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National Forum on Youth Violence 

Prevention 

Strategic Plan 

April 2011 – April 2014
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Vision 

“A vibrant national network of federal and local stakeholders who, through the use 

of multi-disciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches and data-driven strategies, 

strengthen communities so that they may better prevent violence and promote the 

safety, health, and development of the nation’s youth.” 

 
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Goals 

• Elevate youth and gang violence as an issue of national significance. 

• Enhance the capacity of participating localities, as well as others across the 

country, to more effectively prevent youth and gang violence. 

• Sustain progress and systems change through engagement, alignment, and 

assessment. 
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Strategic Plan

Table of Contents 

I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

II. Creating A Vision............................................................................................................................ 5

III. Understanding The Problem .................................................................................................. 5

IV. Identifying Solutions ................................................................................................................... 6

Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships ................................................................................................ 6

Balanced Approaches ..................................................................................................................... 7

Data-Driven Strategies ................................................................................................................... 7

The Importance of Comprehensive Planning ...................................................................... 7

V. Setting Goals: Awareness, Capacity And Collaboration .......................................... 8

Elevate Youth and Gang Violence. ............................................................................................ 8

Enhance Prevention Capacity ..................................................................................................... 8

Promote Systems and Policy Change ...................................................................................... 9

VI. Progress To Date: October 2009 To Present ................................................................. 9

Initiative Development .................................................................................................................. 9

Listening Sessions ......................................................................................................................... 10

Forum Launch and First Working Session ......................................................................... 10

Local Plan Development ............................................................................................................. 10

Summit ............................................................................................................................................... 11

Site Visits ........................................................................................................................................... 11

Next Working Session ................................................................................................................. 12

VII. Future Progress Through April 2014 ............................................................................. 12

Implementation ............................................................................................................................. 12

Assessment....................................................................................................................................... 12

Outreach ............................................................................................................................................ 12

Expansion ......................................................................................................................................... 13

VIII. Administration ............................................................................................................................. 13

Steering Committee ...................................................................................................................... 13

Coordination Team ....................................................................................................................... 14

Working Groups ............................................................................................................................. 14

Local Consultation and Collaboration .................................................................................. 14

Public and Private Partnerships ............................................................................................. 14
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Strategic Plan

National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention 

Strategic Plan, April 2011 – April 2014

I. INTRODUCTION 

At the direction of President Obama, the National Forum on Youth Violence 

Prevention (the Forum) was established to build a national conversation concerning 

youth and gang violence that would increase awareness, drive action, and build local 

capacity to more effectively address youth violence through comprehensive 

planning. The Forum models a new kind of federal/local collaboration, encouraging 

its members to change the way 

they do business by sharing 

common challenges and promising 

strategies, and through 

coordinated action. 

The Forum convenes a diverse 

array of stakeholders at the 

federal, state, and local levels. 

Participating federal agencies 

include the Departments of Justice, 

Education, Health and Human 

Services (particularly the Office of 

the Assistant Secretary of Planning 

and Evaluation and the Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention), 

Housing and Urban Development, Labor and the Office of National Drug Control 

Policy. Participating localities include Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, 

and San Jose. Other participants include faith- and community-based organizations, 

youth and family groups, as well as business and philanthropic leaders. 

This Strategic Plan provides a conceptual framework for the Forum. Its scope is 

narrowly defined — the Plan is not intended to govern all activities that relate to 

youth violence, nor does it set out a comprehensive list of all activities governed by 

the Forum. Instead, it identifies the key principles and goals that will guide its 

future direction. More detailed information on federal strategies, objectives, and 

tasks is included in a separate document, the Forum’s Action Plan. Additional 

information on local activities can be found in the individual plans of each 

participating locality, on the Forum’s website at 

http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/topic_preventingViolence_communities.shtml.

Memphis listening session with kids in August 2011.
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Youth and gang violence are challenges of 

national importance. 

- Homicide is the second leading cause of 

death of young people, with an average of 

16 youth murdered every day (CDC, 2011). 

- The problem is especially severe among 

African American and Hispanic youth. For 

African Americans between the ages of 10 

and 24, homicide is the leading cause of 

death, resulting in more deaths than the 

next four leading causes of death combined. 

