Last Tuesday, Columbia City neighbor and frequent RVP contributor John Hoole attended the meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee and was kind enough to share some observations about the briefing on the City’s Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (YVPI):
The plan as it was initially announced to the public had a $9.2 million budget. According to Doug Carey of the Mayor’s office, “because of budget balancing needs and one select program reduction, the Council action resulted in an $8 million initiative over two years.”
Intended YVPI outcomes:
- A 50% reduction in court referrals for juvenile crimes against persons commited by youth residing in the Central Area, Southeast Area, and Southwest Area Networks
- A 50% reduction in the number of suspensions/expulsions due to violence-related incidents at Denny, Aki Kurose, Madrona K-8, Madison, and Washington Middle Schools
Councilman Burgess pointed out that for similar programs across the nation, success often means reductions of 2.5% to 20%, which is far less ambitious than the YVPI’s.
The Mayor’s office announced that, in addition to the middle school “emphasis officers” the YVPI includes, they intend to apply for Recovery Act (stimulus) funds to provide emphasis officers for high schools as well.
Holly Miller, interim YVPI director, said that the plan is a “community-led and community-driven process.” She said that “this is not going to be resolved by the government.” Her example of how the YVPI is “leveraging community resources,” was that somebody from the Seattle Vocational Institute called her the other day and said they have training slots and pre-apprenticeship programs available for youth in the program.
Pegi McEvoy of Seattle Public Schools affirmed that “it is the mobilization at the community level that we’re doing with the Urban League that will allow us to be successful.”
A potential weakness of the program is that, where “community involvement” is concerned, the government administrators have a bias toward engaging established institutions like nonprofits and educational institutions. The YVPI administrators are overstating the level of community involvement when they think of “the community” only in terms of citizens who have connections with groups like the Urban League.
Payment of 10% of the contracts with providers are contingent on meeting performance targets.
Interim Police Chief John Diaz confirmed that the new six-person Gang Unit day squad will start work patrolling high schools and corridors on April 15.
Meanwhile, there was a reassuring air of confidence and optimism among the assembled notables. They lauded their “tremendous group work” so far and expressed “delight” with the “magnificent effort on the City’s part and the Police Department’s part.”
There was laughter and thanks for everybody’s contributions and a sense of accomplishment that suggests something powerful is in the offing.
But I caution humility to all those involved in this promising initiative: across town, not an hour earlier, in broad daylight, there was an execution-style shooting at at Rainier and Othello. No arrests.
Until further notice, further congratulations are not in order.
Council members in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting: Tim Burgess, Bruce Harrell, Nick Lacata, Sally Clark.
Other key attendees: Holly Miller (Office for Education), Sid Sidorowicz (Office for Education), Doug Carey (Department of Finance), Jim Diaz (Interim Police Chief), James Kelly (Urban League), Jamila Taylor (Urban League’s YVPI administrator), Mark Worsham (County Juvenile Court), Pegi McEvoy (Seattle Public Schools).
Councilman Tim Burgess chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee. Photo Courtesy of City of Seattle
Also by John Hoole:
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Great report John. Did the city note the issue with the non-profits having to much influence in the process & the overstatement of community involvement or was that an editorial note – just curious.
Thanks for publishing, Amber. It should be noted that I didn’t write this as an Op Ed, but as notes on the Public Safety Committee meeting:
http://hooleintelligence.blogspot.com/2009/04/thoughts-on-youth-violence-prevention.html
The observations about nonprofits and community involvement are mine. I do not think that nonprofits have too much influence in this process, I think that regular everyday citizens not connected to a participating nonprofit should know about the YVPI, and that the City should go out of its way to elicit their contributions. On that score I wrote this to the YVPI interim director the other day:
there are a lot of people out here who are worried about the fate of their community and want to know what to do to help. The YVPI organizers are missing an important opportunity if they only focus on nonprofits and narrowly defined “at risk” populations.
