Dear Rainier Beach residents, organizations and friends,
You are invited to participate in a unique opportunity to help reduce and prevent youth violence in Rainier Beach. The project, which is called Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth, is an innovative, community and place-based violence prevention initiative to reduce youth victimization and crime while improving relations between youth, police and the community. The goal is to identify and holistically address the root causes of youth victimization and crime at five focus locations, “hotspots” in Rainier Beach through non-arrest interventions. We are recruiting community residents and other stakeholders to participate in a Community Task Force (CTF). The CTF will do the problem analysis and identify interventions for the five juvenile crime hotspots in Rainier Beach. Please contact Barb Biondo if you are interested in signing up for the Community Task Force or would like more information. Please respond by October 22nd to participate in the Community-based Problem Solving training that is scheduled October 26th.
Contact information: Barb Biondo
206-322-6134   barb@sngi.org
The Community Taskforce commitment:

Attend a free, 1-day training on Community-based Problem Solving.

Saturday, October 26th
Time: 8:30am-4:30pm

Location: Southshore  K-8 School 4800 S. Henderson

Participate in 4 CTF workshops to be held

November 2013-February 2014

Location: Rainier Beach Community Center 8825 Rainier Ave S.

The support:

Food and refreshments will be provided for the October 26th training and all CTF workshops. Childcare and interpretation will be provided if requested 1 week in advance of the event.

 

A new approach to an old problem:

Rather than focusing on an entire neighborhoods,

Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth takes a place-based approach to reducing youth crime and violence (This is based on research from the Center for Evidence-base Crime Policy at the George Mason University) at long-term “hotspots” in Rainier Beach. This allows us to focus on the unique physical features and social dynamics of each hotspot location, enabling us to identify root causes of why criminal activity clusters at these specific locations (why here?). We can then focus our resources more efficiently on the problems and risk factors we’ve identified in these specific locations.

 

Community-led process:

We are recruiting those who know the hotspot locations best to serve on our community task force (CTF). Our focused outreach effort seeks to engage those who work, live, go to school, worship, shop, use transit or public places at or near our hotspots in Rainier Beach. Our CTF will identify the conditions that contribute to youth crime at these hotspots and be the decision-makers who will identify the interventions and monitor how they are working.

 

Reducing youth victimization:

We also know that youth who are involved in crime are also more likely to be victims of crime. By reducing the level of youth crime we are also reducing chances of youth being victims of crime.
Non-arrest interventions:
Once we have identified risk factors, our focus will be on using non-arrest interventions for youth. While law enforcement is sometimes the only appropriate option, research has shown that youth that are arrested and go through the juvenile justice system are more likely to continue to commit crime. They are also less likely to finish school and get jobs in the future.
We will use interventions that work:
We will implement evidence-informed strategies, interventions that have research has shown to have positive impacts in similar settings.
Increase possibilities for economic development and jobs:
The Rainier Beach “hotspots” overlap with the locations RBNPU (2012) identified as the neighborhoods “pearls” – the transportation, business and activity hubs that help define the unique character of the Rainier Beach neighborhood. By making these locations safer we improve the chances for economic development and that’s appropriate for neighborhood income levels that also attracts clients from outside the area. Increased economic activity will bring more jobs and employment opportunities to Rainier Beach.
To download a brochure with more information click here.

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