By Melissa Grothus
April 2, 2007

Over 100 mayors, school superintendents, police chiefs, workforce development professionals and human services officials gathered in Miami March 22-23, for a Mayors Summit on At-Risk Youth, presided over by Conference of Mayors President Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer.

Hosted by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the meeting featured keynote addresses by Russlynn Ali, Founding Director of the Education-Trust West; Scott Decker, Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University; and Paul Harrington, Associate Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

The summit focused on positive alternatives to promote high school retention, increase graduation rates, and improve job readiness; as well as successful efforts to proactively prevent gang development and combat gang violence in cities.

The Summit was sponsored by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Mayors’ Institute for Community Policing, which is supported by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the U.S. Department of Justice.

“As you well know, the high school dropout rate in some cities is as high as 50 percent, and the youth unemployment rate in our cities is at its highest level in decades,” Palmer said in his opening remarks. “This is a tall challenge to surmount as a nation, but we must do it. And what we know, above all else, is that education matters and must be our primary focus to address this problem,” he added.

“Demography is destiny in educational outcomes today,” declared Russlynn Ali in her keynote address to summit participants. In her presentation, Ali provided a staggering synopsis of the status of urban education across the country. “The gap between African-American and white students has grown over the last several decades. Closing the achievement gap is the most important civil rights issue of our time,” said Ali. She concluded by encouraging increased mayoral involvement in local education. “Your leadership is critical to the success of closing the achievement gap among urban students,” she told the mayors.

Next was a series of panels devoted to increasing high school retention and preventing school-based violence. The first panel, Successful High School Dropout Prevention Strategies, included Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy; Michael Duggan, Executive Director of DOMUS Foundation; Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy; and Miami-Dade County School Superintendent Rudolph F. "Rudy" Crew. Each panelist laid out his respective city’s efforts to improve graduation rates and re-engage students to successfully earn a high school diploma. Malloy and Duggan spoke about the successful collaboration between DOMUS Foundation and Stamford to create the Stamford Academy Charter School. The school serves as a model of community collaborations that work and addresses “the needs of the whole child.” According to Malloy, “Students learn to love and trust again after years of believing they aren’t worthy of either.”

Albert Pearsall III, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the U.S. Department of Justice, moderated a panel focused on combating school-based violence and gang activity. “Mayors are the catalysts for positive change. It takes a village to raise a child and addressing the issues of school-based violence and gangs will require the collaborative partnerships of many disciplines and agencies,” Pearsall explained in his opening remarks. Panel members included Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi; Frank Ledee, Division Chief of the Miami Gang Unit; Jose Arrojo, Chief Assistant in charge of Miami Special Projects; Brian Williams, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education; and Tawana Waugh, Senior Public Liaison Specialist, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), U.S. Department of Justice. This panel offered the unique perspective from both federal and local officials on tackling the problems of school-based violence and gangs in our schools. “These are real people, not statistics. On every level of government we need to realize this. Comprehensive safety is school safety,” said Williams.

“What we do the most [suppression] we think works the least and what we do the least [prevention] we think works the best,” explained Scott Decker, Ph.D., Arizona State University, during his luncheon keynote address. Decker, a nationally renowned expert on gang activity, lectured on the importance of mayoral involvement and leadership in combating the issue of gangs in cities. “The best way to stop a bullet is a job! Education and training are the key investments to prevent a growing gang problem, and yet we spend the least amount of money in these areas,” Decker told the group.

“We keep repeating our past failures,” Decker continued. “We save ten dollars in intervention money for every one dollar spent in prevention knowing this is not the best use of our limited resources.”

According to Decker, mayors have a responsibility outside of partisanship to do what is best for their communities. Collaboration among all stakeholders and a commitment to addressing the needs of at-risk youth must be a priority. “If we don’t understand our problem we aren’t going to develop effective interventions and solutions to alleviate it.”

Palmer, along with his Superintendent of Schools Rodney Lofton, and Providence Mayor David Cicilline and his Superintendent of Schools Dr. Donnie Evans, then discussed the importance of after-School programming to ensure school retention for at-risk populations. Palmer and Lofton discussed their nationally recognized Social Celebrations, Opportunities, Organizations, and People (SCOOP) initiative that provides dozens of free after-School and Saturday enrichment activities for youth at risk of school failure and gang involvement. “Youth who had previously never ventured beyond their neighborhoods are now registered in SCOOP for leadership, mentoring, music, dance and many other enrichment and recreational activities that are available weekday evenings and on Saturdays,” said Palmer. “Free and guaranteed transportation is the one of the key elements of our success,” Lofton said. “You have to get these kids safely to and from the activities.”

Cicilline and Evans then outlined the Providence After-School Alliance (PASA) program, an initiative built to increase and expand quality after-School programming, strengthen the capacity of after-School providers and leverage resources to create better programs for the city’s youth. “People recognize that our social and educational responsibility to young people doesn’t begin and end with the school day,” Cicilline said.

