Metropolitan family services (MFS) provides programming that prevents violence and addresses the needs of high-risk youth

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $250,000 Project Grant under the Delinquency Prevention Program (CFDA 16.548) to Metropolitan Family Services (MFS), a non-profit organization in Chicago, Illinois. The 36-month grant will fund the development and implementation of violence prevention programs for high-risk youth at Harlan Community Academy High School in the Roseland community.

MFS will use a trauma-informed, restorative justice framework to deliver school-based interventions during unstructured times like lunch and recess. The goal is to serve 75 high-risk students over the course of the project by engaging them in evidence-based practices to reduce their involvement in risky and potentially violent behaviors. The grant will fund a robust planning process in the first six months to collaborate with school stakeholders and formulate a comprehensive scope of services informed by best practices.

MFS will develop and implement violence prevention programs targeted as school-based services for high-risk youth at harlan community academy, a high school in roseland, and MFS calumet's school-based partner through the MFS community school initiative. MFS calumet will use the agencys existing school based program interventions to apply violence prevention and intervention strategies at harlan academy high school serving students living within chicagos roseland community. MFS calumet will use the restorative justice practice-based framework within the school setting during unstructured school blocks, including lunch and recess periods to engage students at the school to reduce their involvement in high risk and potentially violent behaviors. The target will be to serve 75 high-risk youth over the course of the 36 project period. Phase 1 will include a robust planning strategy to occur over the first six (6) months of the project in collaboration with the school leadership, teachers, social works, parents and the student body to formulate a comprehensive scope of service that is informed by trauma-informed restorative justice principals and which applies evidence-based practices. Phase 2 will be implementation of the violence prevention and intervention program targeting 75STUDENT participants.