EDITORIAL: Curbing youth violence

By | Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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There are no easy solutions to curbing youth violence, and that is largely due to the fact that there is no single root cause. As data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, several leading risk factors remain constant. Some of these factors are under the youths' control, such as substance abuse and gang involvement, and some are not, including unattended health problems, lack of parental support and family income. Consequently, policies and laws must address several factors at once. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chancellor Michelle Rhee would be wise to learn a few lessons from their Milwaukee counterparts.

The rise in violence in and around America's schools, and the increase in menacing and homicidal gangs in recent years proves that an important component of curbing youth violence must be bolstered. That component is called prevention.

As The Washington Times pointed out in two stories this week - "Beating back school violence" on June 22 and "D.C. resists mentor program" on June 23 - positive turnarounds can happen when school systems open their doors to and support community-based, crime-prevention organizations. In D.C., for example, the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, Alliance of Concerned Men, Peaceoholics and LifeStarts are but four groups that mentor and aid distressed youths. They feed and clothe them, lend them shoulders and ears, and praise and discipline them. They step into wide and deep voids.

The success of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, which was co-founded by Bob Woodson, is a model for the nation. When the bloodletting and accompanying violence of two warring D.C. gangs claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy in 1997, Mr. Woodson and the Alliance of Concerned Men pulled the youths and young adults together and mediated a truce. Then and now, law enforcers and policy-makers debated whether gangs or crews should be targeted. But the broader community said, stop the children from getting caught up in both.

Mr. Woodson and his partners have programs in seven cities, and their National Violence-Free Zone initiative has garnered much success. The initiative takes youth intervention to levels that local and state governments cannot. The center helps train youth leaders and advisers, who in turn focus on every aspect of youths' lives, including their families and their neighborhoods. Data show that school suspensions in Milwaukee dropped 9 percent and violence fell 23 percent, while attendance moved in the opposite direction.

Programs like the center's Violence Free Zone work because of a simple rule of thumb: Self-empowerment.

Dependency - on gang cohorts, food stamps, drugs and alcohol, etc. - is learned behavior. Successful community-oriented groups teach youth to change their own behavior. The government can't get its own act together; if it could, the school system would not be in such a failing state. We hope Mrs. Rhee works throughout the summer to get organizations like the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and Peaceoholics into the schools before opening day.

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