In August 2007, Detroit Community Justice Partnership was awarded the Drug Education for Youth (DEFY) Length of Service Award from the USDOJ Community Capacity Development Office. CCDO is an office in the Office of Justice Programs leading the effort to improve public safety and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods across the country. The Length of Service Award is designed to acknowledge the contributions of Weed & Seed communities for their commitment, dedication, and leadership in the continuation of the DEFY program in their communities.

The Drug Education For Youth (DEFY) Program is an outreach program consisting of summer camp, mentoring, workshops, and special events for youth ages 9-12 years.  During the DEFY Camp (Phase I), the youth engage in such activities as swimming, bowling, fishing, boating, and aerobics.  The youth and camp leaders participate in intensive anti-drug, anti-gang education, self-esteem development, peer leadership, and physical fitness.  Phase II of the DEFY experience is an ongoing, continuous part of the Camp experience which consists of further instilling the necessary self empowerment tools in youth to remain drug free and productive citizens.  Detroit youth participate in field trips and educational activities, and have opportunities for continued interaction with Detroit Police officers and adult mentors.

Positively effecting and impacting the youth of Detroit is of great value to Detroit Community Justice Partnership.  DCJP, formerly known as Northwest Detroit Weed and Seed, developed a strong connection with Detroit Omega Foundation, Inc.’s Detroit Youth Summer Employment Program commonly referenced as DYSEP.  This is an eight-week employment opportunity offered to high school students during their summer break.  The DYSEP participants experience a mini-job fair, meet prospective employers, and interview with job site supervisors prior to being placed at a respective site.  As a strong advocate of DYSEP, DCJP has actively shown support and participation to this initiative.  In 2004 and 2007 Detroit Community Justice Partnership provided career exploration opportunities to two high school interns. 

Since DCJP’s (Northwest Detroit Weed and Seed’s) inception, several high school and college students have interned with the organization, and contributed their talents to the important work of serving the community. It is a pleasure to work with these future leaders of Detroit, as every work experience helps to build and strengthen their career paths. 

Annually, each Detroit Police District hosts a Community Crime Walk. DCJP participated in and sponsored the “Great” Northwestern Detroit Police District’s Crime Walk June 23, 2007. In addition, DCJP was a proud partner and sponsor of the Western District’s Crime Walk on July 14, 2007. During both events, hundreds of Detroit residents, community activists, and community organizations partnered with the District Police to walk door-to-door distributing community resource bags and educating residents of the current crime prevention efforts that are being implemented each district. The bags contained a host of crime prevention resources, health care screening information, and community resource information. The walk concluded with a rally that was designed to empower residents to take pride in their communities and serve as the front line of defense for crime prevention by starting block clubs and maintaining open lines of communication with the police. The events were family-focused and definitely had a positive impact on the community.

Under the leadership of the Detroit Community Justice Partnership and through the support of the Public Housing Safety Initiative, the residents of the Smith Homes, a public housing site in Detroit, MI, created and planned “Women of Power.” Upon DCJP’s involvement with Smith Homes, there emerged a core group or female adults and youth who eagerly stepped forward to become involved. These women saw empowerment for themselves as the most important factor in their contributing to the stability of their housing community, thus naming themselves “Smith Women of Power.”

The Public Housing Safety Initiative (PHSI) is an initiative established by the Department of Justice to ensure that programming and resources are made available to Public Housing residents. The overall goals of the Public Housing Safety Initiative are:

• To positively impact parents and residents residing in the designated public housing properties through directed workshops and parent/community empowerment sessions conducted on site at each housing complex. 
• To positively impact youth of all ages residing in the designated public housing properties with messages and lessons of gun and violence prevention utilizing various presentations.

“Women of Power” is a program designed to foster self-motivation, parenting skills, and inner strength. Sessions are held bi-weekly, every first and third Thursday on site at the Smith Homes Community Center. The sessions serve as a means of the adult and young female residents of the Smith Homes to issues and concerns they face, while finding solutions and resources for these concerns and building a sense of empowerment in the participants.

The Women of Power (WOP) have remained the most active component in the PHSI program at Smith including developing a strategic plan that can be sustained by residents. WOP meets bi-weekly on Thursdays to discuss ways to strengthen their skills, opportunities and knowledge ranging from employability skills to interpersonal relationships.  They have attended on-site programming that addresses a wide range of quality of life concerns including: Personal Appearance & Dressing for Success, Red Cross Home Hazard Prevention Training; Teen Abstinence and Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases. 

 Smith WOP believe that in making themselves better, the entire community is made better. Both youth and adult members support each other when challenges arise and hold “rap sessions” where they freely and honestly discuss personal concerns and possible solutions. Discussions between the youth and mature adults have including what age dating is appropriate, frank conversations regarding sexuality but also the nurturing of goals and hopes for personal success.  Smith WOP are shining examples of how striving for self-betterment and having mentorship and a strong support system is an important ingredient to building better communities.

During the summer of 2007, Trinity Community Development Corporation, the Detroit Community Justice Partnership (DCJP), and the Michigan Council on Crime & Delinquency (MCCD) graduated 12 middle-school-aged youth from the “Youth Tech Leadership & Training Academy,” or YTLT!

This academy seeks to address and counsel the mental, social, and emotional issues of school-enrolled youth with one or more incarcerated parent and teach youth safe and productive ways to deal with these issues by expressing themselves through new media. The 8-week pilot project, funded by DCJP and MCCD, ran from July 8-August 31, 2007. The youth met at Brightmoor’s Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church computer lab Tuesday-Friday from 10:00a-2:00p.

Children whose parents are incarcerated are five to six times more likely to be incarcerated than are their peers. These youth are most vulnerable to feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, depression and guilt. The behavioral consequences can be severe, absent positive intervention, emotional withdrawal, failure in school, delinquency and risk of intergenerational incarceration.

The objectives of YTLT are to:

• Integrate technology to strengthen TCDC by broadening its scope of services to the public;
• Provide youth the opportunity for developed leadership and stress-coping skills;
• Introduce youth to non-traditional vocational and professional career areas such as computer science, information technology, math, science, and engineering by introducing these areas to them in an interactive, interesting, and self-healing manner;
• Encourage youth to obtain higher education by enhancing and developing their technology skills and improving their quality of life;
• Provide opportunity for economic growth to an underserved population.

The life-skills and digital audio programs were implemented using Urban Tech’s evidence-based Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) curriculum. The final project is a fully operational web site, www.brightmoorteenspeak.org, that addresses issues the youth face, things they would like to discuss, and stories they would like to share. This, along with other forms of new media, will be used to inform community leaders, policy makers, educators, and other stakeholders of their needs, insights, and ways to improve their quality of life.

Additionally, the youth that graduated from the summer pilot program will serve as team leaders for the participants in the future semesters of the program. If your family is interested in participating, please check back for these dates and registration information.