Mission:
To provide case-management and increased supervision to youth at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.
Program Services
Program Results
Eligibility
Contact the Office of Youth Violence Prevention
Program Description:
Operation Safe Kids is a youth violence prevention program that provides community-based case management and monitoring to juvenile offenders who are at high risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence. The Baltimore City Health Department workers work closely with Department of Juvenile Services case managers and other state and city agencies to reduce youth violence in the city by ensuring these young people have the tools they need to become productive adults.
Operation Safe Kids is funded through City general funds and by grants from the Safe and Sound Campaign and the Baltimore Community Foundation.
Program Services:
Each youth is assigned a youth worker who becomes a presence in the child’s life and coordinates a treatment service plan in order to meet his or her needs. A clinical coordinator helps to development a treatment plan for each youth and family. The treatment plan includes such services as:
-
Substance abuse treatment, provided by dedicated counselors at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center;
-
Mental health treatment, provided by a dedicated clinical social worker;
-
Educational advocacy; AND
-
Employment assistance, provided by a specialist from the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development
-
Regular clinical meetings and KidStat meetings allow staff from an array of local and state agencies to coordinate services on behalf of participating youth and their families.
Program Results 
Baseline Data: By the end of 2005, Operation Safe Kids served 109 youth for six months or longer.
- Race: 100% African-American
- Gender: 99% Male
- Average Length of Time in Program: 1.8 years on average.
- Arrest History
- Average Arrests Prior To Admission: 6.3
- Average Age at First Arrest: 13.3
- All youth had been arrested for drug offenses or violent crimes.
- Some youth had as many as 19 arrests and were arrested for the first time as young as 8 years old
Participation in Operation Safe Kids is associated with fewer arrests. The program’s primary outcome measure is the rate of arrest. Comprehensive arrest data from the Police Department, current to May 31, 2005, are available for 59 youth who had been in the program at least one year by that time. These data show that compared to the year prior to program entry:
Total arrests dropped 32.9% in the first year of the program;
Arrests for drug crimes dropped 41.2%
Arrests for violent crimes dropped 44%
Facts-sustained (guilty) adjudications dropped by 32.2%
Operation Safe Kids connects youth to education and employment.
- 72.3% of youth not enrolled in school at admission were enrolled while in Operation Safe Kids.
- 55% of participants received at least one employment placement through Operation Safe Kids.
- Every 10% increase in employment of participating youth is associated with a 20% drop in arrests.
Eligibility
Operation Safe Kids serves repeat juvenile offenders on probation who are at highest risk for perpetrating or becoming victims of violence. Clients are referred by the Department of Juvenile Services and the Juvenile Court. If you are the parent or guardian of a young person who you believe could be served by the program, please speak to your child’s Department of Juvenile Services case manager or your child’s attorney regarding your child’s eligibility for the program.
If you have any questions about Operation Safe Kids, please contact the Office of Youth Violence Prevention at:
210 Guilford Avenue, 3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-396-1343
8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Monday - Friday
|