I think the YVPI organizers probably have done a fantastic job to date and I think it’s a smart plan and with a lot of promise. The point is that however delightful the planning process has been, it hasn’t effected the situation on the streets one iota, which is the only outcome people should really be getting excited about. I hope the Southeast Seattle community will support the YVPI programs and get excited about them when they prove successful.
You did, John. I’m sorry. Worked way too late last night and even forgot to link to your awesome blog. All fixed now. Thanks for another great contribution.
“Interim Police Chief John Diaz confirmed that the new six-person Gang Unit day squad will start work patrolling high schools and corridors on April 15.”
Does this mean that SPD has hired new officers for the SE? Or are they reassigning staff already present in the SE (or eleswhere) to this squad? I as because I received a VM yesterday from the Mayor’s office asking me to call back regarding my latest two letters on ongoing short-staffing and current street violence.
When I call on Monday, I want to be able to articulate a clear position, not just receive a pat on the head about how “it’s all going to be all right”.
Thanks for the report. We all benefit from your gift of time.
Thanks for updating the community! Kudos on your efforts!
There’s always the possibility that progress is being made, but the larger trend is taking things lower — kind of like climbing a ladder on the sinking Titanic.
Why be so pessimistic? Watch this entire video and you’ll see that what has happened to Argentina very closely resembles what is happening in the US –
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/445.html
In order to protect what remains of the local economy, to prevent the ship from sinking even faster and hitting rock bottom, communities now need to quickly become self-sustainable.
That is, 1) create their own local and taxable (which makes it legal) non-fiat currency outside the US dollar to protect from the coming USD hyperinflation. This will help keep cash flowing locally and keep local business alive, 2) create a community-led infrastructure now for offering basic services such clothing, shelter, jobs programs, bartering, food & food production, safety, etc. (this was required in Argentina and other similar countries since govt eventually goes bankrupt and then offers no services), 3) create a community-based alternative health clinic for dealing with the loss of available or affordable health care to the community….
I could go on. All of these things are organized by, created by, and run by the local community. Paying jobs are created out of all this work that needs doing. The demand will definitely be there.
Argentina is not the only country. This has happened to too many to count, at the hands of the international central banking cartels who own the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). In fact, your tax dollars help do this to other countries. Now the tables are being turned, and the middle class of the US, Europe and Japan are being erased and turned into a jobless class of the poor.
This is intentional. It’s all about the consolidation of power. Watch the video, and you will what I am talking about. No “conspiracy theories” here — just 100% fact.
TLP
There’s no connection that I can see between SPD new hires and the new Gang Unit day squad. This move adds heads to the Gang Unit, but not new personnel to the SPD – they are veterans who were hired from within.
Diaz talks about the day squad and the hiring process for the gang unit starting at about 1:15:00 on the video of the hearing:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2120907
tlp
Nice application of pressure! You may want to mention that folks from say, N Seattle might be a bit hesitant to board the much heralded shiny new trains if the folks who actually LIVE down here are too scared to stand around waiting for them…
Or maybe they could have an ‘opening day’ giveaway:TASERS FOR EVERYONE!!! We’ll just zap each other and lay around convulsing in the streets. It’ll be like a rave at sunup.
a.w.e.s.o.m.e…
As far as the shiny new trains do you think they will be able to cover up if people start getting mugged right off the bat or will there be some statistics from other cities showing riders per mugging to show us everything is fine. Does Flint Michigan have light rail?
Mark b-Plausible distraction, very plausible. I think however, we’ll have to go south for a flattering crime stat-pepsi challenge, like, oh…Columbia (as in Juan Valdez, not home of the Gamecocks) Personally I think we’ll be asked to rethink our definition of “mug-ging”. After all, it is sort of like a social “tax”. Someone needs your stuff more than you do, so they take it! Obviously they really needed your iPhone and gym bag, so consider yourself an ad-hoc philanthropist. Those that refute this re-definition will be admonished as elitist, selfish, mean-eeeees!! Heck, they’ll probably even throw in a “Got Jacked on the Light Rail” deduction on the brand new state income tax!! sweet.
I got mugged on the light rail and all I got was this lousy T-shirt, and a black eye, some busted ribs, and a case of identity theft.
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