Pathway to Resilience will focus on jobs to curb youth violence

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Steven H. Rosen (left) and Bassem A. Mansour (right), co-CEOs of Resilience Capital Partners, the (Cleveland-based private equity firm and lead sponsor of Pathway to Resilience.

(Photo courtesy of Resilience Capital Partners)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland and a local company are launching a program aimed at combating youth violence by mentoring young adults and linking them to job training and employment.

The Boys & Girls Clubs and Resilience Capital Partners, a Cleveland-based private equity firm, are scheduled to announce today the Pathway to Resilience program that will begin in early 2017. The program is targeting at-risk young people from 171/2-years-old to about 26, said Steven Rosen, co-chief executive officer of Resilience Capital Partnership. The pilot will select two sets of 10 participants for a full-time program lasting six months. He said the program would draw from gang intervention research -- including that done by the Department of Justice - by using diverse strategies ranging from those focused on workforce development to those incorporating social services.

Rosen said two factors motivated his drive to address redirecting at-risk youth away from violence to meaningful employment. One was the desire to help in lowering Cleveland's high poverty and violence rates. Cleveland consistently ranks near the top nationally among cities with the highest poverty rates. The violent crime rate in Cleveland is triple the national average, according to a white paper by Cleveland's Collaborative on Youth Violence Prevention.

Rosen's work funding manufacturing companies throughout the industrial Midwest also led him to explore an employment-based solution. He said several of the companies his firm has funded have had difficulty filling openings, such as those for welders. Rosen believes a program that could help in creating skilled workers would not only aid in closing the skills gap, but also in lowering youth violence.

"We want to improve the lives of these young folks so that they can move away from  a life of potentially unproductive behaviors to making a contribution to addressing a shortage of skills in the workforce in our Rust Belt area," he said.

Research has shown a link between high youth unemployment and violence rates. For example, an analysis done earlier this year for The Plain Dealer by Claudia Coulton, co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University and a professor of urban social research, found a correlation between youth idleness and youth violence in many Cuyahoga County suburbs and Cleveland neighborhoods. High youth unemployment contributes to youth idleness.

See: Research shows link between joblessness and youth violence: Pathways to Peace

Pathway to Resilience aims to team participants with area business as part of the job training and placement process. Rosen said the program needs for more businesses to be partners and sponsors. For information: pathway@resiliencecapital.com or (216) 360-7254.

Mayor Frank G. Jackson said the support of Cleveland's corporate community is vital to making the program successful.

"Pathway to Resilience is what is needed as an interdiction tool that will lead to prevention and reduction of crime," he said in a news release. "The key to this program is support from local businesses and corporations partnering with Pathway which will lead to employment and better choices for our youth."

The program's collaborative approach, which taps services and resources from throughout the community, means the three-year pilot should cost about $150,000 a year to run, Rosen said. He hopes the program will eventually be expanded locally as well as nationally. The Cleveland Foundation, James Vaughn, III and Cintas Corp. are among the entities supporting the pilot.

Rosen said the Boy & Girls Clubs will screen the candidates for the program.

"We're looking for someone eager to learn and be the best they can be," he said of the ideal participant. "It doesn't matter what has happened (to the person) up to this point. What is in the past is in the past.

"I think it is important for young people to know that you can't change what has happened, but you can certainly change tomorrow and what happens from that point on," Rosen said. "We're gong to help them do that."

On Monday, City Council approved $700,000 for an eight-person Youth Crime and Prevention team. Council also approved a $75,000 grant for a "violence interrupter" at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, whose role will include gathering information about simmering hostilities among young people that have the potential to erupt into violence.

Councilman Zack Reed, whose ward includes Mount Pleasant, had lobbied for Cleveland to implement a comprehensive anti-violence strategy. He believes Pathway to Resilience will be a key component of the approach.

"This program will give us an opportunity to talk to those individuals who are affected by this violence; and hopefully be able to persuade them to give up this violent lifestyle," he said. "(We can tell them) they need to put down these gun, and in return we will give them a positive tool to navigate throughout this society, such as training and a job."

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