An Innovative Model for Cultivating Community Engagement in Youth Violence Prevention

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Community engagement in efforts to deter youth from crime and delinquency is essential to the effectiveness of many violence prevention strategies. Community members can play a role in decreasing the risk factors that contribute to delinquency and strengthening the protective factors that nurture youth. Despite the substantial role the community can play in violence prevention, there are significant obstacles to community mobilization and engagement. A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth (ABSPY) is a youth violence prevention effort in Rainier Beach, a neighborhood of Seattle, WA, that provides an innovative model for community engagement. Unlike many other prevention strategies, ABSPY is a community-led mobilization effort to reduce youth victimization and crime, placing community members as lead actors in prevention efforts. Using a case study, grounded theory method, this study examined ABSPY’s approach to community engagement and crime prevention. This poster highlights data from thirty semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of community members. Findings explore whether the design of the program and local ownership were linked to the cultivation of community engagement. These findings have implications for the continued development of ABSPY as well as other major U.S. cities looking to overcome barriers to community engagement in youth violence prevention work.

Author

• Denise Nazaire, George Mason University; Development Services Group, Inc.