This report provides a concise summary of the “If Youth Can, then I Can!” campaign, which is a violence prevention campaign that is created to point out how the youths within the community are affected by violence. It proceeds to provide how the same campaign is defining violence. Furthermore, the report also mentions how violence prevention is framed as a subject that individuals or youths, as a country, should talk about since it is a serious national matter. Various stakeholders of the campaign are also mentioned, such as the youths who are the main stakeholders. It is because, through the YOUTH-CAN program, most youths have shown that they interested in the prevention of community violence as they need a peaceful community. Besides, the targeted shareholders by “If Youth Can, then I Can!” campaign are such as the government, social institutions, including schools, in addition to the families living within these communities. The campaign also does well in various areas, such as by empowering youths through resiliency. However, the campaign is also associated with certain problems, including insufficient funding, poor public relations, and poor usage of social media. Therefore, significant strategies have been recommended from a personal perspective to help in solving these problems. Violence is defined as the utilization of physical force for the purpose of injuring, abusing, damaging, or even destroying. Being exposed to violence can result in long-term mental, emotional, and physical harm, whether someone is a witness or a direct victim. Those who have suffered violence are more likely in suffering severe effects, including depression and extended stress. It is also notable that violence may cause several deaths to the community. For instance, youth violence has been known to be the leading cause of death for young adults and adolescents. Cassidy, Bowman, McGrath and Matzopoulos (2016) observe that some types of youth violence, including slapping, bullying, or even hitting, may result in long-lasting emotional and physical harm. It may as well result in substance abuse, depression, suicide, and academic problems. When violence occurs, the whole community is affected. For instance, children are not capable of playing within their playgrounds and outside their neighborhoods in addition to individuals not being capable of learning and succeeding in life since they would be afraid of going to school. Additionally, violence also harms businesses, families, and other community parts by increasing the costs of healthcare, disrupting services, and decreasing property value. Preventing violence is imperative for the well-being of the entire community. Therefore, it is vital for starting a campaign that would assist in coming together and taking crucial actions for preventing violence and improving our communities. The campaign is dubbed “If Youth Can, then I Can!” which is violence prevention campaigned intending to point out how community violence issue affects youths within communities. It is imperative to understand that community violence is the act of being exposed to the international laws of the committed interpersonal violence within public areas, particularly by people who are not intimately associated with the victim. Additionally, the objectives of this campaign are for raising awareness concerning the impact of the endless adverse effects of community violence on families, communities, and youths. Another aim of the campaign is to educate the public concerning risk facts in addition to the strategies supporting resilience in families and youths. Importantly, the goal of the campaign is to engage families, youths, and the members of the community in various ways they can use for taking part and working together to address the complexities brought by violence and trauma. The campaign would also comprise of the Urban Youth Trauma Center (UYTC) program meant for promoting and disseminating integrated, coordinated, and comprehensive care for multi-problem, high-risk youth impacted by community violence and trauma. Besides, the campaign would as well have a community action network known as “Youth Overcoming Urban Trauma and Healing (YOUTH-CAN).” It would be a community representative’s network that strives to share the resources and information for improving the ability of national and local communities in organizing and mobilizing responses to the community violence as they affect youth as well as their families. The campaign has not provided a significant definition, but it talks about how everyone is affected by community violence. Community violence can transpire without warning and suddenly. Consequently, families and youths living with community violence are always associated with increased fears, thereby making them be terrified. Besides, the campaign observes that even though certain types of trauma are accidental, community violence remains a global attempt of hurting one or more individuals and comprises of homicides, robberies, sexual assaults, as well as weapons attacks. The campaign frames violence prevention as a subject that youths or individuals as a country should talk about. This is known by the fact that the campaign argues that it is a high time of bringing the violence issue at the forefront of the country’s dialogue. Besides, this is also supported by the fact that there are various types of violence mechanisms the campaign purports in preventing. A significant mechanism of violence that the campaign intends on preventing is community violence. It is because being exposed to community violence may have a substantial impact on society as a whole, particularly the youths who have been exposed to it. Being exposed to violent events may be disturbing in addition to negatively impacting numerous factors, including academic functioning, community development, as well as relationships, and coping skills ( Banyard, Edwards & Siebold, 2017). Community violence is also to be prevented by the campaign as it has adverse effects on the community children since they are not only being exposed to the higher rates of violence within their communities but as well through technology. It is