CA Penal Code Section 13825.4

Community-based organizations and nonprofit agencies that receive funds under this chapter shall utilize the funds to provide services and activities designed to prevent or deter at-risk youth from participating in gangs, criminal activity, or violent behavior.

(a)

These prevention and intervention efforts shall include, but not be limited to, any of the following:

(1)

Services and activities designed to do any of the following:

(A)

Teach alternative methods for resolving conflicts and responding to violence, drugs, and crime.

(B)

Develop positive and life-affirming attitudes and behaviors.

(C)

Build self-esteem.

(2)

Recreational, educational or cultural activities.

(3)

Counseling or mentoring services.

(4)

Economic development activities.

(b)

Funds allocated under this chapter may not be used for services or activities related to suppression, law enforcement, incarceration, or other purposes not related to the prevention and deterrence of gangs, crime, and violence. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent funds allocated under this chapter from being used for violence prevention and gang crime deterrence services provided by community-based organizations and nonprofit agencies to youths incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities.

(c)

Services and activities provided with funds under this chapter shall be used for at-risk youth who are defined as persons from age 5 to 20 years of age and who fall into one or more of the following categories:

(1)

Live in a high-crime or high-violence neighborhood as identified by local or federal law enforcement agencies.

(2)

Live in a low-economic neighborhood as identified by the U.S. Census or come from an impoverished family.

(3)

Are excessively absent from school or are doing poorly in school as identified by personnel from the youth’s school.

(4)

Come from a socially dysfunctional family as identified by local or state social service agencies.

(5)

Have had one or more contacts with the police.

(6)

Have entered the juvenile justice system.

(7)

Are identified by the juvenile justice system as being at risk.

(8)

Are current or former gang members.

(9)

Have one or more family members living at home who are current or former members of a gang.

(10)

Are identified as wards of the court, as defined in Section 601 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

(d)

Except as provided in subdivision (e), in carrying out a program of prevention and intervention services and activities with funds received under this chapter, community-based organizations and nonprofit agencies shall do all of the following:

(1)

Collaborate with other local community-based organizations, nonprofit agencies or local agencies providing similar services, local schools, local law enforcement agencies, residents and families of the local community, private businesses in the local community, and charitable or religious organizations, for purposes of developing plans to provide a program of prevention and intervention services and activities with funds provided under this chapter.

(2)

Identify other community-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, local agencies, and charitable or religious organizations in the local community that can serve as a resource in providing services and activities under this chapter.

(3)

Follow the public health model approach in developing and carrying out a program to prevent, deter or reduce youth gangs, crime or violence by (A) identifying risk factors of the particular population to be targeted, (B) implementing protective factors to prevent or reduce gangs, crime or violence in the particular community to be serviced, and (C) designing community guidelines for prevention and intervention.

(4)

Provide referral services to at-risk youth who are being served under this chapter to appropriate organizations and agencies where the community-based organization or nonprofit agency can readily identify a need for counseling, tutorial, family support, or other types of services.

(5)

Provide the parents and family of the at-risk youth with support, information, and services to cope with the problems the at-risk youth, the parents, and the family are confronting.

(6)

Involve members of the at-risk target population in the development, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of their program of services and activities.

(7)

Objectively evaluate the effectiveness of their services and activities to determine changes in attitudes or behaviors of the at-risk youth being served under this chapter towards gangs, crime, and violence.

(e)

Providers of programs that operate in juvenile detention facilities shall not be required to meet the criteria specified in paragraph (5) of subdivision (d) for those programs offered only in those facilities.