Oct. 16, 2007

County Executive Andy Spano and District Attorney Janet DiFiore hosted the county’s 3rd Summit on Youth Violence and Gangs Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the Westchester County Center beginning at 8 am. 

The event drew 400 police officers, educators and other professionals who work with youth to hear from presenters with various types of expertise. Some former gang members will participate on panels. Building on a similar event held last year, the summit is designed to give the professionals tools to understand the strategies in dealing with youth violence and gangs.  

 “Youth violence and gang activity remains a serious problem in our nation and in our county,” said Spano. “In the aftermath of last year’s Summit, the county helped fund a variety of programs designed to deter youth violence. Our approach is a combination of prevention and law enforcement. We won’t change things overnight, but with programs that help with self-esteem and provide jobs and mentors, we can help one person and then another. Collectively, this will in fact accomplish the goal of helping to ensure the safety of all of us.”

Said DiFiore, “While the job of law enforcement is to arrest and prosecute gang members, that should be the last resort, when dealing with the youth violence issue.  If we all work together, the jobs of intervention and prevention are much easier to accomplish. With initiatives like today’s summit  -- along with education and outreach programs that give guidance and support to youth --  we will see fewer kids joining gangs.”

Attendees had an opportunity to share information and network in the afternoon. The event, planned by the county’s Youth Bureau, also include funded agencies that have after-school programs that help to curtail youth violence and gang involvement.     

The program was  taped and will be made available at a later date to local public access stations, community groups and will be aired on the county’s website and channel 504.

The following were among the presenters:

• Divine Pryor – Pryor is deputy executive director of the Center for Nu Leadership on Urban Solutions at the City University – Medgar Evers College. One of the many goals of the center is to offer an alternative voice in the analysis of criminal and social justice issues, by including the combined lived and academic experience and expertise of people who have first-hand knowledge of the social, judicial and economic systems that scar so many communities.
  
• Sean (Dino) Johnson – Johnson is associate director of the school-based Initiatives of the Council for Unity. He supervises over 50 programs and is the pivotal person in carrying out the council’s mission to rescue youth from a life of conflict, discrimination and gang involvement in order to give them a second chance at life. He serves as a gang-related mediator for at-risk youth from New York communities and within the direct prison population.
  
• Rose Gordon – Gordon is a gang specialist who has served the Chicago Police Department for more than 27 years.  She has conducted long-term, gang-related narcotics investigations that involved extensive surveillance, collection and analysis of information, and focused efforts to dismantle the hierarchy of gangs. Ms. Gordon has served as a vigorous facilitator for programs that work with  the Chicago Police Department, Board of Education and numerous community groups. 

The following programs funded by the Westchester County Youth Bureau were developed to deter youth violence and gang development in Westchester County:

• Michael Arterberry of The Guidance Center in New Rochelle has brought the Power of Peace program to White Plains, Yonkers, Port Chester, Mount Vernon and most recently Peekskill and Ossining. This is a youth development project for middle and high school students to learn conflict resolution skills, leadership, community service and decision-making skills. The goal is to decrease vulnerability to negative influences.
  
• Big Brothers/Big Sisters of FSW Gang Prevention Mentoring program is targeting youth in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Peekskill, Yonkers, Port Chester, Tarrytown and White Plains. It will expand the mentoring relationships to provide a strategic gang prevention focus for these youth and their families.
  
• The City of Mount Vernon Youth Bureau operates the Safe Haven After School and Summer Program, serving children between the ages of 7 and 12, who participate in a variety of activities in a safe and  nurturing environment. The program fosters positive youth development through mentor/mentee  relationships, structured programs, field trips and special workshops.
  
• The City of Peekskill Youth Bureau provides a comprehensive Violence Prevention Training Academy for 65 city youth ages 11 to 15.  Participants develop skills necessary to combat gang involvement and resolve conflicts while improving their physical well-being and developing inter-personal and cultural competence.
  
• The City of White Plains Youth Bureau Step Up! program addresses the needs of White Plains most at-risk African American and Hispanic male youth, ages 10 to 15. Step Up! reaches out to at-risk youth and has a youth-police partnership. This program will be also operating in Mount Vernon.
  
• College Careers Fund of Westchester, Inc. operates the Step Forward Program, a remedial education program for 75 Mount Vernon students, ages 16 to 21. The goal is to improve their  quality of life and enable them to function positively in their community. An integral part of the program is the life skills training combined with educational opportunities and training for the GEED test.
  
• Family Service of Westchester Inc. operates the Westchester Junior Youth Council, for middle school-aged youth engaging them in positive youth development work, critical thinking, problem-solving and advocacy-related initiatives that affect a broader audience of middle school youth.
  
• The Jewish Council of Yonkers operates the Youth Literacy Program, a program serving almost 3,400 children, (birth to 18 years old). This intergenerational program is a combination and expansion of the SMART and OPEN BOOK youth literacy initiatives, which utilizes one-on-one mentoring across Westchester County, in schools and public facilities, to help at-risk, underprivileged youth attain healthy productive lives.
  
• The Nepperhan Community Center operates the Re-Entry/Transitions Program, which is a program that serves 40 youths between the ages of 16 and 21.   This program is designed to address those issues that  have contributed to the target populations committing juvenile or criminal offenses, and provide intensive support services to ensure that they will not regress.
  
• Working with the Department of Social Services, the Westchester/Putnam Workforce Investment Board opened its new Westchester Workforce Development Academy for Youth during the summer of 2007. The academy includes both the in-school and out-of- school programs that are focused on youth obtaining a high school diploma/high school equivalency and entrance into the workforce, college and or the military.