Youth Violence
Building Resilience Against Youth Violence and Exploitation (BRAYVE)Â (Formerly Youth and Young Adult Violence Reduction)
In 2024, the City took a comprehensive approach to youth violence reduction and broadened the focus of violence reduction to include prevention measures in addition to intervention services. This approach emphasizes the value of prevention, such as youth development opportunities and access to educational supports like mentoring, along with intervention strategies, as an effective strategy in reducing youth violence.
Neighborhood and Community Services does this by contracting with community based organizations to offer valuable youth development and educational resources, mental health supports, and intervention services throughout community.
Background:
Since 2013, the City of Tacoma has implemented components of the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) models to guide the coordination and community collaboration to reduce youth violence.
The City continues to strategize on ways to enhance this approach to addressing youth and young adult violence and other crime prevention services that incorporate community feedback and the needs of our community.
Comprehensive Gang Model (five core strategies)
- Community Mobilization - community engagement and collaboration
- Opportunities Provision - education, training, and employment programs
- Social Intervention - outreach and access to provision of services for gang-involved youth and their families
- Suppression - community policing with formal and informal social controls and accountability measures
- Organizational Change and Development - development of policy for effective use of resources
The City recognizes the importance of providing comprehensive prevention and intervention programs to address violent crime and commercial sexual exploitation of children (human trafficking).
To some, human trafficking can be seen as a high-profit, low-risk venture when there is an absence of other economic opportunities, despite the risks of violence and serious criminal involvement. This same lack of opportunity can often lead youth and young adults to engage in violent crimes.
We are committed to investing in services that increase safety and supports systems, while decreasing violence in our community. We invest in programming that is trauma-informed, culturally relevant, evidence-based, and is centered in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
By funding multiple providers for Youth and Young Adult Violence Reduction, we create greater sustainability of culturally relevant programs in the highest need communities. Programs and services support youth at-risk of committing violent crimes, human trafficking, and youth development programming.
Governance
This work is led by an Executive Steering Committee made up of local and state jurisdiction leaders, and community advocates.
Each year, the Mayor selects a Council Member to Chair and Vice Chair the committee. The Executive Steering Committee consists of key policy-level members of the community interested in youth violence prevention, intervention, suppression, and systems change to help inform and guide the direction the City will take at reducing youth violence
 How To Get Involved
The City’s Community Advisory Committee (CAC) and the Multidisciplinary Intervention Team (MDiT) are two ways the City engages stakeholders. Multiple sectors of the community (local government, law enforcement, juvenile justice, CBOs, lived-experience community members) collaborate to give input to the design and implementation of youth violence reduction strategies and help address needs and gaps in services.
- Community Advisory Board (CAC) – The purpose of this group is to strategize ways to enhance the partnership between identified neighborhoods (Hilltop, East Side, West of Tacoma Mall, Hosmer), service providers, and law enforcement, identify gaps in service, discuss areas of improvement, hear program implementation updates, and assess the structural issues that cause the problems with addressing youth and young adult violence and human trafficking.
Meeting occurs quarterly. More information coming soon.
- Multiple Disciplinary Intervention Team (MDIT) – Monthly meeting held to share and collaborate among agencies serving youth and young adults who are gang/group-involved, or at risk of becoming gang/group-involved. The team-based approach helps ensure that all agencies working with these clients have a common goal and shared strategies for each client, as well as leverage resources and discuss other meaningful information to reduce violence and human trafficking within the community.
Meeting occurs the third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 844 1776 2494
Passcode: 232866