Description
Safe Streets was established in 1989 as a grassroots "call to action" to take back the streets of Tacoma as gangs from California moved in to take over the streets. In the past 23 years, Safe Streets has provided leadership skills, mobilization services, and prevention education in the community and presently address the immediate concerns of Pierce County through these program areas:
1) Neighborhood Block Groups - Safe Streets has built a network of over 1700 organized block groups. These groups consist of leaders within the community that we mentor, train and support who in turn take back to their community to sustain safer neighborhoods.
2) Non-English Speaking (NES) provides these services to residents who have limited or no English speaking experience. The NES program works to address the protective factors in the Tacoma/Pierce County area so to connect NES families to the skills needed for a productive life and in turn a stronger community. Presently, the following NES groups meet on a monthly basis: Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Chinese, Philippine and Cambodian,
3) Youth Leading Change (YLC) is the youth component of mobilization that is accomplished through clubs in seven area high schools. These clubs are led by core students, guided by a teacher/coach, who organize and present prevention issues to their fellow students throughout the year. YLC has consistently won prevention presentation awards on the state level. First place earned them a trip to Washington DC this past winter.
4) The Violence Prevention Program is comprised of a trained team who offer specialized Aggression Replacement Training (ART) to at-risk youth. The program goal is to prevent youth from joining or involving themselves in gang activity which could lead them to juvenile delinquency and an unhealthy lifestyle.
