NCJ Number
208797
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 2005 Pages: 43-52
Date Published
2005
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the planning and implementation of a city's (Indiana, PA) "Communities That Care" (CTC) project, which aims to prevent a number of juvenile problem behaviors.
Abstract
The CTC strategy targets risk factors and enhances protective factors in order to prevent delinquent behaviors, violence, substance abuse, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy. Indiana, PA, is one of approximately 125 communities in the State that has chosen to use the CTC approach. In February 1999, the Indiana Area CTC received a $15,000 planning grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) to support an assessment of community readiness to install the system, to introduce and involve stakeholder and other community members in the CTC process, and to collect and analyze community-level data. Planning funds were subsequently used for monthly key leader luncheons and semiannual community dinner meetings, advertising in various formats, computer equipment, and hiring a part-time CTC coordinator and community mobilizer. During 1999, the key leader team completed a series of training sessions sponsored by PCCD, and community-level risk-factor data and information on children and youth services and programs in the community were collected and analyzed. Five priority risk factors were identified as being most prevalent in the community: availability of drugs and alcohol, extreme economic deprivation, parents favoring and involved in problem behaviors, alienation and rebelliousness, and early initiation of problem behaviors. Based on this assessment, the CTC was structured around the following key areas of a prevention plan: training for expectant parents and those with young children, parental networking, resource-mapping, and publications and community events. This review concludes that because CTC is inclusive, based on theory and research, and community-specific, it has the potential to overcome many of the implementation problems that have plagued most community-based prevention efforts in the past. 23 references