Implementing the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model in a School Setting: A Youth Violence Reduction Initiative by The School District of Philadelphia's Office of School Safety

The goal of this project is to reduce The City of Philadelphia’s youth gang-involved fatal and non-fatal gun violence in and around schools within The School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Relying on a planning grant from a local foundation, the SDP Office of School Safety (OSS) partnered with Temple University to adapt the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model for implementation in a public school setting. Funding will support the implementation of this project. Per the Comprehensive Gang Model framework, The SDP will collaborate with several key criminal justice and youth-serving agencies and youth-serving community-based organizations (CBOs) in Philadelphia. The primary partner for this project is a community partner with experience in operating an evidence-based violence prevention intervention: Philadelphia Ceasefire Cure Violence (CV). The intervention will take place in Bartram High School, a neighborhood public school in the Southwest Section of Philadelphia. The Project Manager, a SDP employee based full-time in the school, will lead the project and CV will provide crisis intervention violence interruption, de-escalation, and mediations alongside intensive case management services for youth identified as high risk for gang involvement or identified by the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) as vetted gang members. The intervention will include a Multidisciplinary, Multiagency Team approach comprised of a wide range of partners/stakeholders who will meet weekly. The implementation of the OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model in a school setting aims to reduce youth violence and victimization in both the school and surrounding community. Outcomes include reduction in fatal and nonfatal shootings of Bartram High School students, reduced fatal and non-fatal shootings in the community surrounding the school, and a reduction in gang-involvement among Bartram High School students. Program success also will be measured by program monitoring and assessing school serious incidents, attendance, and overall academic improvement data as youth engagement with the outreach teams.