Free to Grow
 
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Note: As of April 17, 2007, the Free to Grow program has closed.  [close window]   


December 2003 Volume 1, Number 2


Welcome to the first edition of In-Site@freetogrow.org. Look for the
e-newsletter of Free To Grow: Head Start Partnerships to Promote Substance-Free Communities (FTG) to appear periodically in your e-mail box.

In-Site@freetogrow.org highlights approaches that researchers have found to be effective at strengthening two significant influences in every child's life, their families and communities.

Each issue will focus on a topic that supports the overall Free To Grow approach. Features will include tactics related to that issue's theme; an interview with an expert, and a list of resources, such as books, periodicals and websites, to guide you to additional information. We also will spotlight upcoming conferences and funding opportunities that we think will be of interest to you.

What is the Free To Grow approach?

To identify the best ideas and practices in the field of prevention in general, and substance abuse and child abuse prevention in particular, and apply them to the crucial early years. Unlike many early childhood prevention programs, Free To Grow is not a curricular intervention. Instead, FTG focuses on the young child's overall environment, not the child.

How does Free To Grow accomplish this?

Free To Grow partners with Head Start programs to engage parents, residents and community organizations, including schools and police departments, in strategies to support healthy families and neighborhoods. Family-focused strategies range from enhancing Head Start's ability to identify families' strengths and needs to partnering to provide counseling, parent education and leadership training to Head Start and non-Head Start families alike.

On the community side, Free To Grow seeks to enhance the way residents and community leadership work together to create sustainable solutions to reducing alcohol and drug abuse and the crime and violence often associated with it. These efforts may include broad-based partnerships to reduce neighborhood deterioration, as well as alliances with municipal officials to pass laws to support the program's prevention goals.

In this edition, we look at policing strategies that enhance the Free To Grow approach.

Why Is Policing Important to the Free To Grow Approach?

  • Law enforcement personnel are often the first to respond to calls that deal with family matters, such as domestic violence, child abuse and substance abuse. Therefore, it is important that police are trusted and familiar figures in the neighborhoods in which they work, and that they are able to guide families to appropriate services, when necessary.
  • Increased contact between police and residents makes for better relations between police and the communities in which they work.
  • Neighborhoods become safer when police and residents cooperate to reduce crime.

While some communities may find it challenging to partner with law enforcement, communities across the country have worked successfully with police departments to make their neighborhoods safer--allowing children to be free to grow in healthy, nurturing and supportive environments.


Community Policing
Community policing, a popular trend in law enforcement, puts police on the street, where they become known to residents, and vice versa. This technique focuses on increasing daily contact between police and citizens in everyday settings, rather than in emergency situations only.  Read more>>
Hot Spots
Hot Spots are areas in communities with heavy drug and criminal activity. Police are aware of the existence of hot spots because they generate a large number of calls for service. Hot spot interventions, such as concentrating law enforcement at a hot spot, can disrupt retail drug sales.  Read more>>
Problem-Oriented Policing
Police are trained to use "problem-oriented" policing techniques to uncover patterns of crime, identify solutions and put those solutions to work. For example, while the number of arrests made at a drug location might measure success in traditional policing, shutting down the drug operation would be the measure of success in the problem-oriented strategy.  Read more>>
Joy Citta, Captain with the Lincoln, Nebraska Police Department,
Joy Citta, Captain with the Lincoln, Nebraska Police Department,
A Free To Grow Partner, talks about community policing.

Photograph: ©2003, Stephen Shames/Polaris  Read more>>
 
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New Haven Police Project Child Development/Community Policing Program
http://cityofnewhaven.com/police/html...
 Read more>>
Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising
Policing for Crime Prevention
http://www.ncjrs.org/works/chapter8.h...
 Read more>>
Promising Strategies to Reduce Substance Abuse
Law Enforcement Section
 Read more>>
Fight Crime: Invest In Kids
Read more>>
Family Support Conference
Sponsored by Family Support America
May 12-15, 2004 ' Read more>>
Funding Opportunity
Hope VI Funding
Read more>>