ABSTRACT

Youth-adult partnerships in disadvantaged neighborhoods offer a promising approach for preventing community problems such as violence. While they differ slightly from traditional intergenerational programs that involve youth with older adults, they foster similar goals, including promoting relationships, mutual support, and community engagement. A social process called collective efficacy is developed when youth and adults trust one another and work together to solve problems. Research shows that collective efficacy is associated with lower levels of community crime and violence. This paper describes a community-based intervention for mobilizing and engaging residents to prevent violence by a facilitating youth-adult partnership to foster collective efficacy, including trusting relationships and the competencies needed to address neighborhood problems. This paper begins with a review of youth-adult partnerships and their successful characteristics, followed by how these partnerships influence the social processes important for developing collective efficacy and preventing violence. The characteristics of successful youth-adult partnerships are illustrated throughout the discussion of the community-based intervention. This paper demonstrates how to translate prior research on youth-adult partnerships and collective efficacy into actionable strategies that community practitioners and researchers can use to prevent community violence.

摘要

弱势社区的青年与成人伙伴关系为预防暴力等社区问题提供了一种有前途的方法。虽然它们与涉及青年与老年人的传统代际计划略有不同，但它们促进了相似的目标，包括促进关系、相互支持和社区参与。当青年和成年人相互信任并共同努力解决问题时，就会形成一种称为集体效能的社会过程。研究表明，集体效能与较低水平的社区犯罪和暴力有关。本文描述了一种以社区为基础的干预措施，通过促进青年与成人的伙伴关系来促进集体效能，从而动员和参与居民预防暴力，包括信任关系和解决邻里问题所需的能力。本文首先回顾了青年与成人的伙伴关系及其成功特征，然后介绍了这些伙伴关系如何影响对发展集体效能和预防暴力很重要的社会进程。成功的青年与成人伙伴关系的特点在整个社区干预的讨论中都得到了说明。本文展示了如何将先前关于青年-成人伙伴关系和集体效能的研究转化为社区从业者和研究人员可以用来预防社区暴力的可行策略。其次是这些伙伴关系如何影响对发展集体效能和预防暴力很重要的社会进程。成功的青年与成人伙伴关系的特点在整个社区干预的讨论中都得到了说明。本文展示了如何将先前关于青年-成人伙伴关系和集体效能的研究转化为社区从业者和研究人员可以用来预防社区暴力的可行策略。其次是这些伙伴关系如何影响对发展集体效能和预防暴力很重要的社会进程。成功的青年与成人伙伴关系的特点在整个社区干预的讨论中都得到了说明。本文展示了如何将先前关于青年-成人伙伴关系和集体效能的研究转化为社区从业者和研究人员可以用来预防社区暴力的可行策略。