because social media is regularly increasing access to violent online content within the community, which has significantly influenced violent behaviors. Therefore, to thwart the effect of community violence, the campaign has proposed various mechanisms that would be utilized all through to assist in alleviating this issue. For instance, addressing trauma and violence is among the best practices that can be used in preventing violence. It is because trauma often arises from a series of violent events experienced by individuals as emotionally or physically harmful and even being life-threatening ( Kiss, Schraiber, Hossain, Watts & Zimmerman, 2015) . Therefore, addressing how violence and trauma are related within a community would help in providing insight concerning how our society is being affected by violence. Hence, people can see the need to stop being engaged in violence. The campaign also intends to promote a safe living environment within the community. It is because working, living, and even going to school within urban areas may make individuals in feeling as if they are within a war zone. Besides, children may also lack access to safe recreational areas. Therefore, promoting a safe environment would mean that all the individuals within a community would be required to play a significant role in keeping the community safe through support ( Weine, Stone, Saeed, Shanfield, Beahrs, Gutman & Mihajlovic, 2017). Promoting a safe environment can be achieved by enhancing the community resources by taking substantial steps focused on improving the peaceful activities and positive relationships within the communities. Besides, it can also be achieved through a heightened response capacity and monitoring, such as a 24/7 monitored as well as safe space for families and children within the community. Stakeholders are the individuals with the interest or concern with this campaign. Therefore, the youths are the primary stakeholders of this campaign since they are the most involved and affected cohort of people in community violence. Some of these youths have also provided their testimonies concerning how they have experienced the violence in addition to how it has impacted their individual rights. Additionally, youths have essential roles in preventing violence as they continuously work towards starting a campaign that can be utilized to maintain and promote community peace ( Ellis & Abdi, 2017). It is the youths through the YOUTH-CAN program, which would most likely be focusing on the prevention of community violence instead of belated interventions. However, youths have also created this campaign to exercise their human rights. Therefore, they have come forward to start and manage a campaign that would help in ending community violence. As observed by Banyard, Edwards and Siebold (2017) , youths are the only group of individuals with the ability to reject discrimination, the spirit of fear, as well as the division among individuals within the community, thereby promoting peace and establishing inclusive societies. Besides, the youths have acted as government programs and partners towards ending any form of violence, such as community violence. Since the youths are the key stakeholders of this YOUTH-CAN program, they have organized various ways that they can use in the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign. For instance, taking the pledge is one of the significant ways that youths can utilize in taking a stand against community violence and even taking the pledge of preventing community violence from occurring. Additionally, youths also have the choice of getting others involved in the campaign towards ending community violence ( Cassidy, Bowman, McGrath & Matzopoulos, 2016). For example, they can take the interest of telling their friends, families, neighbors, coworkers concerning the pledges they have taken in addition to what the campaign would be all about. They can also invite them in making their own pledge and helping towards getting others involved. Youths are also interested in the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign since they appear to be more than ready in spreading the word through sharing of resources and information that would be offered by the campaign. For instance, they intend to use social media for publicizing their efforts towards this campaign by putting a link to their email signature and then sharing it to social media in addition to hang-up posters ( Kiss, Schraiber, Hossain, Watts & Zimmerman, 2015). Youths would also be more interested in volunteering for the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign with the local schools, agencies, and the community centers for providing support for engaging in different after-school activities. Shareholders are all the individuals and organizations that own the community. For instance, the community is owned by the government, social institutions such as schools, as well as families within the community. The government is a crucial shareholder since it has the obligation of protecting all communities from any form of violence. Therefore, it is expected that the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would target the government so that they can act accordingly ( Weine, Stone, Saeed, Shanfield, Beahrs, Gutman & Mihajlovic, 2017). It is because the government has been seen to be silent on this issue, regardless of several failed attempts that youths have utilized so that they can get the government involved. Besides, all the community taxes are often collected by the government, hence insinuating that it has the direct control and ownership of the community. Thus, this campaign would significantly help in putting the government in the spotlight for having failed to address the issue of violence within various communities. The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would also act as a reminder to the government that community violence is a national issue that must be dealt with before it gets out of hand. Other shareholders are the various social institutions, such as our public schools. The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would target these institutions