19D - EPIC ANNUAL REPORT - Laserfiche WebLink

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identify agencies and resources that impact youth gang activities, as well as agencies and organizations that provide alternatives for youth in gangs or youth susceptible to joining gangs, particularly agencies and programs identified as best able to provide solutions to problems identified in the assessment as primary contributors to gang recruitment and gang violence. • Knowledge of Effective, Research-Driven Intervention Approaches: Regardless of what strategies are undertaken by communities to curb gang membership and crime, these strategies should be based in proven research. Many strategies in the past have had a "common sense" appeal, but upon further investigation have been shown to have little or no effect on gang membership and crime. A comprehensive assessment must provide a full range of applicable intervention strategies that have been tested and have been shown to be effective. Furthermore, the assessment itself will provide the City of Santa Ana with detailed data that describes each of the neighborhood's social characteristics. The assessment will go beyond the typical compilation of statistics by using demographic data as the infrastructure on which the interview, survey and ethnographic8 findings are grounded and elaborated. This "mixed-method" approach will result in a product that the City can use to assess unique neighborhood characteristics related to youth gang recruitment and gang violence, as well as to identify commonalities between neighborhoods. This data will be oriented towards the identification of social, economic and cultural characteristics within the neighborhoods the City can use for purposes of policy decisions, as well as for the application of outside funding from public and private institutions and organizations. Ultimately, the assessment will allow the Commission to recommend a strategic plan to the City Council that has short, medium and long-term goals and objectives to achieve systemic change in how the gang issue is viewed and addressed. The strategic plan will be a highly dynamic document that will change as conditions and resources change. The strategic plan will be reviewed and modified on a yearly basis to account for changes in key assumptions, partners, resources and community conditions. The strategic plan will become the road map for systemic and sustainable change and is a key component of the Commission's efforts. s Ethnography as a method seeks to answer central anthropological questions concerning the ways of life of living human beings. Ethnographic questions generally concern the link between culture and behavior and/or how cultural processes develop over time. EPIC Progress Report to City Council - 2008 Page 15 19D-16