Homicide is the second leading cause of 

death for Hispanics between the ages of 10 

and 24, resulting in more deaths than the 

next four leading causes of deaths 

combined (CDC, 2011). 

- Rates of firearm homicide among 10-19 

year-olds exceed the all-age rates in 80% of 

the United States’ largest metropolitan 

areas (CDC, 2011). 

- Homicides among young people had a total 

combined medical and work loss cost of 

$7.7 billion in 2005, with nonfatal injuries 

due to physical assaults contributing 

another $6.4 billion (CDC, 2007). 

In order to be successful, Forum members at the federal, state, and local levels, both 

inside and outside government, will need to work together. If we remain committed 

to reaching across sectors, pushing outside comfort zones, and planning for longterm success, we will ensure a brighter, safer future for our nation’s children. 

II. CREATING A VISION 

The vision of the Forum is as follows: 

“A vibrant national network of federal and local stakeholders who, through the use 

of multi-disciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches and data-driven strategies, 

strengthen communities so that they may better prevent violence and promote the 

safety, health, and development of the nation’s youth.” 

III. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM 

Youth and gang violence are 

problems that affect communities—

urban, suburban, and rural—across 

the entire United States. Young 

people can be perpetrators, victims, 

or witnesses to violence. Some 

violent acts, such as bullying, can 

cause as much emotional harm as 

physical harm. Other acts, such as 

assault, with or without weapons, can 

lead to death or serious injury that 

may result in life-long impairment. 

Youth and gang violence are more 

than just public safety issues.

Beyond public safety, youth violence 

negatively affects our nation’s 

communities on multiple levels, 

including business viability and 

economic prosperity. Violence 

increases health care costs, 

decreases property values, disrupts 

social services, and perpetuates the 

cycle of poverty as education and 
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employment prospects decline. Both individuals and the community are affected: 

kids are afraid to go to school, residents avoid public activities, and businesses 

close. On the other hand, the benefits of preventing youth violence can be strong 

and long lasting. We can gain a generation of promise as thousands of youth reach 

their potential to become productive contributors to their families, communities, 

and the economy. 

IV. IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS: MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIPS, 

BALANCED APPROACHES, DATA-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS, 

COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING 

Youth and gang violence are not inevitable. Research and experience demonstrate 

that when communities engage in multi-disciplinary partnerships and implement 

balanced, data-driven approaches, youth and gang violence decreases while 

desirable youth outcomes improve. Information on data and evidence-driven 

programs and processes is available at http://www.crimesolutions.gov/.

Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships

Because youth and gang violence are tied to the quality of life and economic health 

of a community, localities are more likely to be successful when they implement 

violence prevention strategies through multi-disciplinary partnerships. Effectively 

addressing youth violence and crime requires coordination by diverse partners 

including law enforcement, education, labor, social services, public health, 

businesses, philanthropic organizations, and faith- and community-based 

organizations, along with parents and youth themselves. 

Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin meeting with 

Mayor Donahue of Salinas (left) and public health officials 

at the Summit 
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Balanced Approaches

Law enforcement agencies recognize that they alone cannot be responsible for 

solving our communities’ youth violence problems. Arresting our way out of these 

problems is neither possible nor cost effective, and is unlikely to garner widespread 

community support. The Forum promotes the development and implementation of 

locally tailored approaches that balance prevention, intervention, enforcement and 

reentry. These strategies should include prevention efforts spanning from early 

childhood into young adulthood, such as youth development, family support, school 

and community mentoring, and school-based and out-of-school recreational 

activities. Such strategies should also include “relational” intervention programs 

that engage with high-risk and gang-involved youth, as well as reentry programs 

that plan for returning youthful offenders prior to their release. Such strategies 

should coordinate closely with law enforcement efforts that focus on the most 

serious, violent, and chronic youthful offenders and crime “hot spots.” 

