Youth Violence Prevention

One of the latest endeavors of the Youth Department is the Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, through the Stop the Violence and Increase the Peace Coalition, which is collaborative working with the YMCA of Metropolitan Hartford, Inc., Hartford Knights, Hartford Communities That Care, and Faith Congregational Church; to mitigate youth violence in the city by educating youth and families to provide alternative activities that are more conductive to becoming productive members of society.  The short-term goals are to engage between 150 to 200 youth and young adults in the program offerings.  The intermediate goal is to assure that all youth are free from both aggressive responses and victimization.  Ultimately, the intention is to have every program participant witness and improvement in the quality of his/her life during this six month program.  Urban League of Greater Hartford's role is to provide educational and workforce opportunities that will subsequently reduce the dropout rate of students in the Hartford Community, including a GED program.  Participants will receive training our Workforce Fundamental Course which focuses on: employability skills, life skills, basic reading and math skills, self assessment, career exploration and soft skills.  Additionally we will provide financial literacy as our participants will need to know how to manage their income.  We are recruiting participants with prior experience in the juvenile justice system and those that are at-risk of dropping out of school.