High school kids share ideas on fighting youth violence.

Mark Brown, of the Chicago Sun Times wrote a column today titled: Battle-hardened vets see it all from front lines: High school kids share ideas on fighting youth violence

He was referring to a study compiled by youth members of Mikva Challenge's Education, Teen Health, and Youth Safety Council. Here's the link to the Mikva Challege page, and to the http://www.mikvachallenge.org/site/files/719/82298/299741/411688/Mikva_Youth_Violence_Survey_2009.pdf

In another email today I was pointed to a CIM, which is a web based Community Issues Management System, intended to facilitate community collaboration and problem solving. This presentation shows the power of such a system.

If the kids are saying they need more role models, and family support, and ways to combat peer pressure and gangs, the community collaboration should be identifying what neighborhoods have places which offer such support, and what strategies would help create additional places where no support is now available.

Furthermore, a CIM would be building commitment to the funding and other resources needed in all of these places to reach kids as early as elementary school (one of the recommendations) and stay connected to these kids all the way through high school.

Be nice to have such a system in Chicago. The resources provided by the Tutor/Mentor Connection could be useful to such a collaboration.