Youth Violence Prevention and Technology in Philadelphia

In this post, Harvard Graduate School of Design student Courtney D. Sharpe continues her coverage of efforts by My Brother’s Keeper Philadelphia to engage youth in violence prevention and juvenile justice reform. Sharpe is a recent Ash Center Summer Fellow working with My Brother’s Keeper Philadelphia to help design a comprehensive public database to promote City of Philadelphia opportunities open to youth. Here, Sharpe brings attention to the collaborative nature and emphasis on leveraging data of Philadelphia’s efforts to pursue timely interventions toward reducing the justice system-involvement of young people of color.

By Courtney D. Sharpe

Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter’s policy priorities have long included reducing disproportionate representation of male youth of color in the justice system, reducing recidivism, eliminating secure confinement for technical violations, and improving employment outcomes and education for all justice-involved youth.

Since Nutter’s first election in 2008, violent crime and property crime have dropped dramatically in Philadelphia.

During the summer I had the privilege of seeing many of Mayor Nutter’s priorities come together as an Ash Center Summer Fellow with the Mayor’s Office. While my work focused on My Brother’s Keeper, President Obama’s initiative designed as a series of cradle-to-career milestones to improve outcomes for boys and young men of color, it involved collaboration with the Youth Violence Prevention Collaborative.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter at a Summer 2015 community event hosted by the Youth Violence Prevention Collaborative (Photo credit: Claire Van Til).

The Youth Violence Prevention Collaborative (YVPC) was established in partnership with the Stoneleigh Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention to realize Mayor Nutter’s vision to create a safety-net of security for all youth through a multi-faceted, collective, long-term approach. YVPC works with city agencies, philanthropic, non-profit, community, and private-sector organizations to identify strategic interventions in the justice system that can result in healthier community outcomes.

In December 2014, the City of Philadelphia received a technical assistance grant from the National League of Cities (funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation) for juvenile justice reform. In March 2015, YVPC representatives and juvenile justice stakeholders from Philadelphia traveled to Washington, D.C. to present the issues facing the City’s justice-involved youth to the National League of Cities (NLC). The group also began the initial planning process for the NLC grant-funded initiative.

In June, representatives from NLC traveled to Philadelphia to meet more of the key stakeholders. The first day of the June meeting was held in the community room of the Youth Study Center, the only youth detention center in the City of Philadelphia. YVPC brought together a diverse group of professionals including representation from the Mayor’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, Department of Human Services, Juvenile Probation Department of Health and Opportunity, and Philadelphia Police Department, in addition to NLC staff.

To acquaint the audience with the reality for the youth whose lives were being discussed, there was an optional yet widely-attended tour of the detention facility. The representative from the Department of Human Services giving the tour remarked that many parents in the area wanted to find ways for their children to attend Youth Study Center’s school. The observation was poignant and resonated with participants in the tour, as the detention facility itself was a symbol of a broken system in which too many youth slipped through the cracks.

Participants in a community event hosted by the Youth Violence Prevention Collaborative, Summer 2015 (Photo credit: Claire Van Til).

The fact that the Center is perceived by some in the community to be a safer and higher quality educational provider compared to the local public schools — due to its new construction, high tech capabilities, and teacher credentials — is a symptom of greater systemic problems that, unfortunately, are not unique to Philadelphia. The experience reinforced the commitment of the group of juvenile justice reform stakeholders to reducing disproportionate minority youth contact with the justice system. Indeed, YVPC’s purpose was to bring people together from all angles of the justice system in order to open lines of communication and identify points of intervention to prevent youth from entering the system.

The June meeting continued with a discussion on the further development of a digital tool to alleviate some of the stress on the criminal justice system by reducing youth involvement. As part of its technical assistance grant, NLC brought in consultant Andy Wong, an executive of AWJI, Inc which designs complex data systems for public entities. Data representatives from stakeholder agencies discussed data collection and access procedures. Their conversations laid the foundation for designing a system to reveal patterns and identify youth who might benefit from preventative interventions, with the goal of halting them from furthering down a path of criminality.

For many youth, it is a lack of social or material support at key times in their life that can lead to the perpetuation of behaviors that lead them to incarceration. If YVPC and Philadelphia can work together to share data across departments and intervene with effective supports at the right moment, it has the potential to be at the forefront of the nation in reducing disproportionate minority contact.

I find the city’s novel approach to reducing crime — and improving community support — encouraging and look forward following the project’s development. If you are interested in learning more, please visit here.

Courtney D. Sharpe is a Harvard Graduate School of Design student and recent Ash Center Summer Fellow working with My Brother’s Keeper Philadelphia.

Filed under Cities, Policing, Students, Technology, Youth

Originally published at www.challengestodemocracy.us.