Step 3: Featured Resources

• CrimeSolutions.gov, a resource developed by the Office of Justice Programs, uses rigorous research to determine what works in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services. The website includes research on program effectiveness and a rating system (effective, promising, no effects) based on the evidence that indicates whether a program achieves its goals.
• Other Evidence-based Program Libraries. This page at the CrimeSolutions.gov website links to 10 additional Federal and non-Federal libraries on evidence-based programs.
• Improving the Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice Programs: A New Perspective on Evidence-Based Practice. This paper is a product of the Juvenile Justice System Improvement Project (JJSIP) of the Center for Justice Reform, Georgetown University. The JJSIP is designed to help states improve outcomes for juvenile offenders by better translating knowledge on “what works” into everyday practice and policy. It takes the vast knowledge gained through Dr. Mark Lipsey’s meta-analysis of effective juvenile justice programs and embeds it within OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Defenders as developed by Dr. James C. Howell and John Wilson.
• NREPP. This is the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• The Community Guide: What Works to Promote Health. This resource for identifying evidence-based programs is provided by the Centers for Disease Control.
• Blueprints for Violence Prevention. The Blueprints mission is to identify outstanding violence and drug prevention programs that meet a high scientific standard of effectiveness. Blueprints is a project of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado.

• STRYVE, Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere, is a national initiative, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which takes a public health approach to preventing youth violence before it starts. STRYVE provides current research and tools, training and technical assistance, online community workspaces, and information about effective strategies.
• Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center. This resource is funded by a contract by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS) within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to the American Institutes for Research. The Center’s mission is to improve schools’ conditions for learning through measurement and program implementation, so that all students have opportunities for academic success in safe and supportive environments. The Center’s goal is to assist in creating safe and respectful school environments and to disseminate the latest research findings about school climate’s role in improving academic success for all students. For more information, visit the Center’s web site or contact SSSTA@air.org
• Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS) Center for School Preparedness provides support, resources, grants, and training to support emergency management efforts for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education. Many tragic events have made school and university administrators and emergency management officials across the country recognize that school emergency plans must be revised to include a wide variety of threats, including violent incidents on campuses. A strong emergency plan addresses the four phases of emergency management, defines key issues and vulnerabilities, capitalizes on existing resources, and describes the roles and responsibilities of school officials as they integrate with community agencies.
• U.S. Department of Education/U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative (SSI) Training. This training session presents the findings from the U.S. Department of Education/U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative (SSI), a study that focused on the thinking, planning, and other behaviors engaged in by K‐12 students who carried out attacks on schools. The session includes:
  • Strategies for educators, law enforcement officials, and others to identify, intervene and prevent targeted acts of violence
  • Information on the threat assessment process ad how to identify students who may pose a risk of targeted violence
  • Suggestions for incorporating the threat assessment process into strategies designed to prevent violence on schools and campuses.

The training is available on a limited basis, via request, to school districts and institutions of higher education. Requests are reviewed and coordinated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center. Details and an application to request training are accessible here: http://rems.ed.gov/

• StopBullying.gov. This resource provides information from various government agencies on how children, youth, educators, parents, and other community members can prevent or stop bullying. The website is managed by the Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with the Departments of Education and Justice.
• OJJDP Mentoring Resources. This website links to more than 15 resources that communities can use in developing or expanding youth mentoring programs.
• “Using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Problem Solving" This is one of more than 80 tools and guides available from the COPS Office-supported Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. POP-Center guides on youth-specific issues address bullying, placement of police officers in schools, vandalism, and other topics.
• UNITY Urban Agenda and its summary, the UNITY Policy Platform delineate organizational practices and policies that are effective along a prevention continuum (strategies everyone needs to be safe; strategies that reduce the impact of risk factors; and strategies to prevent the reoccurrence of violence).

• Center for Problem-Oriented Policing. Supported by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing (POP) advances the concept and practice of problem-oriented policing by making readily accessible information about ways in which police can more effectively address specific crime and disorder problems. Problem-solving approaches encourage police to identify the underlying contributors to a problem, often in partnership with community members and organizations, rather than respond only to individually reported incidents of crime.

The POP Center’s website can be searched for specific problem types. POP Center publications related to youth violence and gangs include the following:

• “Assigning Police Officers to Schools”
• “Benefits and Consequences of Police Crackdowns”
• “Bomb Threats in Schools “
• “Dealing With Crime and Disorder in Urban Parks “
• “Disorderly Youth in Public Places “
• “Drive-By Shootings “
• “Gun Violence Among Serious Young Offenders”
• “Using Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design in Problem Solving"
• “School Vandalism & Break-ins”
• “Student Party Riots”

• Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model. This resource describes the research behind the Comprehensive Gang model, summarizes best practices, and presents findings from evaluations of several programs that successfully implemented the model in a variety of different environments.
• Preventing Gang Violence and Building Communities Where Young People Thrive: A Toolkit for Municipal Leaders. This publication draws on the experiences of 13 cities that belong to the California Cities Gang Prevention Network (including the Forum communities of Salinas and San Jose). City examples specific to partnership building are in Part 2: Strategic Partnerships, and are grouped by criminal justice, city-county, school, faith community, and neighborhood partnerships.
• National Gang Center. The National Gang Center features the latest research about gangs; descriptions of evidence-based, anti-gang programs; and links to tools, databases, and other resources.
• California Cities Gang Prevention Network . The CCGPN focuses on identifying and publicizing successful policies and practices that interweave prevention, intervention, and enforcement.
• Project Safe Neighborhoods. PSN is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun and gang crime by networking existing local programs that address those crimes and providing additional tools needed to be successful.

• Prisoner Reentry Toolkit for Faith-Based and Community Organizations . This toolkit from the Department of Labor, Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, features innovative practices, job descriptions, and documents from the Ready4Work Prisoner Reentry Demonstration.
• Reentry Partnerships: A Guide for States and Faith-Based and Community Organizations. This guide was developed by the Council of State Governments Justice Center with funding support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, and the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives of the Department of Labor.

• OJJDP Performance Measures: Logic Models. This OJJDP resource illustrates and explains how a project’s performance measures relate to specific problems, goals, and objectives.
• Targeted Community Action Planning Toolkit (OJJDP). This resource provides details on how to create a comprehensive plan, including development of a vision, goals, measurable objectives, and activities.
• Justice Research and Statistics Association. JRSA is a national nonprofit organization of state Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) directors, researchers, and practitioners working in government, academia, and criminal justice organizations. In addition to conducting and publishing research on criminal justice issues, JRSA’s training and technical assistance activities have include free webinars for OJJDP to help practitioners create useful logic models and ensure that objectives and activities are measurable (see JRSA website for upcoming webinars).
• Forum on Youth Violence Prevention Logic Model. This is the logic model created and used by the Forum, presented both visually and in a text-only format.