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Governor Launches "Prevention Comes First" Initiative
– Signs executive order creating Interagency Anti-Gang Workgroup –

RICHMOND – Governor Timothy M. Kaine today launched his Prevention Comes First anti-gang initiative, coordinating the state’s deterrence-focused efforts to improve public safety, education and health.  The initiative includes components to cultivate collaboration, provide opportunities for youth, increase public awareness and training, and offer tools for community planning.  As part of the initiative, Governor Kaine signed Executive Order 15, establishing Virginia’s Interagency Anti-Gang Workgroup, which will work with local and state organizations and officials to prevent and reduce gang violence.

“Community-based prevention initiatives can help support healthy families and communities, help our children grow toward bright futures, and cultivate more informed and engaged citizens to combat problems like gang violence,” Governor Kaine said.  “Strong prevention efforts to reduce gang membership are essential because law enforcement alone cannot adequately address the problem of youth gangs.” 

The Anti-Gang Workgroup consists of 24 designees from 17 different executive branch agencies and organizations that will operate under the direction of Secretary of Public Safety John Marshall. 

“The proliferation of gang membership is a serious public safety concern facing Virginia’s communities today,” said Secretary Marshall. “We are aware of more than 300 youth gangs and similar alliances throughout the Commonwealth, with as many as 5,000 children associated with those gangs.  The Anti-Gang Workgroup will foster unprecedented collaboration and enhance technological capabilities to help us reduce the threat these gangs pose to our communities.”

Prevention Comes First will offer grants of up to $10,000 dollars through initiatives, such as the Governor’s Community Service and Civic Engagement Program, to various communities in order to establish positive alternatives to gang involvement for at-risk youth.

The workgroup includes designees from the Departments of Correctional Education, Corrections, Criminal Justice Services, Education, Health, Juvenile Justice, Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, Social Services and State Police, the Office of the Attorney General, Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Services Council and the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention and staff from the Virginia Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys, the Richmond Behavioral Authority, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for School-Community Collaboration.

  The Prevention Comes First anti-gang initiative includes five integral components:

• Collaboration - Virginia’s Interagency Anti-Gang Workgroup will cultivate strong collaboration with and among every level of government regarding gang prevention strategies.
• Opportunities for Youth – Using the Governor’s discretionary Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act funds, the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Department of Criminal Justice Services will provide competitive mini-grants to 30 localities to implement the “Governor’s Community Service and Civic Engagement Program” targeting community-based intervention for youth who are at-risk for gang involvement.  Applications will be available in August 2006 and can be accessed through the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention’s Web site, www.gosap.virginia.gov.
• Public Awareness and Training – This component will provide the citizens of the Commonwealth with the information to address the problems in their communities through a series of trainings.

1. Training – The Department of Education, in coordination with Virginia Commonwealth University, is sponsoring workshops across the state in gang prevention and on the collection and use of discipline, crime and violence data.
2. Virginia State Police Gang Reduction Initiative – The Virginia State Police will develop a Gang Reduction Initiative which will train 126 State Police Crime Prevention Specialists and develop and distribute a 30-second public service announcement, in both English and Spanish, with a gang awareness and prevention message directed at youth. Beginning Monday, June 12th this new Public Service Announcement will begin airing on cable television and radio stations in Richmond, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Harrisonburg.
3. Safety Matters in Mentoring, the Virginia Mentoring Partnership - Collaborating with the Governor’s Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Virginia Mentoring Partnership will include a youth violence, gang involvement and substance abuse component in all their mentoring trainings across the state.  These trainings and services increase every year with 1400 individuals trained during 2005.
4. Prevention Comes First Conference, Fall 2006 – This one-day conference, with an estimated 500 participants representing law enforcement, education, prevention practitioners, Commonwealth’s Attorneys and other professionals, will highlight gang prevention model programs that have proven results to reduce gang membership and activity. 

• Tools to Assist: The Community Profile Database, Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention - The Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention’s Community Profile Database is an easy-to-use database that will provide localities with objective data to conduct quality needs assessments and planning.  The Community Profile Database can be found on the Governor's Office for Substance Abuse Prevention Web site. 
• Evaluation – Each component will be evaluated to monitor outcomes and improve effectiveness.

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