so that they ensure that they teach young children the negative consequences of community violence and making them aware that it exists. Besides, the campaign would continually urge schools to join their PTA or any significant violence prevention coalition, which may significantly help in reducing crime rates by as much as 30 percent ( Ellis & Abdi, 2017) . However, this can mainly occur if there is a community-wide effort as an initiative of preventing violence from the community. It implies that all the students, school staff, parents, and other community members should all join hands in establishing a safe school environment for the children. As a result, this would instill a culture of peace to all school children who will then, in turn, exhibit them within their different communities. Families are also the targeted shareholders by the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign. It would assist these families in understanding various ways on how they can be safe from any form of violence as well as how they can champion for preventive measures towards the same community violence. Families would also be urged to ensure that they are working with their children and even other adults for reducing the risk for them or their loved ones falling victim to violence in the future ( Banyard, Edwards & Siebold, 2017). For instance, families would be enlightened on the importance of not keeping any firearm for lowering the rates of homicides. The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign does well in empowering people, particularly the youths, in building resiliency by creating an account and registering on it. The resiliency is primarily focused on supporting the affected youths by trauma and community violence. For instance, the campaign focuses on building resilience earlier in one’s life since this can assist children in coping with trauma. Cassidy, Bowman, McGrath and Matzopoulos (2016) posit that various forms of neglect, abuse, in addition to related household stressors, are regrettably common among young children. Such experiences do not always happen as single events, and hence they can result in long-term physical and emotional effects. Such experiences also have the potential of increasing the risk of numerous health issues throughout an individual’s lifespan as well as hindering healthy brain development in children. Therefore, it is critical to establish resiliency as a healthy attachment early in life. It implies that the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would focus on building resilience, instilling vital learning skills in children that would help in increasing their ability to manage and regulating both their emotions and responses to stress. It would be achieved by strengthening families, such as teaching caregivers concerning child development ( Banyard, Edwards & Siebold, 2017). The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would also achieve such a resiliency through the provision of substantial assistance in times of need and bolstering their capabilities of managing stress in addition to developing positive social connections.
The campaign also intends to provide significant webinars that would also help in building resiliency. For instance, the “triumph over trauma” would significantly assist in understanding and addressing the needs of many youths who are exposed to community violence. Ellis and Abdi (2017) argue that this webinar will allow speakers to discuss the primary causes, significant effects, as well as professional responses associated with community violence and its related traumatic stress to youths. They are such as exploring both the contemporary and historical causes of being exposed to violence among urban youths alongside their families and understanding the interrelated contexts of being exposed to violence impacting urban youths. Others are such as establishing particular goals to implement best practices that can assist in serving urban youths who are exposed to violence. The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign also does well by addressing trauma and disproportionate ethnic minority contact within juvenile justice through empowerment. As a result, this helps in exploring both the current and historical causes for the disproportionality as well as the relationships between violence, disproportionality, and trauma responses ( Banyard, Edwards & Siebold, 2017). This webinar would as well pose prospective avenues for genuinely engaging communities and families within the formation of new services and systems, which are established upon the empowerment principles. Various problems are also associated with this campaign. However, a significant problem may arise as a result of lacking enough finance to conduct the campaign from the onset to the end successfully. It implies that lack of such funds for programs created for supporting comprehensive responses to the needs of victims of community violence. Besides, there is no provided federal funding for such campaigns, and this is the reason why community violence is always on the rise ( Kiss, Schraiber, Hossain, Watts & Zimmerman, 2015). If available, such financing can assist the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign in supporting various programs within the community. Such programs include shelters for community violence, rape crisis centers, community outreach, children’s services, in addition to other local and state programs responsible for providing services for the trauma victims and families. It is believed such programs may significantly assist in ending community violence. The “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign is also associated with poor usage of social media since it has formed the basis for the campaign within this digital age. Cassidy, Bowman, McGrath and Matzopoulos (2016) observe that those who are not capable of efficiently utilizing social media may not have successful campaigns. It is because social media such as the LinkedIn, Facebook, Net Log, and Twitter are pre-eminent in this digital age. However, most social network users abuse these social media platforms, while others appear