The YGV Steering Committee identified coordinated entry into gang prevention and intervention services as the overarching goal of this effort; to that end, the Steering Committee identified the five most common themes to reduce gang activity in regard to improved coordinated entry by initiating activities such as developing screening tools, screening questions, soliciting community and provider input on draft screening questions. The City of Portland, Office of Violence Prevention began to embark on program changes by mapping out services and determining training to provider networks in affiliated systems of care on ad develop a model for screening and referral to services.

The OVP reflects priorities identified by City Council to build a more family-friendly city and increase public safety and reflects the emphasis on attacking the root causes of problems in neighborhoods, rather than simply focusing on policing efforts. OVP recent executive summary is a first step in developing Portland’s unified gun violence reduction strategy, and it has given us the practical knowledge necessary to put these directives into practice and begin to reduce the chances of Portlanders and their family members from bearing the trauma of gun violence and reducing the costs of gun violence in our community. Their work is also guided by their partnership with the California Partnership for Safe Communities problem analysis released in 2019. Effective coordinated entry can be guided by the gun violence cost analysis also recently conducted.

OVP Description of Services

In 2018, it was determined that in order to meet these objectives, we first must understand both the capacity of our service providers and the potential number of gang impacted youth. In order to gain a better sense of the population estimate, the workgroup team reached out to Dr. Katz at Arizona State University. Dr. Katz provided a journal article that estimated youth gang prevalence between 2% and 5%, which varies based on age (Pyrooz and Sweeten, 2014). It is important to note that this study looked at adolescents between 5 and 17, whereas our definition of youth extends beyond that age range. This information lead us to understand that we have no indication if these estimates are accurate for our community and ongoing data collection is needed. Due to these challenges, this strategy was placed on hold until the YGV coordinator could determine the next best steps to take.

In 2019, the YGV Prevention Coordinator reconvened the group to determine what could be accomplished, given the lack of data resources along with staff turnover. The group was able to finalize a charge document that would outline a proposal to address the need for a coordinated system to be presented at County Council. After a combination of 15 individual and group meetings, with over six different organizations, the group went back on hold to develop coordination with the new Gang Impacted Family Team (GIFT) Coordinator and explore ways to build capacity in already existing efforts related to the Coordinated Entry strategy.

Much of the YGV Prevention Coordinator role is to help align City and County services under the LPSCC and to assist in refining service alignment with Portland's emerging Ceasefire Strategy. With new city leadership primarily focusing on the successful implementation of a Ceasefire Strategy and transition for the GIFT new hire, the YGV Prevention Coordinator began to assess system areas to enhance coordination among the City and County, primarily bridging gaps between different organizations, providers and programs.

Next Steps for Coordinated Entry

In order to impact organizational change, it is the hope that city and county stakeholders will continue to explore ways to develop and implement changes in existing policies and procedures that maximize prevention resources. It is also important to continue aligning service delivery and establish relationships to develop a map that measures the strength of connections between Family, Police, Juvenile Services, DHS, Counseling, Mentoring, and Schools through use of trauma-informed and data driven decisions. If we are able to solicit feedback from affiliated systems of care about current screening practices and improve screening tools, then we can strengthen community capacity to address root causes of violence before it ever occurs.