In 2007, the state of New Jersey announced the YouthBuild Innovation and Replication Initiative to combat rising concerns about youth crime. A major goal of the strategy is to establish a comprehensive approach to addressing crime, gang membership, and recidivism. YouthBuild has been recognized as an effective gang and crime prevention program. Its comprehensive, personalized approach to engaging out-of-school and jobless youth between the ages of 16 and 24 and providing them with education, employment, civic, and leadership skills affords the types of positive opportunities necessary to prevent disadvantaged youth from joining gangs and/or engaging in delinquent or criminal behavior. To this end, YouthBuild is a central part of New Jersey’s youth crime prevention strategy.
Project Details
The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety (NJDLPS) has committed $6.3 million in prevention-related funding to support the evidence-based YouthBuild program as its signature initiative to prevent violent crime and gang activity. The funding supports a three-year pilot initiative designed to foster the expansion and innovation of YouthBuild programs operating in New Jersey. Successful applicants can use these funds to establish new YouthBuild programs, expand current programs, and/or begin an innovative project designed to improve outcomes for program participants.
The overall goal of the statewide YouthBuild Initiative is to prevent violent crime and gang activity among youth through the development, expansion, and innovation of YouthBuild programs. IRCT has been contracted by the state of New Jersey to ensure that current and new YouthBuild programs, funded through the Office of the Attorney General, are operating efficiently and effectively and obtaining positive outcomes for youth. Moreover, IRCT’s role is to develop a measurement of success as defined by YouthBuild program managers. IRCT will then use the program assessments to craft best practices for YouthBuild programs and youth-serving programs in general.
Current Work
IRCT is currently working with seven New Jersey YouthBuild Programs (four existing and three new sites) toward several goals:
Improve the overall quality and increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for existing and new programs by providing targeted support in the development and implementation of innovative strategies and approaches.
Build sustainability among the network of YouthBuild programs through a variety of measures, including the facilitating and convening of a “community of practitioners” approach whereby program leaders meet regularly to share experiences and offer mutual peer-to-peer support to improve program outcomes and strengthen the statewide network.
Promote a more integrated and evidence-based approach to serving at-risk youth between the ages of 16 and 24 by developing informed guidance and best practices standards that build upon the YouthBuild model experience and seek to inform a broader network of interested policy makers and practitioners.
IRCT’s Present and Future Role
Provide organizational and technical assistance as funding recipients implement program expansion and innovation.
Create a network of practitioners and academics interested in evidence-based learning around issues of youth crime prevention and youth development in general.
Conduct an assessment of the YouthBuild Replication Initiative’s progress.
Project Team
Michael Simmons
Kimaada Sills
Katie Brennan
Nagla Bedir
Neha Patel
