The School Emphasis Officer (SEO) program is unique in its approach to addressing youth violence. As part of the Seattle Police Department's Youth Violence Prevention Unit, SEOs are assigned to specific schools that have high truancy and suspension rates or are located in a community known for abnormally high levels of youth violence. Officers focus on building trust in communities of color, using school-based restorative justice practices, and connections to community-based networks....
Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP): Helping Youth and Community
This summer, the Seattle Youth Employment Program worked with SYVPI youth Nu'Jhai Karriem, placing her in an internship with the Wellspring Family Services. While Nu'Jhai had no prior work experience, she knew that she wanted to work with kids and families and learn retail and customer service skills.
Nu'Jhai is one example of Mayor Murray's successful Youth Employment Initiative. The Seattle Youth Employment Program increased capacity to place youth in jobs, doubling last year's numbers in an effort to help youth....
SYVPI's Safe Passage Featured on Our City Our Schools
After just a few months into its implementation, SYVPI's Safe Passage is getting a lot of attention for its accomplishments. On August 17, the Seattle Channel aired a segment of Our City Our Schools featuring Safe Passage's successes in helping to reduce youth violence in the Rainier Beach neighborhood.
The Seattle Channel segment includes an overview of Safe Passage and then features a discussion with Marty Patu, SYVPI Southeast Network Coordinator, Officer Greg Fliegel, SPD, and Ivory Brooks, Vice Principal of Rainier Beach High School discussing different aspects of the program.
SYVPI is proud to welcome our new School Emphasis Officer for South Shore Middle School, Aaron Lucas. Aaron comes to SYVPI from the Southwest precinct where he spent time working on the weekends serving youth in the late night teen center program. Aaron says that law enforcement work runs in his family, as his father-in-law worked with SPD in crisis situations as an employee and currently works with the Urban Impact 180 Juvenile diversion group.
Before he joined the force, Aaron had a barbershop in Seattle's Central District for 15 years. As an introduction to his new position as SEO, Aaron volunteered last winter to cut some hair down at South Shore Middle School and getting to know the youth.
Although he's no longer cutting hair, he has passed the mantel down to his son, teaching him to cut his own hair under the rule of "your first client should always be yourself." We can vouch that he's got some skills. When Aaron is not working he enjoys spending time with his family and being active at his community church. Welcome!
Have an event that you would like to publicize? We welcome submissions for any community event for youth and youth workers in the greater Seattle area. Our events calendar is a great resource as it links to the Seattle.gov community calendar as well.
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.
