City of Long Beach's Youth Violence Prevention Plan

Background

The development of Safe Long Beach was a collaborative effort involving youth, adults, community and faith-based organizations, the school district, law enforcement, and city and county government. Safe Long Beach is a permeable plan owned by all stakeholders and will be updated biannually to stay current with local trends. Safe Long Beach is a plan that examines existing evidence-based prevention strategies and practices. It assesses how the existing citywide resources, services, and programs are being utilized and recommends how to coordinate these services in an effective and efficient manner.

Vision

Long Beach residents live in safe families and communities, attend safe schools, and are contributing citizens connected to their community.

Risk & Protective Factors

Safe Long Beach proposes to build upon protective factors, defined as conditions or attributes in individuals, families, communities, or the larger society that, when present, mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities. At the same time, Safe Long Beach will work to reduce risk factors, defined as conditions or variables associated with a lower likelihood of positive outcomes and a higher likelihood of negative or socially undesirable outcomes.

Framework

Rooted in the framework of collective action, multi-sector collaboration includes resources, knowledge, and actions that are combined and focused to help achieve the shared goal of violence reduction and increased safety.

Early intervention is also a key aspect of the Safe Long Beach strategy. Early intervention and targeted resources can help strengthen families, improve educational attainment, and increase community involvement, which can have lasting positive effects in reducing acts of violence.

Theory of Change

Safe Long Beach is based on a theory of change to reduce violence with three pillars grounded in nationally recognized best and promising practices:

• Strengthen families
• Build positive youth development
• Support community leadership

SAFE Families Goals

• Increase access to violence prevention services
• Reduce family violence including child abuse, domestic violence, and elder abuse

SAFE Schools Goals

• Increase the high school graduation rate
• Increase safety in and around schools

SAFE Communities Goals

• Increase community resident safety
• Decrease the unemployment rate
• Reduce Part 1 crimes¹