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>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 1987
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Project URL: http://www.street-soldiers.org
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Describe your program or new idea in one sentence. - The Alive & Free Movement is an international movement that is promoting understanding of youth violence as a disease and adoption of the successful Alive & Free Prescription as the treatment - a replicable methodology that combines a public health approach and a medical model for preventing youth violence that can be used across diverse communities.
What makes your initiative uniquely positioned to create change in your community? - While most of society treats youth violence as a law enforcement issue, the Alive & Free Movement teaches that it as a disease with a cure: the Alive & Free Prescription. The Prescription was developed by Dr. Joe Marshall, co-founder and Executive Director of Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers in San Francisco. Over 20 years of working with at-risk youth, Dr. Marshall developed and refined a method that combines a public health approach and medical model for treating and preventing youth violence. Using this method Omega has kept more than 7,000 youth alive and free, put 133 through college, transformed several Bay Area schools, taught more than 2,000 people around the world the Alive & Free Prescription and forged partnerships across diverse sectors - education, government, philanthropy, medicine, faith, youth development, law enforcement and neighborhoods. In 2006 Omega and its Street Soldiers National Consortium - people trained in and dedicated to promoting the Alive & Free Prescription - launched the Alive & Free Movement to promote worldwide adoption of the Alive & Free Prescription.
Describe how you organize and carry out your work? - The Alive & Free Prescription is based on the premise that violence is a disease. It is not an issue, a problem, a condition, or a crisis, but a disease with symptoms, germs, risk factors and protective factors. Seeing violence this way enables people to view youth not as “bad” or as “super predators, but as individuals who have been infected with the germs of the disease of violence - bad advice, bad examples, bad information, and bad instruction. And, as with any disease, prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation are the order of the day. The “hospital” we send the diseased to is prison, where youth often come out sicker than when they went in because of exposure to other infected individuals. The Alive & Free Prescription identifies the actions that put young people at risk of violence (Risk Factors), the symptomatic thinking that put young people at risk of violence (The Commandments of Violence) and Rules for Living that mitigate against the onset of the disease. These strategies are based on the code and value system that the youth most likely to be victims and/or perpetrators of violence live by.
What is your plan to scale and expand your innovation into your community and beyond? - The Alive & Free Movement seeks to advance understanding of youth violence as a disease and adoption of the Alive & Free Prescription as the treatment. To accomplish this we need a worldwide network of Street Soldiers – individuals dedicated to eliminating violence within themselves and their communities. The movement will accomplish this with outreach, working directly with young people at risk, training people and organizations in the Alive & Free Prescription, and building partnerships across diverse sectors – education, government, philanthropy, medicine, youth development, law enforcement, criminal justice, neighborhoods and more – to get the prescription embedded into violence prevention and health policies and practices.
What other resources, institutional, or policy needs would be necessary to help sustain and scale up your idea? - We would like to partner with a university to establish the Alive & Free Prescription as a research-based best practices by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other key institutions. We would also like to publish and disseminate the prescription beyond the youth development field (e.g., to medical doctors), have greater media coverage (e.g,. movie, television, news coverage), and get the prescription embedded into violence prevention and health policies and practices of local, state and federal government agencies.
Describe your impact in one sentence, commenting on both the individual and community levels. - We have kept more than 10,000 youth alive and free, put 133 through college, transformed schools, taught more than 2,000 people the Alive & Free Prescription, founded the Street Soldiers National Consortium with national and international chapters and launched the international Alive & Free Movement.
What impact has your work achieved to date? - The Alive & Free Movement is changing the way youth violence is responded to in diverse sectors. More than 2,000 from around the world trained in the Alive & Free Prescription are using it in their work with youth. At several Bay Area schools “adopted” by Omega, campus violence has been reduced and academic performance improved, impacting than 9,000 students. Street Soldiers National Consortium members are impacting their communities with similar work throughout California, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, Maryland, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, and South Africa. The first Street Soldiers National Conference was held in Birmingham, Alabama in 2006, and the next will be held in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008. Dr. Marshall spent two weeks in November 2007 spreading Alive & Free in South Africa. He visited Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto, Durban, and finished with the three-day Street Soldiers Violence Intervention and Prevention Summit in Cape Town which launched Alive & Free in South Africa.
What measure do you use to gauge your impact and why? - Young people who have used the Alive & Free Prescription have remained unharmed by violence and free from incarceration. Youth achievement is measured through assessments, student journals, quizzes, and surveys. For collegians, success is measured by grades, college retention, and graduation. We measure our school-based work through student surveys, teacher surveys and schools records. Training Institutes are measured through participant surveys.
