Adult friends for youth (AFY) is proposing the empowering schools: afys approach to address youth violence project

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $1,000,000 Cooperative Agreement under the STOP School Violence Program (CFDA 16.839) to Adult Friends For Youth (AFY), a non-profit organization based in Honolulu, Hawaii. The 3-year project, titled "Empowering Schools: AFY's Approach to Address Youth Violence", aims to create a safer environment and reduce truancy and academic failure at Keelikolani Middle School and its surrounding community. Key activities include referrals, youth and family outreach and engagement, assessments, individualized service planning, monitoring, and data analysis focused on serving disadvantaged youth from Micronesian, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islander and Asian/Filipino backgrounds. The project intends to provide ancillary services to the elementary and high schools that feed into Keelikolani Middle School to maximize the overall impact. Additionally, AFY received a $500,000 sub-grant to partner with the Honolulu Police Department on the Girls Diversion Project, an early intervention program diverting female youth from the juvenile justice system.

The purpose is to bring about systemic change that addresses youth violence and creates a safer environment at keelikolani middle school and its surrounding community. The project will also help to reduce truancy and academic failure that plague this specific community. This project will target youth who come from disadvantaged neighborhoods where violence, crime, and drugs are a normal part of everyday life. The majority of youth that AFY serves come from historically marginalized populations which include the following ethnicities: micronesian/chuukese, native hawaiian, other pacific islander, and asian/filipino. This project will serve a population and community that is predominantly micronesian/chuukese. While project deliverables will specifically address the needs of keelikolani middle school, AFY will provide ancillary services to the elementary and high school that are feeders to keelikolani to maximize project impact over time. Project stakeholders, including youth and family members, will collaborate to find the program(s) that provide services which best fit their individual needs, providing them with a diverse backpack of services that takes the whole individual into account. Key steps involved in project execution: 1) plan and build, 2) assessment, 3) evaluation, 4) adjustments/improvements, and 5) sustainment. Primary activities include: 1) referrals, 2) youth/family outreach and engagement, 3) orientation, 4) assessment, 5) individual service plan, 6) monitoring, and 7) data analysis.