Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities

Violence Clinical Trial

Official title:

Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00164593
• Other study ID #: CDC-NCIPC-4530
• Secondary ID: U49CE000348
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• First received: September 12, 2005
• Last updated: April 4, 2012
• Start date: April 2005
• Est. completion date: August 2009

Study information

• Verified date: April 2012
• Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Federal Government
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This project is an evaluation of an intervention to involve youth in creating community change for peace promotion and violence prevention. The intervention, Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES), includes three components: youth empowerment activities, neighborhood organization development, and community development projects that involve youth and organizations working together.

Hypothesis 1: Efforts to engage youth in the community change process will enhance their attachment to their community, reduce their problem behaviors, and begin to change norms among their peers about community violence and interpersonal problem solving.

Hypothesis 2: Efforts to make community-based organizations more youth-friendly and engaging will assist them to be more effective in reaching their community enhancement goals and will expand youth involvement in their mission.

Hypothesis 3: Efforts to create more health-enhancing land use (e.g., beautification, community gardens, parks development) will improve social organization (e.g., social capital, social cohesion, and social support), and reduce the level of violent incidents and crime in the community.

Description:

The program will focus on youth and neighborhood organizations in one middle-school attendance area. A nearby middle-school attendance area will serve as a comparison community. We will assess change in community norms, fear, social cohesion and social capital using an existing community survey of adults in the two neighborhoods. A similar survey will assess changes in youths' social norms, fears, perceptions of social cohesion and social capital, as well as their violent behavior and ethnic identity and pride. We will also compare the intervention and comparison neighborhoods on several community-level measures including police incident data, hospital injury reports, school suspension data, and ratings of neighborhood qualities (e.g., vacant lots, community gardens, social interaction).

The long-term goals of YES are to:

1. modify environmental conditions that contribute to youth violence;

2. promote social norms supportive of community participation and nonviolence;

3. increase perceptions of neighborhood safety among residents; and

4. reduce the incidence of youth violence perpetration and victimization.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1142
• Est. completion date: August 2009
• Est. primary completion date: August 2008
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 12 Years to 15 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 7th and 8th graders in the intervention middle-school attendance area

• Neighborhood organizations with at least 10 members serving the intervention middle-school attendance area

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students who have been suspended or expelled during the intervention period

• Neighborhood organizations that serve areas in both the intervention and comparison areas.

Study Design

Allocation: Non-Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Prevention

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Juvenile Delinquency
• Social Control, Informal
• Social Problems
• Violence

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities
YES is a multi-faceted program that (1) engages 7th and 8th graders in a youth development program, (2) enhances neighborhood organizations' ability to include youth in their activities, and (3) connects the youth participants and adults in neighborhood organizations (e.g., crime watches, block groups, neighborhood associations) to carry out neighborhood improvement activities (e.g., community gardens, parks cleanup).

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Michigan School of Public Health	Ann Arbor	Michigan

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Youth Violence		6 months	Yes