Nancy Jacobs and Terri Jackson, with Brenda Vargas and Leah Namour (1998).  Fountain for Youth Evaluation Summary. New York, NY: Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The Fountain for Youth in New York City was established in October 1995 with a grant from the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention.  The Fountain joined eleven other sites nationwide to address the crisis of violence and its consequences among young people in America. The initiative’s vision was the creation of healthy communities where youth are offered positive alternatives to violence.

The initial goal was to develop a diverse network of New York City stakeholders, who, as a critical mass, had the capacity to engage in community change efforts related to violence prevention.  Specific goals of the efforts were to develop a city-wide membership drive for support of programs and policies to meet young people’s and their families needs, promote positive images about youth and disseminate information about the Fountain’s mission, draw upon the faith community as an organizing agent for community change regarding violence prevention and to increase the professional capacity of youth-serving agencies for the creation and development of appropriate violence prevention initiatives.  The evaluation focused on systematic monitoring of project capacity development and activities, as well as the provision of technical assistance on collaborative planning.

For more information, contact the Research and Evaluation Center.