![[Table of Contents]](/icons/up.gif){kind=icon}
"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Raleigh, North Carolina
| Partners: | Wake County Public School System Wake County Human Services Agency Wake County Sheriff's Department and City of Raleigh Police Department | |
Wake County is a large county of approximately 600,000 citizens, encompassing 858 square miles, with a mixture of urban, suburban, and rural environments. The school district serves 92,000 students in 70 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, 13 high schools and five alternative school sites. The student population is 65.9% non-Hispanic white; 26% African American; 3.6% Asian; 3.1% Hispanic, and 1.3% other. Risk factors in the community include 10.32 juvenile violent crime arrests per 1,000 children in 1996, compared to 1.82 for the state and 1.34 for the nation; 4.03 juvenile drug arrests per 1,000 children in 1996, compared to 2.35 for the state and 2.07 for the nation. Nearly 10% of students were living in families in poverty, and 21.6% of students receive free and/or reduced cost lunches. The program will impact all Wake County students and thousands of community citizens.
In addition to the core partners, additional agencies participating in the Community Agenda for School Safety (CASS) Program include: Project Enlightenment; Wake County Community in Schools; Wake Emergency Management Agency; Capital Area ReEntry Youth; the Center for Prevention of School Violence; the Jordan Institute for Families; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; North Carolina State University; and Shaw University.
The CASS Program is a comprehensive, integrated, and community-wide initiative. Strategies are designed to implement a public health approach to interventions for primary education with general populations, secondary early intervention with at-risk populations and/or tertiary treatment interventions with the offender/victim populations. Early childhood programming will include expanding the existing community-wide capacity to provide in-home support services for at-risk families in communities with high concentrations of multiple risk factors. Community mentoring organizations will provide individual mentors for students considered at-risk. The CASS Program will provide diversionary options for adjudicated youth, as well as disciplinary options for all students. School-based screening, assessment, referral, and follow-up services, along with mental health prevention and early intervention services, will be expanded. These services will be made available to all adolescents and their families. Substance abuse programs and in-home support services for families with young children will also be expanded. Training will be provided for pre-school, kindergarten, and other teachers and staff, as they work with youth in various classes and after school programs. Security at all Wake County Public School sites will be improved.
The Wake County Public School System Evaluation and Research Department will be coordinating the evaluation process.
-###-
[Winston-Salem, North Carolina]