Prevention
There are a number of local neighborhood programs that are designed to help the city of Cleveland take a STANCE against crime, drugs and gangs. The following Prevention programs are designed to help at-risk youth. See how they might be able to assist you or someone you care about. You can also contact them to learn more about how the programs are designed to assist the community.
2-1-1 Get Connected. Get Answers.
The national 2-1-1 initiative seeks to reserve these three digits nationwide as a quick, easy-to-remember telephone number for finding human services answers. 2-1-1 is a telephone number that, where available, connects people with important community services and volunteer opportunities. The implementation of 2-1-1 is being spearheaded by the United Way and will help connect you with specialized information and referral agencies in state and local communities.
Amer-I-Can
Founded by Jim Brown, Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change, is a non-profit organization created to offer social support and services to underserved populations and cities. Amer-I-Can features a program which teaches Life Management Skills curriculum designed to empower individuals to take charge of their lives.
B.R.I.C.K.
BRICK is an acronym for "Brotherhood, Respect, Intelligence, Conduct and Knowledge". Tim Roberts, a former city police officer and security guard at Martin Luther King High School founded the program, after seeing so many tragedies involving young men in the community. Teens learn the principals of BRICK through success at school, and getting involved in their community, through service projects, reading to children, and mentoring other youth.
Boys Hope Girls Hope
Boys Hope Girls Hope is a privately funded, non-profit, multi-denominational organization that provides at-risk children with a stable home, positive parenting, high-quality education, and the support needed to reach their full potential. Many of the children come from home environments marked by drug abuse, poverty or neglect. Others come from caring families unable to meet the child’s needs.
Brown Bag Seminars
Brown Bag Seminars are offered to citizens during lunch periods. The seminars are specifically tailored to give general or specific safety information to citizens that have requested it. Safety tips include, but are not limited to, home safety, automobile safety and personal safety. Contact the Police Community Relations Unit for more information.
Camp Forbes Summer Program
This program gives inner-city youth the opportunity to experience a week-long residential camp environment during the summer weeks. Selected D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. Officers/Instructors teach various portions of their programs as a continued support network, as well as follow-up programs after the school semester ends. Camp applications are available from any recreation center from April 1 - May 15th, after May 15th, you may register at Camp Forbes. Call 831-5910 for further information.
Child Accident Prevention Program (C.A.P.P.)
This program provides children ages 4-7 with traffic and home safety tips including calling 911, bicycle safety, pedestrian safety, fire safety and Eddie Eagle gun safety. The program is offered during the summer months at 21 Cleveland locations, including 19 Cleveland Recreation Centers.
Cleveland Boys & Girls Club
Since 1954, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland (BGCC) has worked to improve the quality of life for Cleveland youth ages 6-18 by providing an array of services that build self-reliance and foster personal, educational and social achievement.
The Covenant Project
The Covenant Project was founded on the belief that every child deserves the best education possible. Project staff and volunteers work with at-risk youth in grades 4-12 to help them overcome obstacles that prevent them from reaching their academic potential. Both parents and students in the Maple Heights School District have found help from the Covenant Project when dealing with problems that negatively impact school attendance, student behavior (in and out of school) and educational achievement.
Crisis Intervention
The Crisis Intervention Team works with youth to provide emergency mediation.
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA)
The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) owns and manages property and administers rent subsidy programs to provide eligible low-income persons with safe, affordable housing. CMHA maintains an accredited police department to ensure safe places to live and work, and a social services department that develops programs to enhance the quality of life of its residents.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.)
This program is taught to elementary school 5th graders and targets the topic of Drug Abuse. D.A.R.E. is taught by uniformed police officers in all 82 Cleveland Municipal School District Elementary Schools and several Cleveland Parochial Schools. Approximately 6,400 children attend D.A.R.E. classes each week. D.A.R.E. is a 17-week program.
Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.)
This program is taught to middle school 7th graders with lessons on resisting peer pressure, resolving conflicts, goal setting and the impact of gangs and gang violence. G.R.E.A.T. is taught by uniformed police officers in all 23 Cleveland Municipal School District Middle Schools and 13 Cleveland Parochial Schools. Approximately 6,800 children attend G.R.E.A.T. classes annually. G.R.E.A.T. is a 10-week program.
Eddie Eagle Gun Safety Program
The Eddie Eagle Gun Safety program provides gun safety education to elementary school children. This program has three levels for various elementary school-age children. The main concept is to teach children, "Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the Area, Tell an Adult." This program is taught to approximately 9,000 children each year.
Employment Connection – City of Cleveland
Employment Connection is a collaborative workforce development system comprised of partners working together to better attract the attention and respect of the business community as well as to create streamlined and efficient customer services for jobseekers.