Data-Driven Strategies 

Addressing youth and gang violence in any community is a collective responsibility 

that requires collaborative effort. Collaboration can be enhanced by embracing 

principles of distributed intelligence, the idea that many perspectives are better 

than one, and by sharing structured data—from databases, case management 

systems, etc.—in a deliberate, effective, grounded, and ethical manner. Successful 

sharing of knowledge and data requires the sharing of information and data after a 

thorough assessment of local risk and protective factors. Thus, to be truly 

comprehensive, a community’s strategy for data sharing should strive to be 

inclusive of all stakeholder agencies and integrate a wide-range of data from a 

variety of sources including, but not limited to, law enforcement, education, public 

health, child protection/welfare, labor, and housing. 

The Importance of 

Comprehensive Planning

Without planning, there is no 

means of coordinating action 

among multiple stakeholders 

over time. Before joining the 

Forum, participating localities 

pledged to develop or enhance 

comprehensive, local plans to 

prevent youth and gang 

violence in their jurisdictions, 

Senior Advisor to President Obama Valerie Jarrett at the using the multi-disciplinary 

Summit on Preventing Youth Violence April 2010 
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partnerships, balanced approaches, and data-driven strategies described above. 

The Forum engages with communities during this process, helping them to 

strengthen local partnerships, improve coordination, and increase adherence to 

data driven practices, programs, and policies. The Forum also provides access to 

technical assistance from experts across multiple federal agencies and, perhaps 

even more importantly, connects communities with each other to share information 

about successful local models. 

Through its support of the principles above, the Forum helps communities increase 

their capacity to access and utilize resources to more effectively address local youth 

violence issues over the medium and long term. Youth and gang violence cannot 

always be addressed quickly; instead, the Forum’s comprehensive strategy lays the 

foundation for a sustainable approach by a community that, over time, can result in 

lower rates of youth and gang violence and higher rates of safety, health, and 

economic prosperity. For more information, see the Forum Logic Model, available 

on the Forum’s website at 

http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/topic_preventingViolence_logicModel.shtml. 

V. SETTING GOALS: AWARENESS, CAPACITY AND COLLABORATION

The Forum has the following overarching goals that serve as benchmarks of success: 

Elevate youth and gang violence as an issue of national significance.

From initial listening tours to subsequent summits, a key goal of the Forum has been 

to raise national awareness of the importance of addressing youth and gang 

violence, highlighting both its individual and societal impact. An ongoing activity of 

the Forum, whether though periodic summits, national listening tours, or targeted 

media outreach, will be to continue to elevate youth and gang violence as an area of 

national concern. 

Enhance the capacity of participating localities, as well as others across the 

country, to more effectively prevent youth and gang violence. 

Strategies initiated by the Forum, most notably the development and 

implementation of local comprehensive plans, will be embedded into the ongoing 

work of participating localities, changing how they do business and leading to a 

drop in youth violence and an increase in desirable outcomes for youth, families, 

and communities. By sharing information with non-participating localities, the 

Forum helps others learn about the Forum’s comprehensive approach and gives 

them access to youth violence prevention tools that will help them replicate the 

success of the Forum in their communities. 
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Sustain progress and systems change through engagement, alignment, and 

assessment.

From the beginning, the Forum has promoted a new model, based on increased 

communication and coordinated action, for addressing youth and gang violence. 

Such communication and coordination was necessary to develop the local 

comprehensive plans recently completed by participating localities and will be 

critical to ensuring their successful implementation. Interagency collaboration, 

which includes the braiding and blending of diverse funding sources, has been a 

hallmark of the effort at the federal level. Lastly, a diverse group of private sector 

funders is currently exploring ways they can help support the work of the Forum 

and its members through public/private partnerships. 

VI. PROGRESS TO DATE: OCTOBER 2009 TO PRESENT

Every day, stories of brutal violence perpetuated and experienced by youth capture 

the attention of our communities and serve as powerful reminders that more must 

be done to ensure the safety and health of our young people. The Forum was 

created by the Obama Administration in recognition of and response to this 

continued challenge and concern. 

Initiative Development

Planning for the Forum began 

in late 2009, with the 

Departments of Justice and 

Education leading the 

development of the initiative. 

