OJJDP Senior Policy Advisor Georgina McDowell (GM): So this year’s National Summit on Preventing Youth Violence was great, I think we can all agree on that! It was our fifth summit and it has grown exponentially over the years—both in attendance and participant diversity, just to name a few areas. So now that we're on the cusp of changing Administrations, where do you see this work going and what do you think makes it so special?

OJJDP Administrator Robert L. Listenbee (RLL): It was really extraordinary in this instance. We had over 700 participants from throughout the nation and also throughout Central and South America. We had international representatives, in large numbers, there to learn about the practices that we have and to share with us some of the ideas and practices that they've implemented in their countries.

It was also an outstanding event because we focused on understanding that violence can be prevented. I think that the summit has laid the ground work for communities across the nation to continue their work in youth violence prevention. I'm confident that they will be successful in sustaining and maintaining it as they go forward through the next Administration. And, also, through a lot of support that's coming from the communities where we've been working for the last several years.

GM: I agree with you. Especially because, as you may remember, we had a large number of young people that were in attendance and that were really leaders and provided their voices at the summit. So I think that perhaps with their energy they're going to be able to help sustain these efforts in their communities.

Did you find anything different from say this summit, where there was such extreme participation from the youth community compared to maybe other summits that you've attended?

RLL: I think that the young people went away with an understanding that they are directly connected with the leaders that are shaping the direction of our nation and that they are part of that leadership.

And so we have a lot to be confident about; that they're going to pick up the mantle and move forward as we go into the next Administration.

GM: So Bob, we're working on a number of exciting initiatives under your leadership, so I want to thank you for that.

And as you know, one of the things we're most excited about is the fact that we're on the verge of launching the Defending Childhood national public awareness campaign entitled, "Changing Minds." Now, we've invested a lot of resources and effort into this campaign. Why is it so important? And what do you hope to get out of it?

RLL: We know from all the research that we have, that exposure to violence by children who are victims, who are witnesses, and who are offenders can derail their normal adolescent development. If that happens, we need to figure out how to help those children with trauma-informed care and with other kinds of activities to help them get back on track.

What we know is that the national campaign is proving insights about the brain science—and by that I mean adolescent development and neural sciences and what actually happens.

So what we have here is we have the public awareness campaign, which is going to have many facets. We anticipate also that when the campaign is fully launched that there will be a website that will have all of these tools readily available along with instructions and along with a lot of other presentations that we're going to do to help the public better understand what's going on. So I'm really excited and I'm looking forward to this and I can hardly wait.

GM: So Bob, you have a lot of responsibilities as Administrator of OJJDP, and they often cause you to travel across our nation. And recently, you actually gave the keynote remarks at the 2016 Tribal Child Protection Symposium. Can you explain why the agency's work in this area is so significant, especially now?

RLL: Sure, Georgina. It was really a pleasure and an honor to get the chance to go out into Arizona to meet with tribal leaders and law enforcement executives and leaders from across the tribal nations.

We were there to talk about how to extend the reach of the AMBER Alert system to tribal nations. We recognize that it's important that they have the benefit of this latest technology that's been developed, so that we can protect children and youth on the reservations who are being exposed to different kinds of exploitation.

So we're very excited about it. We had great meetings and great opportunities to discuss the challenges involved with that process. And the tribal leaders were really excited about the opportunity.

GM: Well, there are a lot of resources and materials that are out there and I'd really encourage everybody, as I'm sure you do too, to visit our website at ojjdp.gov.

Thank you.