14 DAY TRIAL // Using street outreach workers is a paying strategy for reaching young people and preventing violence, a new study carried out by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy says.
Interviews with the managers, street workers, and representatives from local community groups of the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) in Lowell, Massachusetts, a city of 105,167 residents north of Boston, have revealed the five factors that contribute to the program's success.
After analyzing all data, the authors found that the involvement of youth in hiring street outreach workers, the investment in quality training for the street outreach workers, providing street outreach workers with a comprehensive benefits package and team retreats to prevent staff turnover and burnout, as well as the establishment of community partnerships and the incorporation of peacemaking into outreach, were the elements that made the UTEC program effective.
Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, MPH, assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management and the paper's lead author, said that “These features should be considered both by communities with existing street outreach worker programs and by communities in the process of establishing one, as they have demonstrated importance for both program success and sustainability.”
A street outreach worker can be any member of a community that intervenes to prevent conflict and payback and sometimes connects individuals with specific services, like job training or housing.
Many cities in the US use street outreach workers within their violence prevention programs, like CeaseFire in Chicago and Safe Streets in Baltimore, but this is the first published peer-reviewed study on a program.
The analysis of the program's success was made on a small community, as the town of Lowell, Massachusetts has only 105,176 residents.
What is typical to this program is its peacemaking process, that reduced conflict among gangs and that includes conflict mediation between gang leaders, participating at peace summits, convening peace circles and organizing peace councils.
Keshia Pollack, PhD, MPH, assistant professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management and co-author of the paper, said that “As communities around the country continue to struggle with how to address youth violence, it's important to recognize that young people need resources in addition to strategies that help them to negotiate conflict.”
The UTEC program also provides resources for creating serious alternatives to violence, such as skills development, education advancement and securing employment, according to e! Science News.
“Coupling support with essential services is a key to helping youth make healthy and safe transitions to adulthood,” adds Pollack.
The results of this study are published in the Fall 2010 issue of Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action.