With Police Partnerships, Building New Pathways for Youth
This podcast is part of a series highlighting innovative approaches to reducing violence and improving health outcomes among at-risk minority youth at the nine demonstration sites of the Minority Youth Violence Prevention Initiative. One of these demonstrations sites is Building Resources and Awareness for Youth Violence Prevention Education--BRAVE--in DeKalb County, Georgia, a program led by the DeKalb County Board of Health in partnership with the Clarkston Police Department, DeKalb County Police Department, and DeKalb County Human Development Department. The program seeks to reduce low-level “gateway” violence by engaging youth in programming that includes organized sports, civics lessons, and mentoring, and by supporting similarly minded community-based groups with mini-grants.
BRAVE Minority Youth Violence Prevention program specialist Juanita Brunson and program evaluator Elizabeth Burkhardt joined this week's podcast to discuss how BRAVE's police partnerships offer youth positive, healthy living opportunities and mentorship and how BRAVE is measuring outcomes for participants.
The following is a transcript of the podcast:
Raphael POPE-SUSSMAN:
Hi, this is Rafael Pope-Sussman of the Center for Court Innovation. This podcast is part of the series we are doing with people seeking to curb violence and improve access to public health for at-risk minority youth, as part of the Minority Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.
The initiative is a partnership of the Office of Minority Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services at the US Department of Justice that encourages collaboration among public health organizations, law enforcement agencies, and community-based groups. Our podcast series highlights innovative approaches at the nine demonstration sites that have received funding under the program.
Today we're joined by Juanita Brunson and Elizabeth Burkhardt of Building Resources and Awareness for Youth Violence Prevention Education, or BRAVE, in DeKalb County, Georgia. BRAVE is led by the DeKalb County Board of Health in partnership with the Clarkston Police Department, DeKalb County Police Department, and DeKalb County Human Development Department. The organization seeks to reduce low-level gateway crime, particularly violent crime, among minority youth through a range of programming, including organized sports, civics lessons, and mentoring. Juanita, Elizabeth, thank you for speaking with me today, and welcome.
Juanita BRUNSON:
Thank you.
Elizabeth BURKHARDT:
Thank you.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
So what is BRAVE?
BRUNSON:
Well, this is Juanita, and BRAVE stands for Building Resources and Awareness for Youth Violence Prevention Education. And that name came about because we wanted something that was youthful, and would resonate with the youth who would actually be joining the programming.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
And can you describe the basic structure of the program?
BRUNSON:
Absolutely. The funding that was provided by the Office of Minority Health has actually allowed our agency to collaborate with our five partners: DeKalb County Police Athletic League Plus Incorporated, City of Clarkston and its police department, the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, Communities in Schools of Atlanta, and TMY and Associates.
With our agencies, the staff is providing technical assistance and guidance, and our partners are providing evidence-based youth programming geared towards the Office of Minority Health goals within the community setting and also school settings. Specifically, the DeKalb County Police Athletic League, they offer various types of programs that include interventions that are designed to provide pro-social skills, and it also provides a positive youth development in the county.
With the city of Clarkston, they have hired a full-time community relations specialist to implement the programs within the city of Clarkston, and also coordinate the activities under the Minority Youth Balance Prevention grant.
The city also has several community resources that are currently partnering with, and also planning, a youth leadership group to begin in the summer of 2016. With our community grantees, the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, and Communities in Schools of Atlanta, they are implementing activities within the school and after-school sessions.
And then, TMY and Associates, they're in collaboration with the Decay or Prevention Initiative, they will implement positive action in the summer academic camp. The Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, they focus mainly on low-income Asian or Pacific Islander males, low-income Hispanic males with the majority of their students being from either the immigrant or refugee population, and the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, they plan to work with at least 100 students during the grant period.
Communities and Schools, our final partner, of Atlanta, they provide programming at Powers High School, which is a high school that's located in Decatur, Georgia, and they offer that programming during the school year and the summer. The programming is offered to African-American male students who are receiving intensive case management services facilitated by the site coordinator at Powers High School. TMY and Associates, in collaboration with the prevention initiative with Decatur, will implement programming with elementary and middle school minority and immigrant youth living in public housing and enrolled in the Decatur housing authority summer camp.
So all of our partnerships come together and form the BRAVE Initiative.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
Can you talk about the challenges of working with the refugee population specifically?
BRUNSON:
Absolutely. That's definitely one of the unique aspects of the programming that we do offer.
