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Identificar el riesgo, Fortalecer a las familias para reducir la violencia.

Por Jennifer Brookland

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Un panel de expertos que explora los modelos de reducción de la violencia juvenil utilizados en Los Ángeles y un nuevo programa piloto en Honduras dice que los enfoques específicos que se centran en familias en riesgo tienen más probabilidades de acercar a las comunidades a lograr ese objetivo..

“A lo largo de los años, Hemos analizado el problema a través de una lente gran angular y hemos encontrado grandes soluciones., y hemos mirado a través de una lente de primer plano y hemos encontrado soluciones individuales,” dice Guillermo Céspedes, Asociado sénior para la prevención del crimen, la violencia y la violencia de Creative Associates International. “Este modelo también parece estar en el medio," refiriéndose a un enfoque utilizado en Los Ángeles desde 2007.

Hablando en una mesa redonda organizada por Creative, el modelo analizado por Céspedes está dirigido a la “prevención secundaria,”que se dirige a aquellos con mayor riesgo de afiliación a pandillas: niños de 10 a 15 vivir en barrios más pobres con elevadas tasas de criminalidad.

Even for these kids—who must survive absent parents, foster care and violence—Cespedes reminded that only 3 por ciento a 15 percent will join a criminal group. The Los Angeles model created a way to pinpoint those who are most likely to do so, and intervene before they get sucked in.

It evaluates youth based on risk factors and behaviors including delinquency, substance abuse and negative peer influence. Then it uses a systems-based, family-centric approach that starts with family meetings and strategy sessions and involves dedicated teams of social workers and counselors.

Multigenerational coaching and bonding, from learning Grandma’s recipes to creating a map of family relationships, encourages healthy norms and a strong personal identity that can withstand the lure of belonging to a gang.

“It is messy but I think professionally we do have a mandate,” Céspedes dice. “We’re trying to strengthen institutional capacity. This is really a small piece of that, but you can think of it as strengthening the family as an institution.”

Cespedes helped develop this family-based secondary prevention model as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, a post he relinquished in December to bring his successful strategies to Central American neighborhoods he acknowledged were on the receiving end of an exported problem.

Honduras’s dangerous neighborhoods

Hoy, some urban neighborhoods in Honduras are among the most dangerous non-war zones in the world.

“Kids in San Martin cannot go to their own school because a neighboring gang controls that street," dice Salvador Stadthagen, quien dirige Creative Alianza Joven-Honduras programa. “Another community, Estados Unidos, was completely closed down. Not even vaccinations were happening.”

Stadthagen’s program, a two-year-old extension of a regional initiative funded by the U.S. Agencia para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), expanded Youth Outreach Centers in these communities; They offered safety and support to all youth in the area, but are not set up to target those who are most at risk of joining gangs.

“Most donors work in primary prevention,” Stadthagen explains. “We found that the reality was that we were working with kids in secondary prevention without having secondary prevention tools.”

Ahora, pilot projects that employ a more targeted approach like the one used in Los Angeles are now underway as part of Stadthagen’s Honduras program and in Monterrey, México.

They replace the historically preferred support for law enforcement and focus instead on evaluating individual risk and behavior, building community and family resilience and bolstering positive institutions like churches and schools.

“There is a tendency to define an entire community or all of its youth as being at-risk,” says Jennifer Peirce, a citizen security and justice expert with the Inter-American Development Bank. “Getting a more individualized understanding would be helpful.”

Stadthagen and donors are all hopeful they will generate more data on what works in keeping the most vulnerable youth away from dangerous groups.

“We’re very excited about what we can learn from this and how, moving forward, we can integrate it into our portfolio,” says Enrique Roig, Coordinator of USAID’s Central American Regional Security Initiative.

Idealmente, donors would fund integrated and overlapping programs that work with youth over the course of their lives, Rojo says.

“To really be effective in these communities we have to work with youth who are criminally involved, those who are already involved in gangs and keep youth from becoming involved in criminal activity," él dice.

That paragon motivates Cespedes as well. It also keeps him up at night, el dice.

“We know there are strategies that are effective at addressing one level or another, but as a community of practice, our next challenge is to implement all these levels of intervention in the same community," él dice.  “There isn’t a model that’s complete. We’re still building the plane as we’re flying it.”[/vc_column_text][/columna_vc][vc_columna ancho=»1/12″][/columna_vc][vc_columna ancho=»1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=»barra lateral-primaria»][/columna_vc][/vc_row]