November 18, 2005

INFORMATIONAL

TO:

Division Superintendents

FROM:

Jo Lynne DeMary

Superintendent of Public Instruction

SUBJECT:

Gang Prevention Education Workshops

The Department of Education has been awarded $146,997 from the Department of Criminal Justice Services to conduct gang prevention education workshops using the theoretical framework of the risk and protective factors. Research conducted by Dr. David Hawkins and Dr. Richard Catalano over the past 30 years has provided a proven framework for understanding demonstrated predictors of problem behaviors and positive youth outcomes. These predictors are known as risk and protective factors.

Research has identified 20 risk factors or conditions that increase the likelihood that youth will engage in adolescent problem behaviors. These include gang participation, alcohol and other drug use, delinquency, dropping out of school, teen pregnancy, and violence. The risk and protective factor framework developed by Hawkins and Catalano provides a conceptual foundation for building protective factors. This guiding framework pinpoints the critical elements and processes leading to positive youth development.

The Department of Education is working with the Governor’s Office on Substance Abuse Prevention (GOSAP) in planning 30 one-day workshops, focusing on the risk and protective factor framework, to be conducted for school personnel and community partners across the Commonwealth. A maximum of 50 participants will be allowed at each workshop, giving the opportunity to train approximately 1,500 school and community personnel in this valuable prevention framework.

The first workshops will be conducted in December 2005 in Virginia Beach. Others are scheduled through October 2006. Attached is a listing of the dates and locations for the workshops. Registration for the workshops is online at www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcss. The workshops are free and are targeted to school personnel, law enforcement officers, juvenile justice workers, social service personnel and other interested professionals.

For more information on the gang prevention initiative and workshops, please contact Myra Shook, safe and drug-free schools specialist, Virginia Department of Education, at 804.371.7586, Myra.Shook@doe.virginia.gov.

JLD/MS/erc

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/suptsmemos/2005/inf230a.pdf