Violence: Where are we heading? What can we do? A public policy and health matter

Violence is escalating in the city of San Bernardino, in Southern CA affecting significant physical, emotional, social, and economic consequences. A regional advocacy group for violence prevention conferred a D grade to San Bernardino City for interventions with youth violence. Without government and policy support the violence problem continues to worsen. As part of the efforts to curve the problem a needs assessment was conduced in the area which is known to hold the city's worst crime rate. Ten key informant interviews, one confirmatory focus group, and ethnographic observations were performed. The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as the over-arching guide for data collection; and the data were coded and analyzed using the grounded theory approach. The emerging themes revealed a massive mistrust, enormous fear, lack of communication, and misunderstanding between the community and local law enforcement. Although all participants believed that their children were at elevated risk for joining gangs, most were unaware of the importance of after-school programs in preventing youth from gang participation and victimization, and the impact their own behavior/role modeling had on their children. These data helped to initiate a community welfare workshop for face-to-face interaction between community residents and the police for relationship and trust building. Additionally, a pilot program was developed promoting parental awareness and participation in violence prevention behaviors including getting their children involved in after-school programs, and family relationship and communication building. During and after implementation, the program was evaluated (process & impact) for program improvement and sustainability.