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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
# # #
