From the Director

The start of the new calendar year is a good time to assess our successes and consider priorities for the challenges ahead. The Council on At-Risk Youth would like to thank the City of Austin Council Members and the Travis County Commissioners Court for your recognition of the need for youth violence prevention as a key element of the City of Austin and Travis County social service initiatives. We plan during the coming year to encourage the City, the County, the School District, and the State of Texas to further raise the priority of youth violence prevention as one of the most cost-effective and far-reaching efforts the government can undertake.

Here are just a few reasons why:

Austin and Travis County has a youth violence problem;
Youth violence is a public health issue with impacts far beyond the immediate victim and economic damage caused by crime;
Investment in preventing youth violence can pay back many times today’s spending in future dollars saved; and
Effective, proven tools exist to address the problem.

The following pages provide some excerpts from the data and research that underlie these reasons.

While we are well aware that resources are limited to address the wide array of community needs, we hope that CARY can assist the City, the County and the State in finding ways to strengthen investment in prevention. Please let us know how we can contribute to furthering the vision of the 2000 CAN Community Assessment Report on Public Safety, Crime Prevention and Victimization¹, which called for “improvement, development and implementation of a comprehensive prevention method that directs services to youth at risk of offending… ” and to create “a balance between funding for incarceration and funding for prevention and intervention”.

Sincerely,
Adrian L. Moore
Executive Director