Blueprint Pathways Surrey

Brief Description

Blueprint Pathways Surrey is a youth gang prevention program targeting female and Indigenous youth aged 13 to 19 deemed high-risk for gang recruitment. It involves one full-time youth worker providing mobile outreach during and outside of school instructional hours to provide youth mentorship, connection to pro-social activities, and bridging to additional community resources. Two to three sessions of intensive support will be provided to each client on a weekly basis with an anticipated yearly caseload of 30 high-risk youth. The expected outcome for participating clients will be a lack of observed gang affiliation paired with an increased connection to school, family and community.

The program is centred on community mobilization; conflict resolution; counselling and social work; leadership and youth development; mentoring; school-based strategies; skills training; social emotional learning; substance prevention/treatment; and truancy prevention.

Goals

The main goals of Blueprint Pathways Surrey are to:

1. Reduce identified mentorship gaps in Surrey, BC for high-risk female and Indigenous youth vulnerable for gang recruitment;
2. Empower and support youth participants in establishing and achieving goals that will disrupt pathways to gang affiliation; and
3. Increase positive connections between participants and their school, family and community.

Clientele

The primary target audience for Blueprint Pathways Surrey are Surrey residents aged 13 to 19 that have been deemed high-risk for gang recruitment and identify as female and/or Indigenous. Non-Indigenous male youth may be accepted based on need and worker caseload capacity.

To ensure participants meet eligibility criteria, referrals are anticipated to come primarily through Surrey’s Children and Youth At-Risk Table and the Wraparound Surrey team that the Blueprint worker will be embedded with.

Core Components

The Blueprint Pathways Surrey pilot consists of one full-time (40 hours per week) worker providing mobile outreach during and outside of school instructional hours. This includes before, during, and after school as well as during school closures such as professional days and winter, spring, and summer breaks. Evening and weekend support may be arranged based on relevant events, groups, or client needs but core hours will be Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm.

The worker will provide intensive support to up to 30 high-risk youth per year. Each client will be offered two to three support sessions per week for a duration of roughly six months.

Implementation Information

Some of the critical elements for the implementation of this program or initiative include the following:

• Organizational requirements: The lead organization must have solid skills in outreach, intake and assessment, case planning, and program delivery. Manager oversight will help the worker to ensure client privacy, client and worker safety, and effective service delivery.
• Partnerships: The success of Blueprint Pathways Surrey depends on its primary partnership with the Surrey School District and Surrey RCMP. Existing partnerships with additional community-based organizations that support youth gang prevention efforts will also contribute to program success.
• Training and technical assistance: Staff with the required skillset to support the role will be recruited and must be trained in applying the appropriate risk assessment tools for identifying suitable clients. Ongoing training opportunities will be made available to respond to arising trends as needed.
• Risk assessment tools: For each client, Blueprint’s risk assessment tool will track up to 100 risk factors across the Individual, Peer, Family, School and Community domains. Each risk factor will be assessed using a five-point scale to support client selection and project performance.
• Materials & resources: The City of Surrey will utilize two cloud-based SharePoint databases where all information is entered remotely. One database will be de-identified and used strictly for reporting purposes; the other will be used to record identifiable client information for the purposes of appropriate case management with access restricted to the worker and their manager.

International Endorsements

The most recognized classification systems of evidence-based crime prevention programs have classified this program or initiative as follows:

• Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development: Not applicable.
• Crime Solutions/OJJDP Model Program Guide: Not applicable.
• SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices: Not applicable.
• Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy: Not applicable.

Gathering Canadian Knowledge

Canadian Implementation Sites

British Columbia’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General’s Policing and Security Branch funded the Blueprint Pathways Surrey pilot through Public Safety Canada’s Gun and Gang Violence Action Fund. The pilot was implemented in 2021 by the City of Surrey.

Main Findings from Canadian Outcome Evaluation Studies

Blueprint Pathways Surrey is a pilot program set to launch August 2021. It will measure its performance using a single group design applying pre and post testing for each client wherein the presence of up to 100 risk factors will be rated using a five-point scale.

Cost Information

Prior to implementation, the primary costs anticipated to operate the Blueprint Pathways Surrey program for a full fiscal year included salary, transportation (mileage), and client engagement tools. The eight month pro-rated funding for the 2021-22 implementation year is $47,640 not including in kind costs covering cell phone, other office equipment, and other City of Surrey personnel time required to conduct privacy reviews, build databases, recruit and manage the worker, etc.

References

There is no Canadian reference available at this time.

For more information on this program, contact:

Brian Aasebo, Community Safety Manager

City of Surrey – Parks, Recreation and Culture Department

13450 104 Avenue

Surrey, British Columbia V3T 1V8

Telephone: (236) 598-3019