Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113637

Arianne M. Spaccarelli, AB, Catherine Fine, MPH, and Peter Beilenson, MD, MPH. Administration, Baltimore City Health Department, 210 Guilford Avenue, 3rd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202, 410-396-8023, Arianne.Spaccarelli@baltimorecity.gov

Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) uses local data on youth violence, evidence-based practices, and timely performance data to implement and manage Operation Safe Kids (OSK), a community-based intervention for high-risk juvenile offenders that has successfully decreased participants' average rate of rearrest by 43%

Juvenile violence is one of Baltimore City's most serious public health challenges. In 1999, Baltimore's teens suffered violent deaths at a rate of 159 per 100,000, more than twice the statewide rate. In 2002, analysis of juvenile homicide and shooting victims identified a multiple arrests starting at age 12 and involvement in the drug trade as the most common risk factors. BCHD selected the “Boston Strategy”, which dramatically reduced Boston's juvenile homicides by providing coordinated services to high-risk offenders, as a model program for this population. OSK partners BCHD, the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), police, schools, and others to provide comprehensive case management and increased supervision to juvenile offenders who match the profile of juvenile victims of violence.

In two years of operation, OSK has successfully reduced arrests and increased involvement in education, employment, and mental health treatment through (1) collaboration to ensure that services are delivered efficiently; and (2) weekly KidStat meetings with high-level representatives from each partner agency to review timely data on program performance. KidStat capitalizes on each partner's expertise to implement evidence-based solutions to problems before they become barriers to success.

OSK offers a promising model for preventing juvenile victimization using evidence-based planning, collaborative service delivery, and data-based continuous quality improvement.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify risk factors for juvenile victimization in Baltimore City.
• Describe the services provided by Operation Safe Kids.
• Recognize the importance of conducting a baseline assessment of youth violence prior to selecting a model to implement.
• Articulate the benefits of collaboration between law enforcement and service agencies in programs addressing youth violence.
• Apply the KidStat model to ensure data-based accountability, effective service delivery and continuous quality improvement.

Keywords: Youth Violence, Urban Health

Related Web page: www.baltimorecity.gov/government/health/OSK/index.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.