March 21, 2002-Vol33n22: The Kensington Project

The Kensington Project
Social Work involved in program to reduce youth violence

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
Contributing Editor

More than 100 government, education and community leaders met on Friday to discuss the formation of a collaborative, community-based program aimed at reducing youth violence in one of the most distressed neighborhoods in Buffalo.

The conference, held in UB's Jacobs Executive Development Center, was organized by the Mayor's Task Force on Reducing School and Community Violence, co-chaired by Lawrence Shulman, dean of the School of Social Work, and Sharon West, executive director of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority.

Shulman and community stakeholders are working to develop The Kensington Project, a demonstration program aimed at reducing youth violence, increasing opportunities and strengthening community connections in the neighborhood surrounding Kensington High School and the Kenfield/Langfield Housing Development.

The Kensington Project will draw on the resources of various governmental and community agencies to turn around the neighborhood's problems with youth violence.

The project is based on a Boston program that used a comprehensive approach to prevent youth violence. The Boston Police/Public School Violence Reduction Program focused on discouraging young people from becoming involved in criminal activity, intervening in the lives of those who had initial trouble with authorities and taking tough, fair action against those who commit violent crimes.

The Boston program was so successful that between 1990-95, the number of juvenile homicides dropped 80 percent and between 1993-95, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate decreased 65 percent.

A delegation from Buffalo visited Boston last summer to learn more about the program. The group was so impressed that it invited representatives of the Boston program to speak at the March 15 conference.

The Kensington Project will utilize the resources of collaborating agencies that include the UB School of Social Work; Buffalo Public Schools; Buffalo Police Department and FBI; the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority; area health, human service and employment agencies, and community groups.

"This is an important pilot project demonstrating the potential impact of coordination and collaboration of existing resources from the criminal justice, school, social services and university in addressing school and community violence," said Shulman. "It is a strengths-based approach that believes we can mobilize what is right in our schools, communities and children, rather than just focusing on what is wrong."

Highlights of the project include:

Probation and parole officers working with Buffalo police, Buffalo Public Schools Security and the housing authority to help identify, monitor and take fair action against high-profile youth offenders. Kensington High School officials also will share information with the Buffalo Police.
Collaborating agencies working together to implement a strategy of balanced and "restorative justice." An idea rooted in Native communities, restorative justice is based on the premise that crime hurts not only its immediate victims, but also the broader community. Restorative justice requires offenders to take personal responsibility for their actions and to repair the harm they have done by performing community service and making direct restitution to victims.
Organization of a community-based mentor program for Kensington High School by Buffalo Employment and Training, which also will work with in-school and out-of-school neighborhood youth on developing employment skills and experience. Development of a summer employment program will be a crucial element of this project.
Members of the clergy working collaboratively with local social service and law-enforcement groups to reach out to at-risk youth and their families with counseling and other support services.
Provision of direct hot-line services to children and adults by Erie County Crisis Services, which also will establish a training program for youth and adults in order to develop a community capacity to respond to the stress related to violence in the schools, families and the community.
Increased gang "street workers"—volunteers who direct at-risk youth to appropriate services.
Drug clinic services in the area.

An important component of The Kensington Project will be the School of Social Work's VISA (Vision, Integrity, Structure and Accountability) Center, a city-wide assessment and intervention program serving students in grades 7-10 after they have been suspended from school for violent or other disruptive activities, as well as their families. While the center, located on the South Campus, has been closed due to state budget cuts, some of its resources have been transferred to serve the Kensington community through programs for "out-of-school" and "in-school" suspensions and for school "re-entry" programs for returning suspended students.