The National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention is a network of communities and federal agencies that work together, share information and build local capacity to prevent and reduce youth violence. Established at the direction of President Obama in 2010, the Forum brings together people from diverse professions and perspectives to learn from each other about the crisis of youth and gang violence in the U.S and to build comprehensive solutions on the local and national levels.

Participating Federal agencies include the Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and the Office on National Drug Control Policy. The Forum’s first set of participating communities includes Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, and San Jose, with more to be added soon.

Other participants include faith and community–based organizations, youth and family groups, and business and philanthropic leaders.

The Forum operates on three key principles:

1. Multidisciplinary partnerships are key to tackling this complex issue – police, educators, public health and other service providers, faith and community leaders, parents, and kids, must all be at the table.
2. Communities must balance and coordinate their prevention, intervention, enforcement and reentry strategies.
3. Data and evidence- driven strategies must inform efforts to reduce youth violence in our country. These three principles are critical to directing and leveraging limited resources in order to make a long standing impact.

The Forum has three goals:

1. Elevate youth and gang violence as an issue of national significance.
2. Enhance the capacity of participating localities, as well as others across the country, to more effectively prevent youth and gang violence.
3. Sustain progress and systems change through engagement, alignment, and assessment.

The Forum launched officially on October 4-5, 2010, at a working session in Washington, DC.  At the Session, teams from the cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, CA, and San Jose, CA met with federal agencies and each other to share information and experience about what works in preventing youth and gang violence. Each city pledged to develop or enhance comprehensive plans to prevent youth and gang violence in their city, using multi-disciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches and data-driven strategies.

Since then, the comprehensive plans have been developed as pledged and were presented at the Summit on Preventing Youth Violence in Washington, D.C. on April 4 -5, 2011.  These plans aim to reduce violence, improve opportunities for youth, and encourage innovation at the local and federal levels.  On October 31-November 1, city teams met for the second annual working session and reported on progress in plan implementation.

In 2012, the Forum published a toolkit for those interested in creating comprehensive plans in their own communities. Learn more about the Forum by reading their Collaboration Profile, reviewing their Logic Model, and reading the results of the Forum’s independent assessment. Visit the Forum in the News to view media coverage about the Forum and participating communities.