On Thursday June 19, Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando hosted a fundraiser at his home on behalf of the Youth Intervention Network (YIN) aimed to help the organization move forward into the future.
YIN works with existing programs and resources to assist youth’s ages 10 through 18 with a level of support to steer them away from committing violence or becoming a victim of violence.
This is the second year the Chief has hosted such a fundraiser in an effort to bring community stakeholders together to benefit the local youth. Although the funds raised have not been reported yet, we were told they surpassed last year’s amount of $1,000 raised.
For more information on the Youth Intervention Network, visit them on Facebook
YIN partners and volunteers have all come together under the High Performing Communities (HPC) model created by Emerald Consulting to create the foundation for an environment that is safe and inclusive. This collaborative novel approach utilizes Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC), which provides the foundation for the partners to deal with ‘normal’ inter-agency conflict. It is this conflict that commonly undermines successful collaborative efforts.
To date, of the youth and their families who have completed the family mediation portion of the process and moved into the Family Advocacy phase, 100% have shown an increase in GPA from a starting average of 0.85 with an average increase of 1.5 points. The rise in GPA can be attributed at least in part to a reduction in truancy of more than 75% and a reduction of police calls for service to YIN family homes from 300 to just 21 last year. Financial supporters of the YIN have been The City of Antioch, Emerald Consulting, Jaap and Tineke van der Sar – Netherlands, Dialogue for Peaceful Change – UK, East Bay Community Foundation, Pacific Gas And Electric, Edin and Vesna Murgic, John Muir Health, US Attorneys Northern District – Joseph Russoniello and for 2011, Melinda Haag, and the Vesper Society
Since 2006 YIN has grown into a community-wide collaboration involving partners which include the Antioch Unified School District; the Antioch Police Department; County Supervisor Federal Glover; the Police Athletic League; the City of Antioch; Sutter Delta Memorial Hospital; John Muir Health; the East County Business-Education Alliance; The Antioch Chamber of Commerce; John F. Kennedy University School of Graduate Psychology; East County and Contra Costa County Children and Family Services; AJWI Consulting; Contra Costa County Juvenile Probation; The Williams Group; One Day at a Time; Attorney at Law, Carla Minnard of the Farisse Law Firm; The Contra Costa County Domestic Violence Zero Tolerance Initiative; and a number of faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, youth, parents, and community members. YIN currently has approximately 200 trained volunteers serving as mediators, Family Advocates, tutors, and community support.