To conclude the first day’s session, the mayors discussed strategies to better link education and workforce and ways to increase community support of education. Marty Bell, Deputy Superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville Metro Region, and Michael Gritton, Executive Director of KentuckianaWorks, outlined the Louisville model to successfully convert diplomas to dollars. To align workforce development with Louisville’s education agenda, the city created a One'stop Workforce Development Center in a downtown community college building. According to Gritton, “It’s the first of its kind. It provides education and workforce development services, including GED classes, college access and financial aid counseling, job placement, and career exploration opportunities all in a One-stop shop.”

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback and his Director of Economic Development Mike Christenson shared their Power of You initiative that provides two years of college tuition free for qualifying Minneapolis graduates. “If you go to school and work hard, we will help you get the necessary funds to go to college,” explained Ryback.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Barry Colicelli, Special Assistant for Anti-Gang Initiatives in Trenton, then closed the session with a focus on engaging parents and communities in student success. Mallory spoke of his mentoring and youth violence initiatives. “We partnered with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC) and Cincinnati Public Schools to identify city employees and match them with interested students to develop individual mentoring relationships. It's about building community support,” he explained.

The second day of the summit opened with a presentation by Paul Harrington, Associate Director of the Center of Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, in which he outlined the employment crisis and increasing lack of educational attainment among urban at-risk youth.

“The American economy has become a much less forgiving place,” he said. “Back in 1968, if I had chosen to drop out of school, I could have found a job that was full-time and year round. The consequences of youths- action are much more severe today than back in 1968. With approximately a quarter of the kids not making it through high school, the social and economic consequences are insurmountable.”

“The fundamental goal of cities should be access to basic skills and employment,” Harrington continued. “With eighteen percent of our urban kids sitting idle – that is, not in school, not in work and not in the military – it's imperative for policy makers – mayors – to assure access to basic skills attainment and employment opportunities,” he concluded.

The session continued with a focus on out-of-School at-risk youth, with presentations by Miami Police Chief John Timoney and Sallie Glickman, CEO, Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, to outline successful youth offender reentry programs. Timoney stressed that, “While successful reintegration is an important short-term solution with 94 percent of criminal offenders coming back into our communities, a more long-term solution is early childhood intervention.”

Robert Sainz, Assistant General Manager Los Angeles Community Development Department; David Crippens, Chair, Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board Youth Council; Conny Doty, Director, Boston Office of Jobs and Community Services; and Robert Wells, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Sherwin Williams Company presented their efforts to engage out-of-School youth and return them to a positive educational environment and productive employment.

Wells shared the successful public-private partnership between Sherwin Williams and cities across the country to train people in economically disadvantaged areas for positions in the painting industry. “Since the first Home Work pilot program began in 2004, hundreds of students have learned painting skills and health issues like safety, mold awareness, and lead'safe practices,” he explained. “In San Francisco, for example, job placement has exceeded 65 percent.

“The first response is always suppression… but suppression will not address the issue. We need a multi-pronged approach to fight gang violence in our communities,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa explained in his luncheon keynote address to the mayors. “There is an interconnectedness between the dropout rate, gang size, poverty and lack of good jobs, and a holistic approach is necessary to address the many facets of this problem,” he continued. According to Villaraigosa, the first responsibility of mayors is public safety. Therefore investments in educational and workforce opportunities will, in turn, create a comprehensive safety strategy for the city. Villaraigosa also emphasized the importance of alternatives like after-School programs as key strategies for successful at-risk youth intervention.

The final presentation was a roundtable discussion by eight at-risk Miami students moderated by Miami-Dade County School Superintendent Dr. Crew. Crew posed a series of questions to the students asking how policymakers could best serve their needs. Reiterated throughout the session was the lack of support, both parental and community, that these young people face. “Nobody cares, why should I,” asked one participant who explained her final turning point came when one teacher “finally cared about her future.”

“As long as we stay motivated, we can accomplish anything,” said one panelist. “As long as we believe where we are going, no one can stop us.”

A former gang member on the panel who lost his brother to gang-related violence shared his personal experience to reinforce the importance of after-School programs. “I had a 1.7 GPA overall and now it’s almost a 3.5. For the last three grade periods, I have had a 4.0. And through debate, I was offered a scholarship to the University of Pittsburg. I believe it’s through bible study and debate and the Big Brothers program and mentoring, and football – it’s through these positive reinforcements that I am going to stay on track,” he explained. “To you mayors who don’t have this or similar after-School programs, I suggest you take this back to your cities because if it helps even one person like me, then it’s a success.”

In closing, Crew told the students, “While you have felt alone and unsupported much of your lives, there are people right here in this room who love you!”