In March of 2013, Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Services took a major step in strengthening it's youth violence/ gang prevention and intervention efforts by training twenty Street Outreach Network workers--a cadre of prevention/intervention workers that engage and work with high risk, and gang involved youth, and provide them with positive, life-affirming activities. The Montgomery County Department of Recreation Wheaton Sports Academy staff (a high school based prevention program that engages students in positive, life affirming activities, and the front-line staff from two Youth Opportunity Centers were trained in the Trauma-informed, Evidence Based Joven Noble Curriculum.
This training and certification could not have taken place at a more important time for the county, as many of the programs listed have experienced a significant spike in serving younger aged youth that have experienced multiple traumas in their lives. Most importantly, we believe that providing such a training for our front-line staff helps to set the standard for what all our prevention and intervention programs should have in place to best serve children and youth in the community. We look forward to work closely with NLFFI/NCN as the county continues to improve its service delivery to children, youth, and families for our diverse populations and we give special thanks to Maestro Jerry Tello!
Luis Cardona
Youth Violence Prevention Coordinator
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
401 Hungerford Drive, 5th Floor
Rockville, MD 20850
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