In the fall of 1999 the White House (under the leadership of President Bill Clinton) created the Council on Youth Violence in response to the series of school shootings that took place the late 1990s, such as the 1997 shootings at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky; the 1998 shootings at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon; and the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The initial objective of the Council on Youth Violence was to coordinate federal youth violence prevention activities. In cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies, the Council on Youth Violence developed the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center.
The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center was created to serve as a clearinghouse of information about youth violence and youth violence prevention strategies, with its overall goal being to make quality information on violence prevention easily available to the public. In addition, the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center sought to provide technical assistance in the creation of youth violence prevention programs. As computers and information technology advanced, the Center established a user-friendly website (www.safeyouth.org) through which anyone may readily access a variety of information about youth violence, factors associated with youth violence (e.g., gang activity), and the prevention of youth violence.
The website of the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center contains numerous publications about a variety of forms of youth violence, such as bullying, dating violence, and school violence. In addition, it provides information about funding opportunities such as grant announcements and links to directories of funding sources. The website also offers a variety of information about youth violence prevention programs and links to other government websites such as those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice, which contain even more publications about effective youth violence prevention programs and strategies.
The numerous links currently available on the website of the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center reflect the most recent evolutionary change of the agency. In 2007, the Center altered its mission to include the facilitation of comprehensive community youth violence prevention programs. The agency’s new objectives are to provide an online forum that encourages collaboration among local government and community leaders who are trying to prevent youth violence and to provide such individuals with assistance in their efforts to develop and assess youth violence prevention programs and policies.
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References:
- Striving To Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE): http://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/apps/stryve/
- U.S. Department of Justice: http://www.justice.gov/