DSG Organized Fifth National Summit on Preventing Youth Violence: A Hopeful Future: Sustaining Our Work to End Youth Violence

DSG organized the Fifth National Summit on Preventing Youth Violence: A Hopeful Future: Sustaining Our Work to End Youth Violence, an event co-branded with the White House’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, which took place June 27–29, 2016, in Baltimore, Md. This Summit drew 774 attendees from OJJDP’s three YVP initiatives; MBK grantees; grantees of Office for Victims of Crime, Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other federal violence prevention initiatives.

The federal partners for this event came from the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the U.S. Agency for International Development; TA providers; youths; business and philanthropic organizations; and 44 international representatives from Argentina, Barbados, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Republic of Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, St. Kitts, and Uruguay.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

DSG staff from the YVP TTA project participated in 10 Summit working group meetings with federal staff to assist in content and logistical planning for the national event. DSG also actively participated in every-other-week planning calls with OJJDP and World Bank staff to develop internationally focused workshops and plenaries at the year’s Summit. A key purpose of these meetings was determining which of the sites in the YVP network would be the best U.S. counterpart to the international voice. Additionally, this working group assisted in development of a “Fifth National Summit Fact Sheet” for distribution to senior World Bank staff, with information on the event’s theme, an overview of OJJDP’s three YVP initiatives and My Brother’s Keeper, anticipated federal agency attendees, and past notable attendees. This was used to advertise the Summit within the World Bank and to international attendees.

As a result of this focus on the international perspective, the Sub-Secretary of Security and Coexistence in Bogotá, Colombia, and an Opposition Spokesperson on National Security from Manchester, Jamaica, participated on a panel with the former OJJDP administrator and a World Bank senior development specialist, on “Preventing Youth Violence Across the Americas: Lessons Across Borders.” Also in a workshop titled “Youth Violence Prevention in Territories With Multiple Forms of Exclusion: Experiences From Latin America,” participants heard presentations on innovative experiences from Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia to prevent urban youth violence in socially excluded communities, and address multiple forms of exclusion that engage multiple sectors, community members, and youth.

RESOURCES:

National Youth Violence Prevention Update

CONTACT US ABOUT THIS PROJECT

For more information about the Youth Violence Prevention Project, contact DSG Project Manager Scottie Whiteley at 301.951.0056 or swhiteley@dsgonline.com