In January and February 2010, 

a small number of cities—

Boston, Chicago, Detroit, 

Memphis, Salinas and San 

Jose—were invited by the 

Obama Administration to 

participate in the Forum on the 

basis of need, geographic 

diversity and willingness and 

capacity to engage with a federal interagency effort relating to youth and gang 

violence. Rural and tribal representation was also considered. 

Police Chief Ralph Godbee, Mayor Dave Bing, and Congressman 

John Conyers, Jr. speaking about Detroit’s comprehensive youth 

violence plan in September 2011 
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Listening Sessions

Beginning in May 2010, listening sessions took place in each of the selected localities 

so Forum participants could learn about the challenges they face in preventing youth 

and gang violence. Interagency federal teams heard the experiences of local leaders, 

stakeholders and youth, and engaged with them in a candid dialogue about the youth 

violence issues and strategies they employed. 

A broad array of local stakeholders participated in the sessions, including youth, 

senior government officials, local and federal law enforcement officers, educators, 

public health and social service providers, community and faith-based 

organizations, research partners, businesses, and foundations. 

Forum Launch and First Working Session 

As listening sessions continued, the Forum’s federal team began to plan an initial 

Working Session to be held in Washington, D.C. The session would be the official 

launching point for participating localities to begin development of their youth 

violence prevention plans, and would continue the candid federal/local dialogue 

begun with the listening sessions. 

Representatives from multiple federal agencies came together to discuss the 

progress to date, lessons learned from previous initiatives, and ways those lessons 

could be applied to improve the coordination and sustainability of efforts in the 

participating localities. Participating localities identified leaders to spearhead the 

development of comprehensive plans that would blend prevention, intervention, 

enforcement and reentry strategies. 

In October 2010, the first Forum Working Session was held in Washington, D.C. 

Over the course of two days, participating jurisdictions discussed current efforts to 

prevent youth violence and explored ways to improve them. Federal and local 

experts offered information on evidence-based and data-driven practices. 

Representatives from federal agencies partnered with localities to explore how 

existing federal resources could be identified and better coordinated in support of 

local efforts. 

Based on the information shared at the Working Session, participating localities 

began the work of developing or enhancing their youth violence prevention plans. 

Local Plan Development

While planning, participating localities engaged in peer-to-peer learning, developing 

their plans in collaboration with one other and with federal interagency teams who 

provided technical assistance as needed. Written guidance and monthly conference 
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calls helped to further sustain planning momentum. Prior to the submission of the 

localities’ final plans in March 2011, each locality received written and oral feedback 

on drafts from a panel of federal experts. 

Summit

In April 2011, the Forum hosted the 

Summit on Preventing Youth Violence 

in Washington, D.C. For two days, the 

local leadership, including mayors, 

presented the localities’ 

comprehensive plans. Private, state, 

and local funders discussed 

promising practices as well as 

opportunities for localities to secure 

additional funding for their efforts. 

Senior leadership from across the 

Administration participated, 

including Attorney General Eric 

Holder, Secretary of Education Arne 

Duncan, Surgeon General Dr. Regina 

Benjamin and Senior Advisor to the 

President Valerie Jarrett. Members of 

Congress also attended the summit 

and offered their support. Portions of 

the event were open to press in order 

to showcase the localities’ efforts, and 

each locality received favorable 

media coverage. 

Site Visits

Federal interagency teams conducted site visits in Boston, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas 

and San Jose from August 2011, through September 2011, to view the 

implementation of the localities’ comprehensive plans firsthand. The visits included 

meetings with a wide range of stakeholders including mayors, police chiefs, U.S. 

Attorneys, steering committees, faith- and community-based groups, law 

enforcement officers, youth, and business leaders. Each site visit included tours of 

the implementation target areas in each city. Technical assistance was provided 

and discussed in key policy areas and tailored to local needs. At the conclusion of 

each visit, the federal teams debriefed local leadership on the continued 

implementation of their comprehensive plans. 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaking at the 

Summit on Preventing Youth Violence in April 2011 
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Next Working Session 

On October 31, 2011, representatives from Forum localities returned to 

Washington, D.C., for another Working Session. Unlike the summit and the initial 

session that were focused on plan development, this meeting focuses on the 

progress each city is making and the challenges they face in implementing their 

comprehensive plans. In particular, this session brings together federal and local 

experts to discuss how Forum localities can continue to build the necessary 

multidisciplinary partnerships needed to move their plan forward. Additional 

topics include how to effectively implement evidence-based prevention, 

intervention, enforcement, and reentry approaches. Afterwards, Forum members 

will return to their communities to apply the lessons learned at this session to 

continue the exchange of information and sharing of ideas with their peers and 

fellow Forum members around best practices. 

