HONDURAS

Proponte Más Secondary Violence Prevention Activity

Honduras, with nearly 60 homicides per 100,000 residents, faces a violence epidemic. In some of the country’s most isolated communities, the actual murder rate can be more than doubled the national average.

While youth are both the primary victims and perpetrators of this violence, research has shown that only a very small minority of youth living in these at-risk areas are likely to engage in violence and criminal behavior associated with gangs.

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Proponte Más project will identify and work with 800 families and their youth ages 8 to 17 who are empirically at the highest risk of joining gangs. