick up a copy at one of SYVPI's Neighborhood Network locations.
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Director's Corner...
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Conference Participants Learn the REACH Shuffle |
REACH for the Stars
Earlier this month I journeyed to California for a convening by UNITY (Urban Networks to Increase Thriving Youth) of its 19 member cities, all of which are committed to preventing and reducing youth violence.
I was accompanied by Maggie Thompson of Mayor Murray's Office of Policy and Innovation, and Eleuthera Lisch from the YMCA. While there, we visited the REACH Ashland Youth Center, a state-of-the-art youth center designed by an amazing team of youth--individuals who persevered through a ten-year planning process despite knowing from the onset that they would be too old to use the facility when it was completed. Programs and services are provided through partner agreements with public and private nonprofit agencies, and all are free for youth ages 11-24.
Along with other attendees at the UNITY conference, Maggie, Eleuthera and I were welcomed and invited into the center's large, open reception area. First on the agenda: learning the "REACH Shuffle," the center's signature group dance which was choreographed by a youth staffer.
An adult staffer and two youth 'culture keepers' then led us on a tour of the facility. We visited the studios for dance, music, and visual arts, a computer lab, media center, health clinic, counseling rooms, early childhood development center, an Alameda County library, and "the perch" -- amphitheater seating for viewing performances on the floor below or just hanging out. We also peeked in on a resume writing class led by one of the center's youth founders, and a running music track kept us energized and smiling throughout our visit.
Results? In the two years since the REACH Center opened, theft and vandalism in the surrounding area have dropped and so have teen pregnancy rates.
We were wowed by what we saw and inspired to bring some of the ideas back to Seattle. In fact, I could go on and on about the center, but the youth themselves say it best. Hear what they have to say in this short video [http://youtu.be/Nd8oISMqa5Y].
Mariko Lockhart
Director
Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative
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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.
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