Office of Minority Health

The Minority Youth Violence Prevention (MYVP) program is a partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health and the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to support an initiative to integrate public health and violence prevention approaches. MYVP intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating public health and community policing approaches to reduce disparities in access to public health services and violent crimes and improve the health and well-being of communities of color. MYVP will support program interventions developed through adaptations, refinements, and modifications of promising violence prevention and crime reduction models that are tailored to at-risk minority male youth (10-18 years-old) and integrate a problem-solving approach. The goals of the MYVP evidence-based interventions are to: improve coordination and linkages among state and local law enforcement, public health, social service and private entities to address youth violence and crime prevention; improve academic outcomes among participants; reduce negative encounters with law enforcement; increase access to needed public health and/or social services; reduce community violence and crimes perpetuated by minority youth; and reduce violent crimes against minority youth.

MYVP Grantees

Asian Media Access, Inc. - Minneapolis, MN

The Stand Up Participate (SUP) Initiative will support the juvenile offenders required by the court for community services; at risk males of color, ages 10-18; and their families residing in Hennepin County, with a special focus on the cities of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park. The Initiative will mobilize law enforcement, public health, and communities of color to integrate public health and violence prevention approaches to support Cultural Immersion interventions for minority youth. SUP will demonstrate the effectiveness of integrating public health and community policing approaches to reduce disparities in access to public health services and violent crimes to improve the health and well-being of communities of color.

Partners: Multi-Cultural Community Alliance, LVY Foundation, Pathways Learning Center, Ramen Ya Homeless Youth Shelter, Somali Community Resettlement Services, Zintkala Luta, City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support, Hennepin County Environmental Health, Minneapolis Police Department, Brooklyn Park Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and Pan Asian Arts Alliance

Chatham County Board of Commissioners - Savannah, GA

The Chatham County (Georgia) District Attorney’s office implemented the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in 2010 to break the cycle of youth violence as a result of violence-related injury. Partnering with Memorial Health University Medical Center, the program seeks to provide aid to youth injured as a result of violent intentional injuries, reducing instances of retaliation, and encouraging educational success and job training skills. The program will utilize a multi-agency, multi-dimensional approach to reduce truancy, violence, victimization, and crime while increasing academic success, access to public health and social services among at-risk youth, especially African American males between the ages of 10 and 18.

Partners: Memorial Health University Medical Center, Office of the Sheriff Chatham County, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, and community organizations

City of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH

The Children in Trauma Intervention (CITI) program was designed as a preventive/intervention program that uses police officers as instructors and mentors to reduce the number of youth, in particular minority youth, who become involved with the juvenile justice system. The program will use informed discipline as taught by Trauma Informed Care and social work counseling practices and focus objectives that: 1) improve coordination, collaboration, and linkages among local law enforcement and public health; 2) improve academic outcomes among CITI program student participants; 3) reduce negative encounters with law enforcement; 4) increase access to needed public health (preventive and primary health care services); 5) reduce community violence and crimes perpetrated by minority youth; and 6) reduce minority youth victimized by violent crime.

Partners: City of Cincinnati Health Department, Hamilton County Juvenile Court, and Cincinnati Youth Collaborative

City of West Palm Beach - West Palm Beach, FL

The City of West Palm Beach Policing Approach Through Health, Wellness, and Youth (PATHWAY) Program will integrate public health and violence prevention strategies to reduce disparities in access to public health services and reduce violent crimes and improve the overall health of project participants. In 2007, the City, facing a substantial escalation in youth gun-related violence and crime, partnered and collaborated with the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (BCC); Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission (CJC); Career Source Palm Beach County; School District of Palm Beach County; and local service organizations to develop the Youth Violence Prevention (YVPP) to address the issues connected to youth gun violence and violent crime. A key outcome of the YVPP program was the establishment of the City’s Youth Empowerment Center (YEC). The YEC facilitates healthy adolescent development and discourages harmful/violent behaviors and provides youth with opportunities for positive social involvement, skill building enhancement, and facilitation of supportive relationships. The YEC supplies the appropriate structure to target the needs of at risk youth and reinforces pro-social norms. The center is strategically located in one of the city’s target areas ranking in the top ten for delinquency referrals, and youth related crime; where the target population is at risk youth, ages 12-19, primarily male, who likely may be involved in gang activity, violence, and gun violence and reside in the identified targeted high-crime areas.