not to be diplomatic in the manner by which they are using them for conveying a message to the public. Other “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaigners are also promoting themselves and their services without prior interaction with the audience. As a result, such an action may result in the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign being perceived by the public as a self-centered system that cannot end community violence. The campaign is also associated with poor public relations personnel who will cheer up the campaign as required per the standards of the public relations. It is commonly known that the majority of public relations practitioners have background disciplines from other studies since they are practicing marketers, graphic artists, journalists, advertisers, and psychologists. However, the bitter truth is that some of them are lacking a comprehensive understanding of what it must take in becoming a full practitioner within a public relations campaign such as “If Youth Can, Then I Can” ( Banyard, Edwards & Siebold, 2017). Such disciplines are crucial to gain significant expertise in matters related to community violence campaigns. Still, they should always be merged with other essential courses to achieve a fully competent public relations campaign expertise. In this “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign, some campaigners are unqualified, thereby making claims they are not able to defend. Besides, they can, therefore, organize for substandard campaign guarded with professional misconduct. Given the above critique concerning the problematic of the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign, various strategies can be utilized to change this significantly. Public funding should be provided for the campaign, which would always come from the public treasury. It should be the funding for any program or services that can benefit the community as a whole, including the financing of the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign ( Kiss, Schraiber, Hossain, Watts & Zimmerman, 2015). Such funding should come through the state, local, and federal government channels, which are always different at every level. On the same note, state funding can also play a crucial role in seeing this campaign from the beginning to the end. State funding would come from federal taxes. To change how this “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign is conducted, I would also consider implementing social media monitoring to view and analyze whether social media is being poor used or not. It would comprise the process of collecting social messages into one stream in addition to taking appropriate action in response to each message ( Weine, Stone, Saeed, Shanfield, Beahrs, Gutman & Mihajlovic, 2017). It would also assist in querying large volumes of social media message emanating from specific topics or keywords that requires the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” in reflecting and drawing analysis from such actions. However, this should be achieved through topic affinity or sentiment analysis. Social media monitoring would also imply recording the campaign’s social data concerning how it interacts with the organizers. This is a fundamental approach that would assist in extracting insights from the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign site in addition to providing room for engaging and discussion. To change this “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign, I would also consider having in place the internal public relations campaigns alongside qualified PR personnel. It is because this would significantly assist in bolstering the morale of campaigners, in addition to improving communications and motivating campaigners. Ellis and Abdi (2017) observe that the efforts of qualified public relations personnel in any campaign help in putting on the loop concerning the campaign’s activities and the strategic plans. Incorporating an excellent public relations in “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign would help in highlighting its purpose via creative ways. As a result, this would significantly help in improving the overall impression of the “If Youth Can, Then I Can” campaign.
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Conclusion
It is imperative in understanding that “If Youth Can, then I Can!” campaign was created to join together and take necessary actions to improve our communities and prevent violence. It is because the campaign first intends to determine how the issue of community violence affects the youths within the community and thereby provide critical approaches that can be used in eliminating community violence. This would be achieved through increasing awareness about the endless effects of community violence on families, youths, and communities. On the same note, the campaign would ensure that families and youths are engaged in significant ways that can help to address the complexities of community violence and trauma.
References
Banyard, V., Edwards, K. M., & Siebold, W. L. (2017). Involving community in sexual violence prevention: Engaging bystanders. The Wiley Handbook of Violence and Aggression , 1-12.
Cassidy, T., Bowman, B., McGrath, C., & Matzopoulos, R. (2016). Brief report on a systematic review of youth violence prevention through media campaigns: Does the limited yield of strong evidence imply methodological challenges or absence of effect?. Journal of adolescence , 52 , 22-26.
Ellis, B. H., & Abdi, S. (2017). Building community resilience to violent extremism through genuine partnerships. American Psychologist , 72 (3), 289.
Kiss, L., Schraiber, L. B., Hossain, M., Watts, C., & Zimmerman, C. (2015). The link between community-based violence and intimate partner violence: The effect of crime and male aggression on intimate partner violence against women. Prevention science , 16 (6), 881- 889.
Weine, S. M., Stone, A., Saeed, A., Shanfield, S., Beahrs, J., Gutman, A., & Mihajlovic, A. (2017). Violent extremism, community-based violence prevention, and mental health professionals. The Journal of nervous and mental disease , 205 (1), 54-57.
