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### **Director's Corner: Supporting Our Nation’s Youth and Our Communities’ Safety**

 March 2020 | Volume 13 | Issue 3

As a parent and a law enforcement professional, I am very  interested in all issues related to the safety and well-being of our nation’s children.  And I am proud to say that since our founding in 1995, the COPS Office has been  dedicated to supporting programs designed not only to protect our young people  from harm, but to help them make the most of their potential

 For this reason, the COPS Office has supported numerous youth  programs of varying types, including sports camps, arts and theater workshops,  academic tutoring, fitness programs, and reading groups.  We also provide grant funding and other  resources for programs tailored to the interests of tribal youth and law  enforcement, such as the Indian  Youth Explorer’s Police Academy for the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho.

But as varied as such programs are, they all have the same  goals: to build relationships of mutual trust and understanding, and to help young  people resist negative peer pressure, take responsibility for their actions, build  moral resilience, and cope with the challenges they face. To get an idea of the  variety and scope of these activities, please see the article Police Youth Programs: Much More than Fun and Games in this issue of the Dispatch. . 

 In addition to supporting these programs, we offer 19 resources  focused on building positive relationships between young people and law  enforcement. Among them are the **Police-Youth  Dialogues Toolkit**, a hands-on guide to facilitating productive  communication, and 10 companion publications containing dialogue prompts,  facilitators’ worksheets, and similar materials.

 Other useful COPS Office resources include **Creative  Partnerships: Supporting Youth, Building Communities** and **Vital  Partners: Mayors and Police Chiefs Working Together for America's Children and  Youth**. Another resource, developed for Native law enforcement, is **Tribal  Youth Leadership**, a training guide for equipping American Indian youth  with the leadership skills necessary to address the public safety problems in  tribal communities.

We have heard from many sources that these programs have  been instrumental in changing young lives, and that quite a few have not only  gotten onto the right track, but stayed on it. We have also heard that the COPS  Office publications have been very helpful to law enforcement professionals in  their efforts to improve their relationships with local young people.

But  we know that there is still much more that can be done, and welcome all who  work with young people and have ideas for innovative programs to apply for COPS  Office grant funding. Our nation’s children and their communities need and  deserve this kind of support and encouragement.

 – Director Keith

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