Western Justice Center Foundation's School Peacebuilders Program and Community Outreach Program

The OJJDP FY 09 Earmarks Programs further the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Explanatory Statement Regarding H.R. 1105 (Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009), 155 Cong. Rec. H1653 (daily ed. Feb. 23, 2009) (statement by Rep. Obey, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House.

A recent rise in racial incidents, brutal attacks, murders, and officer-involved shootings have created community-wide tensions which have found their way onto campuses of the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD). In dialogues conducted in the past year, students cited fighting, bullying, and race-related incidents as significant problems they face. To combat these problems, the Western Justice Center Foundation (WJCF) has designed the School Peacebuilders Program, a conflict resolution training and peer mediation program for schools. The Peacebuilders Program educates students, parents, staff, and teachers in the fundamentals of conflict resolution, provides training to develop peer mediators, and teaches students to become effective facilitators for large scale dialogues. WJCF also advises the schools in implementing an effective peer mediation referral system on their campus. On the community level, WJCF's Community Outreach Program will provide trainings in conflict resolution, anger management, and life skills to juveniles through partnerships with various community based organizations. To measure outcomes WJCF will utilize evaluative data including numbers of individuals trained, trainings conducted, program materials developed, disciplinary actions and attendance. Pre- and post-program surveys and self-reporting methods shall be utilized to evaluate qualitative measures such as changes in attitudes toward others and practice of skills. NCA/NCF