Youth Violence Prevention
Posted by Pam Arnsberger
on Jan 14, 2016
January 14 Meeting
Announcements and Reminders
We were reminded that the annual fundraiser, a retirement party and roast for Sam Farr, will be May 6th. Zach Friend, Fred Keely, Bruce Medina and Jim Panetta will be among the participants. Invitations and save the date cards will go out soon. We need eight live auction items worth $500 or more and 30 silent auction items.
Rotarian(s) of the week for successfully completing the New Brighton Middle School Scoreboard Sign project were Doug Deaver and Tim Powell.
Sandra said that RYLA will be starting the application process soon. Juniors this year are eligible. Let Sandra know of any eligible students and she will get an application to them.
Speech club contest is February 4 and area contest is on Feb 25th. We are still waiting to know about participants.
March 10th will be club assembly. Rich Costa will lead it.
April 30th the Pope will performs Mass for Rotarians in Rome. Be there!
For bringing in a new member John Fisher received another pin. Burt Lemke was also awarded a pin. Sue Lawson was welcomed as a Paul Harris Fellow.
Doug announced that the club will contribute $500 to the repainting of the Aptos trestle.
Bee Peters introduced today’s speaker, Sarah Emmert. Ms Emmert is a UCSC grad and has a master’s degree in criminology from UC Irvine. She has worked in social justice and advocacy and with people in the community impacted by the criminal justice system. She currently chairs the Youth Violence Prevention Task Force for United Way, a task force of the Criminal Justice Council.
Bee Peters introduced today’s speaker, Sarah Emmert. Ms Emmert is a UCSC grad and has a master’s degree in criminology from UC Irvine. She has worked in social justice and advocacy and with people in the community impacted by the criminal justice system. She currently chairs the Youth Violence Prevention Task Force for United Way, a task force of the Criminal Justice Council.
She talked about her background in Santa Cruz County and her work with gang members and lifers in prison. She decided the answer was in prevention to insure that every youth in the community has an opportunity to progress into a good productive adulthood.
The task force was formed 4 years ago in order to address high rates of youth homicide in Santa Cruz County. She discussed the creation of the strategic plan and provided a copy of the executive summary for club members. She emphasized that the plan takes a strengths based or public health approach. The goal is to have an equitable united and safe county where youth feel safe and empowered.
She said that in developing the plan a big issue was equity as well as youth engagement and it needed to be county wide. It was data based, utilizing focus groups and on line surveys as well as key informant interviews. A community assessment was completed in 2013 of risk and preventive factors. It was completed in April 2015.
They plan addresses three areas: the family unit, the community and the individual. The three goals are: (1) For youth to be college and career ready and have meaningful participation in the community; (2) For families to be connected engaged and supported by community and (3) to have a safe and thriving community which is culturally and racially responsive.
They are now developing initiatives and action plans for Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Some strategies include employment, mental health treatment, outreach, strengthening law enforcement and gang involvement (Watsonville); data analysis, identifying at risk students, academic support and mentoring, domestic violence (Santa Cruz).
So far there has been buy-in by board of supervisors and other commissions and funding has been attracted to support these efforts. There was a discussion about gang involvement including possible causes as well as efforts to respond that could be successful. Ms. Emmert concluded by asking the club to let people know about this effort.