VII. FUTURE PROGRESS THROUGH APRIL 2014 

Implementation

The Forum will continue to support its current local members as they implement 

their comprehensive plans. Forum Working Groups will develop and offer new 

tools to support local implementation, and federal members will continue to fund 

peer-to-peer learning, offer training and technical assistance, and coordinate federal 

resources in support of local plan implementation. 

Assessment

A multi-method assessment of the Forum is currently underway. A team led by 

Dr. Jeffrey Butts, Executive Director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John 

Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Dr. Caterina Roman, Assistant Professor of 

Criminal Justice at Temple University, will objectively measure the effectiveness of 

the Forum’s ability to improve local capacity to reduce and prevent youth and gang 

violence. Interim results are expected in March 2012. 

Outreach

The Forum is expanding its outreach efforts in order to meet its key strategic goals. 

While supporting the success of current local members is critical, the Forum must 

also engage and offer value to localities across the country. Through its Web page 

on the FindYouthInfo.gov website, the Forum will offer tools and resources to all 

communities seeking new approaches to reduce and prevent youth and gang 

violence. The Forum expects to attract and convene new members at the national 

level, particularly among the business and philanthropic communities. 
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Expansion

A number of new localities have expressed interest in joining the Forum. The 

President’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget includes a request of $6 million for the 

Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to 

expand the current local membership of the Forum from six to eighteen localities. 

VIII. ADMINISTRATION 

The Forum is not a program that disburses and monitors funds to grantees. It is 

not a conference, or a series of conferences, designed to bring together 

participants temporarily around a single issue. The Forum is a network, a 

community of loosely affiliated individuals and organizations with diverse 

backgrounds and expertise but whom share a common purpose and long-term 

goal: the prevention of youth and gang violence in the United States. The Forum’s 

administrative structure reflects its comprehensive approach and inclusive focus. 

The work of the Forum is driven by five institutions that, taken together, represent 

the membership of the network as a whole: 

1. A Forum Steering Committee (FSC), convened by the White House, meets 

quarterly to provide Administration leadership with the opportunity to 

review the progress and set strategic direction for the Forum as a whole. 

Figure 1 

Forum Steering 

Committee

Forum 

Localities

Forum 

Coordination 

Team

Working 

Groups

Public and 

Private 

Partnerships
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2. A Forum Coordination Team (FCT) meets on a monthly basis to coordinate 

the work of the Forum and implement the Action Plan. FCT members include 

every federal agency participating in the Forum. The FCT is led and 

supported by the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

3. Working Groups including both local and federal representation meet as 

needed in order to advance specific goals and strategies as set out in the 

Forum’s Action Plan. Current working groups advance activities to address a 

range of issues identified by the Forum localities as requiring special 

emphasis, including training and technical assistance; business, philanthropic 

and faith-based outreach, and youth and family engagement.

4. Ongoing consultation and collaboration with Forum localities is an 

essential component of the Forum. Through monthly conference calls with 

local leaders and the activities of dedicated Federal personnel serving as local 

site coordinators, federal members of the Forum are in regular contact with 

participating localities, offering them opportunities for feedback and input on 

the ongoing work and direction of the Forum. For instance, most if not all of 

the Forum’s Working Groups were established in response to needs voiced by 

its local members.

5. Outreach and engagement to establish public/private partnerships is 

another core component of the Forum. Working groups are already 

partnering with certain core constituencies, but the Forum is constantly 

search for new members and collaborators. 

“By linking cities and federal agencies to one another, the National 

Forum on Youth Violence Prevention is sending a powerful message... 

‘You are not alone. We are all in this together.’”

 – Senior Advisor to the President, Valerie Jarrett