Community-Based Teen Violence Prevention Program

Community-Based Teen Violence Prevention Program# Student Name: Professor: Course Title: Date: Community-Based Teen Violence Prevention Program# Youth violence affects individuals’ mental health, physical health, and wellbeing, as well as the economic health of a community. Preventing and decreasing the risk of teen violence is a major challenge for communities nationwide. Every year, homicide victims include more than 4,000 young people aged 15 to 24 years, and homicide is the 3rd main cause of death amongst teenagers in the United States after unintentional injuries and suicide (Prothrow-Stith, 2015). In this paper, a community-based program is developed that seeks to prevent youth violence in the United States. Description of the Project: A Mentoring Program to Prevent Teen Violence in Wayne County, Detroit, Michigan The program will have three components: mentoring, coaching and counselling. However, more emphasis will be given on mentoring. Researchers have reported that a lack of a consistent positive adult presence or a lack of a stable home life could result in the development of youth aggression and violence (Kellermann et al., 2014). Actually, when such things are absent, teenagers have a higher likelihood of developing internalizing problems such as depression as well as externalizing problems like aggression, which place them at a higher risk for school failure and violence (Elias, 2015). Mentoring is important since it can develop emotional and social competence, in addition to building self-confidence and self-esteem. This is crucial in addressing youth violence. Mentoring refers to a non-judgmental, one-on-one relationship wherein a mentor gives his/her time to encourage and support the mentee. The mentor may provide indirect support, for instance by encouraging the mentee and challenging his/her views, or direct support to help the mentee attain a certain goal, like finding a job (Malti & Averdijk, 2017). Mentoring effectively steers teens away from the influence of gangs and supports them to achieve their full potential with the assistance of positive role models. In this program, the mentoring will provide the teenager with the chance of receiving support and guidance over an extended time period from a more experienced peer or from an adult. The mentoring will occur in various locations such as schools, public housing neighborhoods, workplaces, juvenile detention centers, churches, and community centers. This community-based teen violence prevention program is aimed at reducing teen violence in high-risk communities through the implementation of comprehensive, evidence-based prevention strategies. It seeks to stop teen violence from taking place in the first place. The prevention efforts of the program would be aimed at reducing the factors which place young people at risk for committing violence, and promoting those factors which protect at risk for violence. Community members and parents would be involved. Reese et al. (2013) pointed out that the involvement of the community and parents is vital to the success of any mentoring intervention. The community plays the role of providing an infrastructure and volunteers to support the program overall, whereas parents of the teens have to accept and support the presence of mentors in the lives of their children (Reese et al., 2013). The problem is financially viable and is practical. A total of 6 paid staff and 5 volunteers would be recruited. Successful implementation of this mentoring program would require roughly $250,000 per year. This amount would be expended in paying the paid staff and other personnel who would be involved in the project, in addition to other expenditures that would be incurred such as transport costs and procuring the necessary materials to be used during mentoring. The $250,000 required for implementation is a reasonable amount; it is not substantial or exorbitant. It is notable that community members, parents, teachers and school administrators in Detroit’s Wayne County all want to see an end to the high rates of teen violence in the region. They will therefore be willing to support the mentoring project. The fact that these people would support the intervention shows that it is practical and can be implemented without resistance. Needs Assessment and Setting Typically, teen violence involves teenagers hurting other peers who are not related to them. It also involves the teens hurting their peers who they might or might not know well. There are various forms of youth violence, for instance gang-related violence, threats with weapons, bullying, and fights. A teenager could be involved in these different forms of youth violence as a witness, offender or victim (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). A lot of concerned people in Wayne County want to see violence amongst young people within their communities to end. This program will therefore seek to meet this need. To develop the most effective program for the prevention of violence among teens, it is important to not just understand, but also incorporate the needs of the targeted population. When trying to address the needs of a given population, Gold et al. (2013) pointed out that knowledge of needs assessment is of major importance. A needs assessment could provide the justification for funding. In addition, it could be utilized as part of a program evaluation. It provides a rational and useful approach for laying the foundation for a program to better meet the needs of the people and the goals of the program. For this project, the needs assessment is carried out through the use of surveys. The surveys include mailed surveys as well as surveys published in local newspapers, newsletters, or magazines. The response format includes multiple-choice, open-ended, rankings, most and least important, and category scales. Prevention programs are of great importance given that getting young people out of a life of violence is better than imprisoning them or putting them in training schools. Preventing just a single high-risk teenager from a life of crime saves the country over $1.5 million (Chiamulera, 2014). Community members in Wayne County are very much concerned with problems of youth violence, including assaultive violence. Assaultive violence entails using physical force or weapons to cause death, injury or harm to someone else. Regarding the setting for the project, it would be operated by a non-profit agency. It is a community-based intervention. The program would be implemented in Detroit’s Wayne County owing to the high rate of youth violence in this county. This is one of Michigan’s most racially and ethnically diverse counties. Research Strategy: Appreciative Inquiry With regard to the research strategy that would be used to develop the project, appreciative inquiry (AI) would be adopted. AI is a form of action research. It is a change management approach that seeks to identify what is working well, analyze why it works well, and striving to do more of it (Heslop et al., 2018). AI calls for a certain way of asking guided questions which encourage positive thinking and interaction among the people concerned. The questions center on Discover, Imagine, Design, and Deliver (DIDD) (Heslop et al., 2018). Discover questions allow one to identify processes in the community or organization that work well. For this research, the discover question is: what aspects of the community in Detroit’s Wayne County could help in the effort to prevent teen violence? The answer is: support from community members, parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens. Imagine questions allow one to analyze why a certain process is working well. They also help in brainstorming ways of applying that knowledge elsewhere. For this research, the Imagine question is: why do certain community-based programs work well in preventing teen violence? The answer is: they are supported by funders, community members, parents, and school administrators. Discover questions allow one to create an action plan (Cooperrider, 2018). For this research, the Discover question is: how can we develop a community-based program to prevent teen violence? The answer is: by involving parents, funders, community members, and other concerned parties. Deliver questions allow one to create criteria for success and a way of determining if the action was successful (Cooperrider, 2018). For this research, the criteria for success include reduced cases of teen violence in Wayne County 4 weeks after the end of the program. The action plan, which involves the implementation of the program, would be considered successful if incidences of teen violence in the county decline appreciably. Key Elements across Therapy Models The over-arching goal of the intervention would be to positively impact the personal development of the teen. This means reducing delinquent behavior amongst the participants, improving conflict-resolution skills, developing positive values, increasing self-esteem, improving relationships with peers and skills, and increasing social skills. Other intervention goals are to promote social performance and improve attitudes (Kumsa et al., 2013). Besides the over-arching goal of the intervention, there would also be objectives and goals of individual mentoring sessions, which might differ considerably among pairs. It is of note that the mentors would work with the young peop...