THE OCBI CAMPAIGN: The Iowa Ten Point Plan to Stop The Violence
Mission
As a part of the OCBI Campaign Strategy to help mobilize a coalition of faith community members and community organizations here in the state of Iowa, we would like to employ an Iowa version of The Boston TenPoint Coalition plan, in concert with the Iowa Missionary and Educational Baptist State Convention. This plan has already realized much success in other cities. (A little history: Established in 1992, The Boston TenPoint Coalition is an ecumenical group of Christian clergy and lay leaders working to mobilize the Greater Boston Christian community, particularly around the issues affecting Black and Latino youth, especially those at risk for violence, drug abuse, and other destructive behavior.)
Vision
The IOWA TenPoint Coalition envisions a strong, mobilized coalition of faith community members and community organizations, effectively using their collective power to provide consistent services for high-risk youth while rebuilding communities to secure a safe, moral, and productive future for all youth in Iowa. IOWA TenPoint foresees a future when the social entrepreneurial efforts of Coalition members and partners will generate the funds required to sustain local efforts while reaching out to replicate successful policies, programs and practices throughout the state and region.
The IOWA TenPoint Coalition is committed to reinforcing and creating new networks of violence prevention and intervention services, by building the capacity of coalition members to serve high-risk and, oftentimes, violent youth. The Coalition also commits to strengthening and expanding alliances with community-based, governmental, and private sector institutions willing to invest in high-risk youth and the future of the communities in which they live.
An alliance between the Iowa Commission on the Status of African Americans and The Iowa Missionary and Educational Baptist State Convention
Governor's Task Force on Youth, Race, and Detention
Statistics show that minority youth in Iowa are significantly overrepresented in our state juvenile detention facilities. In an effort to address this disparity, the Governor's Task Force on Youth, Race, and Detention was established to determine the causes of Black and other minority youth overrepresentation, to compare the screening tools and intake practices among the jurisdictions, and to report comprehensive findings by January 2009. The final report has several recommendations, and the data has been used in conjunction with state efforts to establish Iowa as one of the Annie E. Casey Foundations's Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative sites (JDAI). JDAI has been able to reduce levels of disproportionate minority youth overrepresentation in other states without compromising public safety.
A copy of the full Task Force report is available for download here.