It really does take a village to raise a happy, healthy child. That’s the message coming from leaders in local business, government, and law enforcement who attended a private conference Feb. 9 through 11 to discuss youth violence in the Santa Maria Valley area.
“We want to share the message that you can’t solve this problem by throwing money at it,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told the Sun after the three-day conference. “It’s important to realize that this isn’t a government problem; it’s not a law enforcement problem; it’s not a police problem. It’s a community problem that is going to take working closely with kids and creating role models for them.”
Approximately 100 people, including government and law enforcement officials, members of the nonprofit and business sectors, and young adults, met at the Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center to create an action plan to address violence in the community.
And while the conference comes after a noticeable upswing in gang-related crime, Brown said it’s important people “realize that this is not a new phenomenon. It’s existed for a long time. It’s just getting to the point that it’s dominating the news and people are concerned about it.”
The plan specifics are still developing, but city officials said leaders from all different parts of the community have committed to taking steps to help at-risk youth. Some of these steps include creating more job opportunities for young people and their families, providing more parenting resources and support to underprivileged communities, reaching out to the media, and improving public safety.
“It’s about making [young people] believe this is a community that cares about them,” said Santa Maria City Council member Hilda Zacarias.
City Councilman Mike Cordero added that the conference served as an important first step in the process because it allowed community leaders and local youth to have an open dialogue about gangs, crime, and other issues.
“It was heartwarming to see young people come up and interact with us and allow us to interact with them to come up with solutions,” he said. “[The conference] was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in 40 years of working in public service.”
Both officials said everyone was very mindful of the current state of the economy while brainstorming ideas at the conference. Rather than spending large sums of money, they said, the action plan will focus on using existing framework and low-budget solutions to address current violence—and prevent it in the future.
People who are interested in contributing
to the effort to end youth violence in the
community can contact supervisorial aide Donna Westphal at 346-8400 or dwestphal@countyofsb.org for more information.
This article appears in Feb 18-25, 2010.