Working with the refugee population, we are tasked with meeting the cultural and linguistic needs of each ethnic group. Specifically, we definitely have to understand and be sensitive to any trauma that was experienced previously, bodies, groups that might affect their perception of the government, police, personal safety, and things of that nature.
As a preliminary step, prior to even addressing the goals that are set forth by the Office of Minority Health, we have contracted with the local organization called the African Women Health Education and Empowerment Center, and we have actually collaborated with them to create and gain community buy-in. Additionally, our partner, the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, they have a department that's dedicated to the interpretation and translation of services.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
Moving over to the work that you're doing with the Police Athletic League, what is the goal of that partnership?
BRUNSON:
Well, definitely the goal we have set forth in a partnership with the Police Athletic League is actually to enhance their programming and provide the youth served by them an expansion of the reach of the youth participants in their programming. The programming that is being enhanced by working with the PAL facilitators, that's the abbreviation for the Police Athletic League, to ensure that the curriculum that is implemented within the Gentlemen Exemplifying Excellent Strength and Girls Exemplifying Magnificent Strength, GEES and GEMS, classroom sessions is actually evidence-based. We've been working with the police athletic league by providing technical assistance in the areas of curriculum development, data collection, and documenting their success stories.
Additionally, the Police Athletic League has an existing relationship with the DeKalb County School District. And with that existing partnership, it is the goal to expand to other middle and high schools to increase youth participation.
The Police Athletic League is also working to implement additional community forums and events to build community trust with positive encounters.
Raphael Pope-Sussman:
So I know that you've given many grants to other organizations that are doing violence intervention work. How does that fit into your overall strategy?
BRUNSON:
Absolutely. We are absolutely excited about the new addition of our mini-grants, and as we now call them, our community grants. That has actually increased our formal part partnership number from two to five.
The grantees include, as we mentioned before, the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services, Communities and Schools of Atlanta, and TMY and associates. All of the grantees are implementing the same curriculum, which is the evidence-based positive action, and they're implementing this curriculum within a school or community setting. And definitely we know that the addition of these community grants will increase the breadth of programming and also the reach of our target audience.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
How are you measuring outcomes for the program?
BURKHARDT:
This Is Elizabeth, and our partners are helping us in the measurement of outcomes that are directly related to the six OMH objectives.
To monitor violence-related outcomes, we're using pre- and post-program surveys, and we're using those to measure youth self-assessments of impacts of ongoing programs. The surveys include questions about knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experience relating to violence and law enforcement. Also our DeKalb County Police Department partners sometimes have access to police and juvenile court data. When possible, we're also asking the youth's parents for their perspectives on changes in their children's behavior.
Now, for measurement of academic outcomes, our PAL Plus partners and our Communities in Schools of Atlanta partners are providing data to us. They are providing measures that include school grades, absenteeism, school disciplinary events. And our other partners, the Centers for Pan-Asian Community Services and TMY and Associates, will monitor those academic outcomes using progress reports that the students provide.
We'll also measure partnering efforts, and we use sign-in sheets to keep a list of active participants in our community consortium. Each of our partners keeps an updated list of secondary partnerships that they've created. We've seen some good results so far. We've increased the number of our formal partnerships from two to five. And as Juanita mentioned, we've added over a hundred stakeholders to our list of potential partners between December 1st of last year and the end of February this year. We reached 190 unduplicated youth, and as of the end of February, we had 175 total youth enrolled in the Minority Youth Violence Prevention Programs.
We were particularly inspired by the report of a youth in our DeKalb County Rebound Program who was struggling with academic school disciplinary problems, criminal behavior, and drug use. And this youth has shown marked improvement in all these areas. He's excelled academically, specifically going from a 61 to an 83 in algebra, and he's maintained an A and B average in government, biology, English literature, and keyboarding. He also has had 17 of 18 of his drug screening tests to test negative. And he hasn't been suspended from school or involved in any criminal activity over the past several months. His mother agrees that the program is assisting her son with making better decisions.
POPE-SUSSMAN:
Well, that's wonderful! I wanted to thank you so much for taking the time.
BRUNSON:
Thank you very much you for taking the time with us.
BURKHARDT:
Thank you!
POPE-SUSSMAN:
So this has been Raphael Pope-Sussman speaking with Juanita Brunson and Elizabeth Burkhardt of Building Resources and Awareness for Youth Violence Prevention Education in DeKalb County, Georgia. For more information on the Center for Court Innovation, visit www.courtinnovation.org.