E.M.S. Rams Youth Football
The E.M.S. Rams Youth Football team is a non-profit organization composed of parents, grand-parents, friends and community servants who volunteer their time to aid, mold and develop the social, moral, and spiritual characteristics of inner-city youths who reside in the City of Cleveland. We are an organization that promotes diversity. We do not discriminate against individuals based on race, religion, sex or creed. We are advocates for student athletes with a strict emphasis on education. We believe in self-motivation driven by the desire to succeed. We believe in a drug-free society.
Law Enforcement Explorer Program
This program is a combined effort between the Boy Scouts of America and the Cleveland Police Department to educate and involve youth between the ages of 14 and 18 in police operations and law enforcement functions. The Cleveland Police Department offers Explorers the opportunity to receive classroom training and hands-on experience in law enforcement and ride-a-longs with police officers. Explorers are involved in community events and assist the police with a variety of activities.
Neighborhood Watch Program
Neighborhood Watch provides the opportunity for residents to work with the police in establishing community crime prevention programs designed to meet a neighborhood’s particular needs. Residents work together to look out for each other's homes, vehicles and neighborhood area businesses. Neighborhood Watch is sometimes referred to as "street club," "block watch" or "crime watch." Here is a checklist to help you get started http://www.ncpc.org/cms/cms-upload/ncpc/files/chklist.pdf.
Partnership for a Safer Cleveland
Partnership for a Safer Cleveland is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing safety through collaborative, educational and programmatic initiatives. The experts at the Partnership serve as consultants and resources to public and private groups working to prevent and lessen violence in their communities. The Partnership uses their broad experience, training, and relationships to bring key leaders from the justice system, law enforcement, schools, businesses, community groups and the media together to help solve problems, design effective programs and create policies that these organizations and agencies eventually implement themselves long-term.
Peace In The Hood
Peace In The Hood is dedicated to Peace, Justice and Empowerment. Peace In The Hood is a youth violence, prevention, intervention and educational program that promotes personal responsibility, empowerment and self-sufficiency. They provide young people with structured activities from a holistic culturally specific perspective. This process will enable young adults to learn and implement the tools necessary to become productive citizens in society.
Police Athletic League (PAL)
PAL is an organization dedicated to the positive development of youth in an attempt to prevent juvenile delinquency throughout the city. The Police Athletic league provides the children and youth of Cleveland with a safe place to go and programs that offer a chance to participate in organized activities to keep children off the streets and out of trouble.
Police Athletic League (PAL) of East Cleveland
The mission of the Police Athletic League of East Cleveland, Inc., referred to as “EC PAL” is to provide a viable deterrent to crime by providing various educational, cultural and sporting activities to youth between the ages of 6 and 16. For a youngster to be eligible to participate in PAL activities, he/she must attend school regularly and demonstrate passing grades. EC PAL also operates the Police Athletic League of Euclid.
Police Athletic League (PAL) of Euclid
PAL is an organization dedicated to the positive development of youth in an attempt to prevent juvenile delinquency throughout the city. The Police Athletic League provides Euclid youth with a safe place to go and programs to participate in organized activities designed to keep children off the streets and out of trouble.
Police – Cleveland Division of Police
Bureau of Community Policing
1300 Ontario Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Non Emergency (216) 623-5080
Emergency 9-1-1
Police - Auxiliary Police
The Cleveland Police Auxiliary program is a voluntary program open to adults age 18 and older. Volunteers are trained and uniformed by the Cleveland Police Department. Auxiliary Officers are detailed to specific neighborhood bases and assist uniformed Cleveland Police Officers in a variety of ways. Currently, approximately 212 Auxiliary Officers are asked to commit to a minimum of 16 hours of service per month. Training and mileage reimbursement are provided.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun violence by networking existing local programs that target gun crime and providing these programs with additional tools necessary to be successful. The goal is to take a hard line against gun criminals through every available means in an effort to make our streets and communities safer. Project Safe Neighborhoods seeks to achieve heightened coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement, with an emphasis on tactical intelligence gathering, more aggressive prosecutions, and enhanced accountability through performance measures. The offensive will be led by the U.S. Attorney in each of the 94 federal judicial districts across America.
STANCE 2008 Summer Scoop Newsletter
The Summer Scoop Newsletter contains information on local job opportunities, festivals, events, news, important numbers and much more.
Vocational Guidance Services (VGS)
Vocational Guidance Services (VGS) changes lives and communities with services that enhance personal abilities, break down barriers to employment and help individuals realize their potential. VGS has become a national leader in helping individuals realize brighter futures by providing a variety of services each year to over 5,000 individuals with physical or mental disabilities, economic disadvantages, and/or histories of incarceration.
Weed & Seed
Weed & Seed is a comprehensive strategy — not simply a program — to assist communities in bringing people and resources together to prevent and control crime and improve the overall quality of life.
Young African-American Reclamation Project, Junior
A culturally specific after-school program that works to prevent crime and substance abuse among at-risk youth. Annually 300 youngsters who live in metropolitan housing are served through an educational and recreational program that stresses safety and health.
If you would like to add a link to your organization here, please email us a description of your organization and a link to your website.
