Summit on Gang Prevention and Intervention

On September 14, 2010, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies (KSPS) will host a one-day, county-wide event to discuss strategies for preventing gang activity and violence in San Diego neighborhoods. The “Summit on Gang Prevention and Intervention,” sponsored by the City of San Diego’s Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention, will bring together policymakers, school-based leaders, law enforcement representatives and community members to share information, discuss best practices and explore the possibilities for collaborating and sharing resources.

Professor Ami Carpenter, KSPS faculty member, feels that this is precisely the sort of work that a school of peace studies should focus on.

“There’s a temptation to think about violence prevention and peacebuilding as activities undertaken in other parts of the world,” Carpenter said, “but the School of Peace Studies’ involvement with the gang prevention summit is one way to support peacebuilding in our own neighborhoods. The stories of third party intervention to prevent street violence in San Diego are amazing…this is the future of urban resilience.”

According to Carpenter, cities are networks of neighborhoods and communities where violence can occur -- on street corners, playgrounds or schools. Preventing violence means that people – parents, pastors, teachers, neighbors -- have to be aware, mobilized and engaged.

That method, where agencies, academics and everyday people partner to create change, appears to be working. Violence across the city has fallen in the past decade, and Carpenter credits this type of effort as one explanation.

The keynote address for the event will be presented by Doug Luffborough, Executive Director and Founder of the Turning the Hearts Center -- a nonprofit organization committed to turning the hearts of youth and families through education, leadership development, and family enhancement services.

Co-sponsors include the San Diego County Office of Education, Mano A Mano Foundation, the Leichtag Family Foundation and the Bravo Foundation.

The conference is open to the public and requires online registration. To register, please click here.

For more information on the event, please click here.