Hi there,

Welcome to www.SafeCommunitiesTaskForce.org, our central hub of information! Kick of your shoes and make yourself comfortable while I show you around our website.

We recently remodeled. Our appearance, content and navigation reflect our values of community, openness and innovation. The biggest change is our website menu; we have broken down our content into the core strategies of what is called The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. Let me explain what that means.

OJJDP stands for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. I know- it’s quite a mouthful! The OJJDP is a governing body helping reduce youth violence and criminal behavior, among other things. This group published the Comprehensive Gang Model, a report offering methods for addressing gangs. The methods they provide can be adapted organizations to fit their needs. We are one of the groups that follow this model.

To put it very simply, we have a giant binder of research that tells us the best way to do our jobs!
The Comprehensive Gang Model explains that there are five core strategies in gang prevention. Our website menu breaks down our program into these five categories and explains what we do through this lens. Click here to learn more about OJJDP. Otherwise, let’s continue the tour.

Our home page is where most people who stumble upon our website will land. Here you’ll find

• A calendar of our upcoming community meetings (anyone can attend!)
• Our mission statement
• A list of our community partners
• Our strategic planning documents
• Other informational content

Under the home page dropdown you’ll also find our blog- where you are now. We will be posting every Tuesday for the next ten weeks, so be sure to check back every week for fresh content. Our writers aim to keep our content under the umbrella of cultivating safety and community, things like tips for working with teens, community spotlights, and stories from our partners. We can’t wait to show you more!

Community Mobilization outlines things we are doing to engage the community including facilitating meetings, hosting conferences and creating a Steering Committee, which is comprised of many different community groups. You can also sign up for one of three volunteer opportunities the SCTF actively provides on this page.

Social Intervention is all about things we are doing to prevent youth from engaging in risky behavior. Additionally, we tell you about programs that reach out to youth currently involved or impacted by gang activity and get them the support they need to maintain positive and healthy lives.

Opportunities or Opportunities Provision is where we highlight different pro-social activities (things proven to have a positive impact on the wellbeing of young people) that the SCTF offers to our kids. We like to keep them busy!

The Suppression page talks about our partners in the Vancouver Police Department who prevent or suppress violence in the community and shares a bit about how they do that.

From here, you have the contact page so we can get in touch as well as resources that have been collected on gang activity, youth development research and other interesting finds that may be helpful for youth, parents and other community members.

That’s about it! If you have any questions about our website, suggestions for improvement or have difficulty finding your way, please don’t hesitate to head on over to our contact page and drop us a message.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Our door is always open.

Sending my best,

Christopher Belisle at SCTF