Strategies for Youth

Strategies for Youth is dedicated to improving the interactions between police and youth by increasing the approach, options, and responses of police to youth. Through training that integrates developmental and psychiatric practices and cutting edge research, and developing leadership in police departments, Strategies for Youth aims to reframe what is too often an adversarial approach to police/youth relations.

• SFY police trainings for police departments and school resource officers, focus on strategies to de-escalate violence in interactions with youth, increase youth-focused practices based on cutting edge psychological research, and support relationship-building in police departments and schools through increased integration with community-based programming.

• SFY Technical Assistance for departments to examine their approach to policing teens and consider new approaches to deployment and interactions with teens on the streets and in schools.

• SFY youth trainings called Juvenile Justice Jeopardy™ focus on making youth aware of how police are likely to approach them, how to behave during pat frisks and searches, and how to interact with officers in a manner to avoid escalation of interactions.