POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 125 particularly important to respect the confidentiality requirements of those providing information. Finally, try to ensure that the description you develop of the nature and extent of collective youth violence is suitably qualified, depending on where your information is coming from. 6.0 ORGANIZING YOUR COMMUNITY Once you have assessed the nature and extent of youth violence, determined your community's concern, and decided that the community should be more involved, you may choose to engage different groups and agencies in planning or providing more effective responses to youth violence. However, before developing your action plan, ensure that one is possible. Some communities may not be ready to act for a variety of reasons. Here are some examples: • voluntary organizations and their funding bodies are in the process of reorganizing their roles and responsibilities; • law enforcement, municipal and voluntary organizations are in conflict; and, • other major community strategies are consuming time and resources, and so many groups cannot "stretch" their mandates to address youth violence concerns. If, however, you decide that community mobilization is worth pursuing, consider several options. 6.1 Use Existing Responses Given the limited resources in most communities, you should make an initial assessment of the possibility of encouraging existing agencies or groups to assume greater responsibility for youth violence concerns. You may choose to: • Seek a more concerted response to the issue among relevant agencies. Is there a need for school-based violence prevention programs? Do incidents of youth violence require a more focused law enforcement response? Are youth-serving organizations dealing with the needs of high-risk youth? • Encourage existing community and/or interagency groups already addressing youth concerns to become more involved with the issue. Is there an interagency committee dealing with related concerns, such as youth at risk of family violence, that could include youth violence in their work? Are there crime prevention organizations, community consultative police committees or safer community networks involved with youth which could respond to youth violence concerns? 6.2 Developing a New Community Response If your community agencies and organizations are unable or unwilling to deal effectively with youth violence, you may wish to establish a new community response. The following suggestions may assist you. They may also be useful benchmarks for those with an existing community-based response. • BE CLEAR ON THE REASONS FOR MOBILIZING YOUR COMMUNITY There may be many reasons for mobilizing. Are parent groups becoming concerned with youth violence? Is there growing public concern based on serious incidents or media coverage which does not accurately mirror youth behaviour in your community? Is there an opportunity to develop a community response to prevent youth violence? Are provincial initiatives such as safe school policies encouraging community action? Make sure that the mobilizing agencies and community groups understand the nature of the concerns within your community. Is the initiative meant to identify problems or change the community's program response? Could it result in a public awareness campaign? Remember to establish clear goals and directives. • BE CLEAR ON YOUR ROLE IN MOBILIZING THE COMMUNITY Several communities across Canada have developed youth violence-related initiatives. Many have succeeded because they effectively organized the community partners. Before you proceed, assess the community's expectations of you and your organization as an initiator, facilitator and partner in a community-based youth violence initiative. Assess which other organizations would be expected to play major roles, then define your role. Keep in mind that attitudes vary among communities. Where community policing is an accepted practice, the police are often effective partners. Where citizens support the municipal government and its councillors in innovative leadership on such issues, mobilizing community action often works. However, other factors may limit your involvement. Community expectations of an organization, political concerns, ownership issues, attitudes toward young people and past experience with youth violence or related initiatives can influence your effectiveness. • SELECT APPROPRIATE PARTNERS FOR SPECIFIC TASKS Effective community responses require selection of appropriate partners. The type of tasks which must be done to deal effectively with your community's needs can often define the partners you should choose. If, for example, one of the key requirements is a more concerted and coordinated interagency response for dealing with a small number of high risk youth, then it is critical that those agencies involved with these young persons participate in the strategy - schools, corrections continued...
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==