Safe Passages makes and implements policies that help children in Oakland grow up safely and lead productive lives. We align community resources towards comprehensive strategies that support children and youth at critical times when they could go off track or need help getting back on track: 1) if exposed to violent behavior at a very young age; 2) in middle school years when they may be more likely to get in trouble; and 3) if arrested as a teenager.

We are the only forum for Oakland's public systems to work with each other and alongside community organizations to improve services to children and families. Our partners include the City of Oakland, Alameda County, the Oakland Unified School District, the East Bay Community Foundation, Children's Hospital Oakland, and other community organizations. We focus on strategies proven to work and hold ourselves accountable for achieving real results.

Early Childhood Strategy
Safe Passages partners with the county's early childhood initiative, Every Child Counts, to ensure that young children exposed to violence in Oakland are provided with the services they need. Through a partnership between the Oakland Police Department and a nonprofit organization, the Family Violence Law Center, family advocates will respond with police officers to domestic violence incidents and help link the family to community supports. This will cut response time for support to victims and their children from an average of two days to less than two hours. We are also working to incorporate violence prevention curricula into early childhood learning centers and Head Start Programs.

Middle School Strategy
Where middle school suspension rates are highest, Safe Passages works to reduce suspensions through a network of school-based services. Interwoven components of this strategy include: providing mental health services to youth; forming teams of teachers and advocates to monitor students' progress and link them to needed supports; providing positive after-school activities; developing alternatives to suspension such as in-school suspension; teaching a nationally recognized violence prevention curriculum; engaging parents and caregivers in school activities; and offering access to family support services. Safe Passages is currently working with seven, and plans to expand to 10, Oakland middle schools. Case managers have already begun working at the schools; the violence prevention curriculum is in place; and alternatives to suspension plans are being developed at the sites.

Youth Offender Strategy
To help teenagers out of the revolving door of the juvenile justice system, Safe Passages provides intensive case management and wraparound services for young offenders. Our goal is to reduce the number of repeat offenses by youth for violence by helping them become healthy, productive, law-abiding citizens. Case managers who share similar life experiences as young offenders serve as role models, mentors, and court advocates and connect them to community supports based on individual need. These may include health care, tutoring, school placement, job training, job placement, and counseling. An initial pilot collaboration served 87 youth and reduced the rate of repeat offenses among enrolled youth to 10 percent, compared to a countywide rate of 72 percent. We are now working to expand the model to serve all juvenile offenders in Oakland.