Partners: West Palm Beach Police Department, Florida Department of Health Palm Beach County, C.L. Brumback Primary Health Care Clinics, Health Care District Palm Beach County, County and the Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission

DeKalb County Board of Health - Decatur, GA

The Integrating Public Health with Community Policing to Prevent Minority Youth Violence Project will help prevent youth violence by addressing the elevated risk of violence and crime that exists in many of DeKalb County’s most distressed neighborhoods. Utilizing a public health prevention approach, this project will create a partnership among the DeKalb County Board of Health, the Clarkston Police Department, and departments of DeKalb County Government (the DeKalb County Police Department and the DeKalb County Human Development Department). Combining community policing approaches with public health preventive measures, this project will identify hot spot areas with a high concentration of at-risk minority males. The goal of the project is to decrease youth violence in DeKalb County among youth ages 10 to 18. The associated outcomes supporting this project are (a) a reduction in gateway violence and crimes perpetrated by minority youth; (b) an increase in the number of partners who will develop and implement effective, comprehensive approaches to prevent youth violence that are tailored to the needs and strengths of individual communities; (c) an increased access to needed public health and/or social services; (d) a reduction in youth crime and victimization through targeted programs that emphasize both prevention and enforcement; improvement in academic outcomes among MYVP participants; and (e) a reduction in negative encounters with law enforcement.

Partners: DeKalb County District Attorney, DeKalb Human Development Department, DeKalb

County Police Department and the City of Clarkston

Health Education Council - West Sacramento, CA

The Health Education Council (HEC) in collaboration with the Sacramento Minority Youth Prevention Initiative will: 1) form a multi-sector collaborative to increase local coordination of services and resources to reduce minority youth violence and crime in Sacramento; 2) further integrate and expand the reach of Sacramento’s public health and community policing practices and the hospital-based Sacramento Violence Intervention Program into the curriculum of the Male Leadership Academy (MLA), a school-based youth leadership program that addresses the physical, social and emotional needs of minority male youth; and 3) integrate MLA within the Sacramento Saturday Night Lights program, a summer initiative aimed at building a sense of community, creating safe opportunities for youth to become active and engaged during the summer.

Partners: Sacramento City Police Department, Boys and Men of Color, Kaiser Permanente

South Sacramento, Sacramento County Health Department, and the Sacramento County Health Department

Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital, Inc.-Binghamton, NY

Lourdes Youth Service will work with various community partners to develop a restorative strength based program that will divert high-risk youth from gang involvement as well as violent behavior. The Minority Youth Violence Prevention project for the City of Binghamton is a coordinated collaborative effort to effect change in young people (specifically minority males) in the community. Lourdes Youth Services will work with various community partners to develop a restorative strength based program that will divert high-risk youth from gang involvement as well as violent behavior. The primary contact focus will be during in-school lunch groups held at three area schools weekly. The lunch time groups will have weekly themes aimed at providing coping skills and education to young men.

Partners: Broome County Health Department, Promise Zone, Binghamton Mayor’s

Office, City of Binghamton/Police Department School Resource Officers, and the Gang

Prevention and Youth Success Initiative

Public Health Authority of Cabarrus County - Kannapolis, NC

Cabarrus Health Alliance will implement a local violence prevention demonstration project in Cabarrus County, North Carolina in collaboration with the Concord Police Department and Cabarrus County Schools. The initiative, Cabarrus STARS (Student Taking a Right Stand), aims to impact county-wide social norms towards positive decision-making that will improve educational outcomes and reduce school violence among minority male youth. Cabarrus STARS will adopt a multi-level approach based on the Social Ecological Model that targets students, law-enforcement, and school personnel. STARS will incorporate three major components: 1) Systems-based Training, 2) Case Management with Cognitive Behavioral Prevention Education, and 3) Positive Youth Development. Cabarrus STARS seeks to improve school safety and climate; reduce reported instances of bullying and victimization; reduce positive attitudes toward violent and aggressive behavior; and reduce the number of office disciplinary referrals, suspensions, and expulsions.

Partners: Concord Police Department, Cabarrus County Schools, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club, Project SAFE Cabarrus, Cabarrus Victims Assistance Network, Concord Fire Department, and Safe Alliance

Youth ALIVE! - Oakland, CA

Youth ALIVE! in collaboration with the Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Probation, and the Alameda County Health Care Services to develop and disseminate the nation’s first hospital-based violence intervention program and model, Caught in the Crossfire. The Minority Youth Violence Prevention Through Trauma Response project will target three groups most directly affected by interpersonal violence in Oakland and highly at risk for suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms: 1) youth who are friends or family members of murder victims; 2) violently injured youth treated in and referred by Alameda County’s three trauma centers; and 3) youth referred by probation upon reentering the community after incarceration in the County’s Juvenile Justice Center. The project will aim to: 1) improve collaboration among partners and 2) improve outcomes for minority for minority youth served.

Partners: Oakland Police Department, Alameda County Public Health Department, Alameda

County Medical Center/University of San Francisco, Alameda County Probation Department,

and the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency