NCJ Number
192224
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 63 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 64-66
Date Published
December 2001
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on the crime prevention tool of building health communities.
Abstract
Building health communities is the process of people working together to address what matters most to them, including prevention of violence among youths, as well as promoting youth health and development. It also involves changing the social and physical environment to effect widespread behavioral change and related population-level outcomes. In addition, it promotes civic engagement among people who share a common place, common interests, or a common experience. Effective collaborative partnerships focus on bringing about community change, an intermediate outcome in the long process of improving community health. The key players are those who do the work of community change, university-based research centers and community-based organizations, and funding agents. This approach to systems change requires special attention to evaluation of efforts to effect changes in valued outcomes. In addition, the evaluation should serve to demonstrate the initiative’s effectiveness and lead to its improvement. In 1995, the Kansas Juvenile Reform act was passed in response to the belief that the State was not optimally serving juvenile offenders, protecting public safety, or promoting youth development. The legislature sought to partner with Kansas communities to share the responsibility for prevention and the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) was created in 1997. Its mission was to help protect public safety, hold juvenile offenders accountable and enable youths to lead more productive lives. The following factors were found to lead to successful community change initiatives: a targeted mission, leadership, action planning, community organizers, technical assistance, documentation and feedback, and making outcomes matter. 6 references