Community assets as protective factors for preventing youth violence

This is a non-experimental study employing qualitative methods that explored perceptions of urban, minority, high school age teens in Nashville, TN regarding the role that community factors play in promoting youth safety. The study employed structured focus groups, mapping, and secondary data analyses to address study aims. The study was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, 105, 15-18 year old youth participated in structured focus groups to identify the types of community assets that youth think are important in promoting youth safety. Nine focus groups of 8-12 youth were conducted at targeted community agencies in Nashville. Youth were provided a $20 gift certificate for participating in the focus group as compensation for their time and effort. Youth were asked to identify assets in the community that they believe to be factors that promote personal safety in the community through structured questioning. The focus groups were administered in a private conference room at community based organizations. Focus groups lasted approximately 90-120 minutes, were conducted in English, and were taped, transcribed, and analyzed. Community assets were identified as safe places, caring adults, and job training and work opportunities. In the second phase, youth were engaged in community “walkarounds” to identify community assets, enter data into a GIS device so that they could be mapped, and data were imported into a community wide relational data base to spatially identify the relationship between youth crime and community assets.