JRF plans £1m investment in pioneering youth and community programme

The Foundation today announced that it is considering a research and development investment of up to 1 million in piloting a UK version of the 'Communities That Care' prevention programme that is being widely implemented in the United States.

The programme has been developed there by Professor David Hawkins and Professor Richard Catalano at the University of Washington, Seattle. It has been made an integral part of the U.S. Government's Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offending and is being implemented in more than 20 States.

The programme works through families, schools and the wider community to encourage positive social involvement and to tackle important factors that are known to place children and young people at risk. It offers a step-by-step guide to bringing local people and organisations together to devise and implement a strategy that is closely tailored to their needs.

The Foundation's interest in 'Communities That Care' follows publication earlier this year of a specially-commissioned report on youth crime by Professor David Farrington of Cambridge University. The major risk factors it identified included low income, poor parental supervision and discipline, family conflict, under-achievement in primary school and living in a disadvantaged, inner city neighbourhood. Research also points to important protective factors that appear to buffer children against risk, such as a good relationship with a parent or other adult and a strong commitment to school.

An expert JRF task group is currently collaborating with the American devisers of Communities That Care to produce a programme for reducing risk and increasing protective factors in Britain. Providing negotiations proceed satisfactorily, the Foundation's Trustees are willing in principle to support a series of neighbourhood demonstration programmes and evaluative research.

The main development stages in each local programme would be:

• Community involvement establishing a working partnership between the
  key leaders in local government, agencies, schools and the community.
• Risk and resources audit assessing which risk factors for youth crime and other problem behaviours are most prevalent in the community and what local resources and services exist to address them.
• Strategic planning and implementation filling gaps in protection by choosing promising interventions whose effectiveness has already been demonstrated.

David Utting, co-ordinator of the JRF task group said: "This is potentially one of the most exciting developments in UK crime prevention for many years. But its promise extends even further. At best, it is a strategy for strengthening families, promoting educational success and building cohesive communities where children are valued as contributors and encouraged to achieve their potential."

Richard Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "There is growing acceptance across the political spectrum that the best way to tackle health and social problems is through their underlying causes. The Foundation's interest in 'Communities That Care' underlines its commitment to inform policy-making and foster promising preventive approaches."