Promoting Positive Youth Development and Reducing Gang Violence in Oxnard, CA – A Community Planning Effort to Affect Structural Change

The Community Action Partnership (CAP) in Oxnard, CA undertook a community planning process to promote positive youth development and reduce gang violence with the overarching vision of improving community health. The collaborative, interdisciplinary effort brought together representatives from diverse sectors, ranging from elected officials and law enforcement to public health, faith-based organizations and community and grassroots groups.

The city had made important strides in reducing gang membership and gang-related homicides before the planning process began through increased cooperation among the public and private sectors and focusing resources on enforcement approaches. Yet gang violence still presented a serious community and public safety issue in Oxnard. The planning process was initiated to increase community voice and ensure greater balance between enforcement/suppression and prevention and intervention strategies.

Planning methodology included outside facilitation by Prevention Institute, key informant interviews, youth focus groups, and consensus-based decision-making to select objectives, indicators, and activities. The resulting framework includes policy recommendations to inform a coordinated, collaborative effort across sectors that spans prevention, intervention, and enforcement/suppression. Strategies include recommendations to support youth and families and to strengthen neighborhoods. In addition, the plan addresses developing a supportive infrastructure, including resource development, coordinating across systems, data evaluation, and clarifying roles of stakeholders in implementation, including the ongoing role of CAP to serve in a coordinating and policy-making capacity.

This session will present an overview of planning methodology as well as the core elements of the final blueprint, including strategies across the continuum, shared indicators for success, and structural and systematic change.