How is your initiative currently being financed and how would you finance further expansion and/or replication? - Alive & Free Movement activities are currently carried out by headquarters (Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers) and other members of the Street Soldiers National Consortium, with each organization funding their own activities. At a planning retreat each year the Consortium agrees on a few key joint activities, though many members are carrying out replication activities beyond that. Funding for the Alive & Free Movement would enable us to hire a coordinator to collect data and facilitate communication and planning among Consortium members, provide funds to Consortium members for Alive & Free Movement activities and evaluation.
Provide information on your current finances and organization: - a. annual budget
b. annual revenue c. sources of revenue (please provide percentages if known) d. number of staff (full-time, part-time, and volunteers) Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers operates on an annual budget of $1,336,622. In the past several we have exceed our annual revenue goals and stayed within our budgeted expenses. Source of revenue are 60% foundations and corporations, 25% individual donors, 8% government grants, 6% earned income and 1% interest. The organization has five full-time staff, two part-time staff, and four contractual staff. Who are your potential partners and allies? - The Street Soldiers National Consortium assists in promoting the Alive & Free Prescription. Foundations and government agencies providing funding for the movement and partner in conducting activities and promoting the Alive & Free Prescription (e.g., the City of San Francisco and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund).
Who are your potential investors? - Public and private foundations, corporations, government agencies, and individuals.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - As a teacher and administrator in San Francisco for 25 years, Joe Marshall grew weary of witnessing the devastating effects of violence on his primarily African American students. He realized that being a good teacher was not enough. When the bell rang at three o’clock the school day was over, but the issues his students were facing—drugs, gangs, and violence—were just beginning. So in 1987 he and colleague Jack Jacqua founded Omega Boys Club to stop the violence. Later the Street Soldiers radio show and training programs allowed him to reach and help even more young people. Over 20 years, Omega Boys Club served as the small "urban laboratory" where Dr. Marshall developed a cure for a disease that is the number one cause of death for African American youth. The disease is violence. The cure is the Alive & Free Prescription. Today, Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers is an internationally recognized youth development and violence prevention organization leading a movement to save a generation of youth. The organization’s mission is to keep young people alive and free, unharmed by violence and free from incarceration. To provide youth with opportunity and support to build positive lives for themselves and move into contributing roles in society.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material. - Dr. Joe Marshall is an Ashoka Fellow and recipient of the McArthur Foundation Genius Award, Leadership Award from the Children's Defense Fund, Essence Award, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Award, Use Your Life Award from Oprah Winfrey, African American Excellence in Business award, The San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Award, and the Jefferson Award. He is the author of the book Street Soldier: One Man's Struggle to Save a Generation, One Life at a Time. He has a Ph.D. in psychology and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Morehouse College.
Contact Information:
Joseph Marshall
Executive Director Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers (Community-Based Nonprofit youth development agency) Discussions about this entry
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Hi Dana:
I've had some conversations with a couple of universities that never evolved into anything, I don't know why. Below is a sample of radio show topics.
Martin Luther King, Jr. show. “If you could ask Dr. King one question, what would it be and what do you think would be his answer?”
Young people in the foster care system. In studio guest—Liliana Calleja. Phone guest—Kristal McCoy of the California Youth Connection.
The death of Washington Redskins football star Sean Taylor and the article by Jason Whitlock. Also Dr. Marshall reports on his trip to South Africa.
Live location broadcast from San Francisco Juvenile Hall. In studio guest—Andre Aikins.
“Signs and symbols—the noose.” Also the movie American Gangster.
“3rd Annual Clean Slate Summit. How to get your past criminal record modified?” In studio guests Dorsey Nunn of All of Us or None.
Open lines-various topics: gang injunction, Jena 6, saggin, Chauncey Bailey, violence in the hood.
Spoken word show ’07. In studio guests are Shawn Gullatt, Kirya Traber, Tia Leon, Meilani Claym, Genghe Carmichael, and Jessica Jones.
“Ecstasy—Is this the reason behind the recent urban crime wave?’’ In studio guest, writer Sheerly Avni.
Conscious music show. In studio guests are singer/song writer Martin Luther and hip hop artist Boots Riley from the Coup.
“Stop Snitchin’—What’s going on here? What do you think of Cam’ron remarks? How many of you agree with him?” (Follow up to 60 minutes)
Gangs/Turf and the damage they do. “Why would anybody get into, be in a gang or turf given all we know about it?” The death of Antwanisha Morgan.
Kickoff show of Black History month. “How did we get from kings and queen to pimps and ho’s—and how do we get back?”
Is the threat of jail or an early death a deterrent to street life for young people? Is finding them something to do a deterrent?
Thanks!
Dr. M.
Hey there Dr. Marshall, It is great to see your entry in the competition! I have a couple questions: You mention that you would like to partner with a university. Have you had any luck in doing so? If not, what are the barriers that are keeping that relationship from forming?
Lastly, I'm interested in hearing more about your radio show. Can you give us some examples of the topics that you discuss on the show?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers