Youth Violence Intervention

Planning, Implementing, and

Evaluating an Intervention–

Introduction:

Youth violence is turning into a worldwide health problem. It ranges from bullying, physical fighting to more sever sexual and physical assault to homicide. An intervention is needed in order to prevent this things from happening. Planning, implementing, and evaluating an intervention can be an overwhelming project particularly for somebody who has never been engaged with such activity. However, you can increase the chances of success if you follow the specific steps. This chapter talks about a brief overview of this steps.

• Describe the problem of youth violence in your community

• Identify intended participants for an intervention

• Identify possible settings in which

When you already know how many youth committed violence, when, where the violence took place and the reasons surrounded those acts, you may also need to find out about the factors in the community that could contribute to the act of violence. Examples of contributing factors include racism, early involvement with alcohol, drugs and tobacco, poverty, exposure to violence in the family, unemployment, and other social, cultural, or economic conditions. An intended participant group is the group of people your intervention is intended to influence. The information that you gathered from this group will guide you in the decision on whom to target. This group may be general or particular, depending on the youth violence problem in your community and the resources available to address it. The values, attitudes, and interpersonal skills acquired early in life play a key role in the development of violent

The setting for an intervention is the place where the exercise or activity happen. The place selected should be agreeable to all participants, it should be convenient and comfortable for the participants. In order to achieve this, you may want to ask the participants on where they would likely to meet. Also consider the type of intervention you are planning. While many interventions have a logical setting, others especially those focusing on high-risk youth may be less obvious. Additional data should be collected about the intended participant in order to determine on which setting could be implemented for effectively. Set goals and objectives. Once you have identified whom you should reach with an intervention and where to reach them, decide what the goal of your intervention will be. Your goal should be a broad statement of what you want to achieve. Then determine the specific things you will need to do to achieve your goal. These are your objectives. Objectives should be measurable and attainable given the resources you