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COMPREHENSIVE
COMMUNITY PLANNING FOR THE BAYVIEW
By
Jeff Adachi, SF Public Defender’s Office
Written
for the Minority Education & Employment News
Much has been said about the violence and crime plaguing communities such
as Bayview Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley in San Francisco. Town halls and community meetings have become forums for
residents to voice their frustrations with police and other officials.
Families living in a state of siege is an accepted fact in some
neighborhoods, and children live, play and go to school in an environment not
unlike modern day war-torn countries.
Yet the problems faced by communities such as Bayview Hunters Point are
not unique. There are dozens and
dozens, perhaps even hundreds of communities throughout the United States that
have experienced the same kind of problems, which ultimately stem from lack of
family support, education, employment opportunities and poverty.
After attending many of these community meetings, I began to ask myself
what could be done to address the core problems of these neighborhoods.
I looked at the work we do at the Public Defender’s office, and saw
that nearly 30% of the 1400 youth we represent in the juvenile justice system
each year come from Bayview Hunters Point.
I knew from my two decades as a public defender that this was not because
kids in such neighborhoods were more inclined to commit crimes.
It was simply that kids and families in more affluent neighborhoods had
the resources to needed to intervene. Quality
education, child care, personal tutoring, mental heath treatment, after-school
programs were not merely options for children with parents who had the resources
to pay for them. They were
necessities.
When the Public Defender’s office sponsored a juvenile justice summit
in April 2004, we brought together two hundred juvenile justice advocates to
look at how we could provide better support to children as well a safer
environment free of violence, fear and trauma. We came to the conclusion that
communities such as Bayview lacked a comprehensive, community-based plan which
marshaled all of the resources needed to address the problems of youth.
We also found that many of the agencies dedicated to support youth rarely
communicated with one another, and that there was a lack of collaboration.
Many agency representatives complained that their funding sources
discouraged collaboration, or that they themselves had little time to network
outside their everyday responsibilities. Finally,
there was little agreement as to what strategies were effective in working with
at-risk youth. Although most agreed
on general principles such as “wrap-around services” education, most
differed as to how those services should be provided to youth.
A huge disconnect between youth providers and the juvenile justice system
created a lack of accountability by both.
In searching for solutions, I became intrigued with “the Comprehensive
Strategy.” Developed by juvenile
justice experts during the Clinton-Gore years, the Strategy was a 1,000 page
guidebook as to how to reform juvenile justice through community planning.
Drawing on best practices from throughout the country, the plan was
implemented in over 50 states throughout the country.
Ironically, the plan was never implemented in the Bay Area.
I wondered why.
I learned that one of the agencies that had implemented the plan in
Florida, Texas and Hawaii --- the National Council on Crime and Delinquency ----
was located in Oakland. I met with
NCCD, who explained that the plan had been extremely successful in the counties
where it had been implemented, resulting in marked decreases in crime and better
coordination and delivery of youth services.
The success of the plan began with focusing the community on empirical
and well-researched data, blending community leadership with implementers (those
with the resources to solve problems) and government agencies, all of whom
agreed to do their part. NCCD
brought in examples of programs that had been successful in other communities,
such as the Boston model, which used ex-offenders and ex-gang members, working
with law enforcement, to meet with gang members and discourage violence.
These programs favored a system of graduated sanctions, with a heavy
emphasis on education, mentorship programs and forward thinking job training.
Teen courts and restorative justice programs also played an important
role in allowing youth to participate in the process of deciding justice for
their peers.
A few months ago, the Public Defender’s Office, along with Barbara
Howard and Cathy Jackson of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and many others,
decided to form a group to bring the Comprehensive Strategy to communities in
need. We called our group
“Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in Our Communities (MAGIC).”
We have joined together with NCCD, the W. Haywood Burns Institute, Urban
Services YMCA, the Children’s System of Care, the Center for Young Women’s
Development, Family Restoration House, Infusion-One, the Northern California
Service League, the Safety-Net Program and many others to implement the plan in
the near future. We
believe that only by working together to develop community consensus on a common
vision will overcome the problems of youth violence and crime. We invite you to join us.
MAGIC meets every Tuesday afternoon. For more details, please call Lori Flowers at (415) 753-8107
or visit www.bayviewmagic.com.
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