The Multnomah County Local Public Safety Coordinating Council (LPSCC) adopted a comprehensive approach that balances and coordinates prevention (primary and secondary), intervention, suppression, and re-entry strategies and that pursues well-defined, long-term goals and outcomes. In support of this approach, the Youth Gang Violence Steering Committee’s (YGVSC) work is guided by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Comprehensive Gang Model.

In January 2014, the LPSCC Executive Committee decided to assess gang activity in Multnomah County. The assessment was based on the process outlined in Phase 1 of the Comprehensive Gang Model, which aligned with LPSCC’s mission. LPSCC chose the OJJDP model with the following objectives in mind:

• Define the problem of gang and youth violence in the community

• Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of prevention and services focused on gang impacted individuals

• Build increased cross-agency and community understanding and collaboration

• Position the jurisdiction for federal and state funding opportunities, some of which require that communities complete the OJJDP comprehensive gang model planning process

Following the assessment the YGVSC undertook Phase 2 - Implementation Planning. The Steering Committee determined that their shared purpose for this phase was to:

• Identify strategies that have a positive impact on gang-impacted youth, families, and communities

• Increase efficiency and effectiveness through shared effort

• Identify system barriers

• Align policies across jurisdictions

• Reduce the instances of violent crime committed by youth

• Prevent youth from penetrating further into the criminal justice system

• Address the deterioration of community cohesion due to displacement of communities of color

• Make space to incorporate, recognize, and value the expertise and solutions of young people and their families who are impacted by violence

The goals and objectives were developed to be consistent with the prioritized themes from the assessment that facilitated the development of primary prevention, secondary prevention, intervention, suppression, and re-entry activities.

Overall, 48 organizations came together to oversee the direction of the process, while nine organizations and four people with lived experience provided in-depth guidance. In the six strategies, over 100 organizations identified activities and considered barriers for the implementation of this plan.

The YGV Subcommittee leadership team is currently meeting to revisit the purpose and scope of the subcommittee. Leadership has decided to remove the word "gang" from the title and focus on all forms of youth violence.

Co-chair and Deputy District Attorney, Kirsten Snowden and new co-chair, Nike Greene from the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) have worked to review the mission and chart to outline the intersections of violence prevention and intervention strategies among the city and county.

While the larger subcommittee is working to be restructured and adapt to COVID-19, the six strategy workgroups remain steadily working toward the activities outlined by community members and community based organizations, focusing mostly on primary prevention and intervention efforts while maintaining collaborative relationships with multi-system stakeholders and community partners.

Youth lead organization, Raising Justice previously known as Youth Educating Police (YEP) heard the community and shifted their work to expand to juvenile justice and is working more closely with LPSCC to help re-center the conversations at the YGV table around youth issues, more critically, and with a broader set of youth participating to help create effective policy for the juvenile justice system. Stay tuned!