YOUTH INTERVENTION NETWORK

Dialogue for Peaceful Change, Antioch, California

Community leaders in the City of Antioch recognized the need to strengthen the provision of services offered to at-risk youth and their families. To accomplish this goal, they formed the Youth Intervention Network (YIN). This collaborative’s novel approach utilizes Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC), which provides the foundation for the partners to deal with ‘normal’ inter-agency conflict. It is this conflict that commonly undermines successful collaborative efforts. Originally developed with Vesper Society funds, DPC’s methodology teaches the practical skills to enable leaders to help their communities address and resolve potentially intractable differences.

In 2008, 32 members from over 20 agencies completed the DPC five-day training. Additional sessions also provide DPC training to volunteers who serve as family advocates. Largely recruited from the faith community, volunteers are trained to offer mediation as part of “wrap around” community services.

Impressively, extensive research has been conducted on every student, ages 13 to 18, in the Antioch Unified School District. Truancy has been identified as the primary indicator for at-risk behavior in youth. YIN services will focus on youth ages 13 through 15, where studies have shown that intervention has a greater chance for success. By integrating DPC into the case management system, YIN is able to work with families to determine their primary conflict issues and come to an agreement on how best to address them.

To measure the impact of DPC’s contribution to YIN, Vesper Society has commissioned a three-phase evaluation. These results will inform future programming that addresses the needs of at-risk youth in other communities. For more information, contact .