Grantee: Lompoc Unified School District
Project Title:
Lompoc Youth Violence Prevention Project
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded grant funding to eight local districts under the OJJDP FY 2019 Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization Program (CYVP). This grant program supported a comprehensive effort to address youth violence and victimization through implementing evidence-based prevention, intervention, and accountability efforts in a school-based setting. The goals of the program were to: (1) reduce the incidence of school violence through accountability efforts for offenders; (2) respond to victimization, exposure to violence, and trauma as a result of violence that occurs in the school, community, or family; (3) improve school safety and climate; and (4) prevent violence, delinquency, and victimization in the targeted community. LISC Safety & Justice provided technical assistance and training to enhance CYVP grantees’ capacity to reach their goals.
Introduction
Lompoc is a city of about 43,000 in Santa Barbara County, along California’s Central Coast. The city is known for its flower fields and wineries and its role in space technology. Lompoc has a median household income around $60,000 according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, lower than the national median of $70,784, and a poverty rate of 19.4 percent. Lompoc experienced rising crime in 2019, linked to gang activity and drug trafficking. Some families in the city have endured intergenerational exposure to violence.
Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) serves 9,800 students K-12 in 13 schools and an adult learning center. Lompoc schools experienced a recent increase in fighting and disruptive behavior among elementary and middle school students, leading students to feel unsafe in school and contributing to increasing violent juvenile offenses in Santa Barbara County.
Project Purpose
LUSD applied for a CYVP grant to provide training for staff, including Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and incorporate PBIS into the multi-tiered system of support for behavior framework. The school system targeted this work specifically to students in fifth through eighth grades with the goals of decreasing actual incidents of violent behavior and increasing students’ feelings of safety at school.
Approach
Focusing on elementary and middle schools, LUSD planned to use grant funds to train staff to understand and incorporate social-emotional supports in a more comprehensive way throughout the district. In addition, LUSD provided mental health counseling to students in need and brought in culturally relevant leadership training for students through the El Joven Noble program.
At the outset of the grant, LUSD had some teachers that embraced social-emotional learning (SEL) and used it in their classrooms, but many teachers believed their role was to refer students to a counselor for help. However, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic brought social and emotional well-being to the fore for students, teachers, and families. The crisis made it clear that it must be everyone’s job to build safe and supportive environments and care for students. LUSD began placing special SEL counselors in schools and classroom teachers were trained to implement new ways to support students, from informal “temperature checks” to formal counseling.
The success of SEL work depends on caring adults who are in tune with the social-emotional needs of students. The school district surveyed its teachers and staff about their understanding of SEL and found that 90% of them were aware of the effects of trauma on children. Such understanding will be valuable as the district positions itself to adopt a more comprehensive SEL plan district-wide. LUSD leadership understands that SEL for adults is a critical piece of providing SEL for students. The district has begun sharing mindfulness tips and looking at other ways to support teachers and staff in the same way they need to support their students.
LUSD contracted with a service provider to bring individual counseling to schools. However, it found that group supports like El Joven Noble were in many cases more effective in meeting student needs. LUSD partnered with the Compadres Program at CommUnify, a nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara, to bring the El Joven Noble training curriculum to Lompoc High School and Vandenberg Middle School. El Joven Noble is a ten-week, evidence-based curriculum for at-risk youth. It seeks to build leadership skills and guide young men and women through a “rites of passage” experience during their adolescent years, facilitated by positive male and female role models who incorporate fundamental indigenous-based restorative practices as a foundation for creating a climate that focuses on relationship-based connections.
LUSD staff have seen impacts on students from this culturally relevant program (and its counterpart for girls, Girasol). They engage students in a different way than classroom activities or individual counseling, and they include parental and community involvement. Individual therapy will always be an important intervention for some students and LUSD continues to connect youth to counseling, but the district believes more students need social settings like El Joven Noble where they can grow together and learn from one another. As the “social” side of social-emotional learning, these group experiences benefit youth both inside and outside the classroom.
While SEL is the centerpiece of its efforts, LUSD is working to prevent school violence in other ways. These include physical safety, such as a planned walking school bus, and restorative justice. Some LUSD elementary schools are becoming community schools, which provide family services beyond academics to address the root causes of health and safety. The district’s strategies are not limited to youth violence, but encompass health, connectedness, and other underlying factors that can have a long-term effect on mitigating and preventing violence. As with SEL, the school district wants to make it clear that addressing violence is everyone’s responsibility.
Results
Teachers and administrators are starting to see the impact of the SEL curriculum in classrooms. There is some early evidence of decreasing problem behaviors among students who have been through counseling or participated in the Joven Noble program, but it is still too early to determine if these efforts have had an effect on the overall incidence of violence in schools. LUSD is using the early results to shape its long-term plan, taking what it can learn from individual experiences to inform more systematic interventions. The district plans to focus on better developing Tier 1 (classroom and school-wide interventions) and Tier 2 (targeted group-based interventions), recognizing that Tier 3 activity (intensive individual interventions), while necessary, is less conducive to systemic change.
The district plans to continue the El Joven Noble program and it has invested in training staff and building relationships with organizations that can support the work. LUSD has partnered with CommUnify to bring in two full-time staff members to implement the program at the middle school. El Joven Noble graduation ceremonies have driven home the impact of the program for individual students. Young people chosen for the group are not “typical” leaders in the school population. Many of them have experienced trauma or behavioral issues, but after participating in the program they have gained confidence in themselves and their identities. District officials expect to see them make positive impacts on their schools, and the students themselves are excited about recruiting peers to participate next year.
Another outcome of the grant was better collaboration between Lompoc community agencies around youth violence. LUSD formed a coalition with other organizations, bringing disparate efforts together to address youth violence in a more coordinated way. The coalition has created a successful platform for community stakeholders to discuss and implement their ideas to address youth violence. In 2023, LUSD submitted a joint grant application with three other organizations, representing an unprecedented level of cooperation.
Related Resources
Webinar: Student- and Community-led Violence Prevention Strategies for Schools
See all of LISC's resources on comprehensive school-based approaches to addressing youth violence and victimization.
The Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) works to prevent and respond to youth delinquency and protect children.
Resources on this page are supported by Grant 2019-MU-MU-K011, awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).
OJJDP provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to youth delinquency and victimization. The Office helps states, localities, and tribes develop effective and equitable juvenile justice systems that create safer communities and empower youth to lead productive lives.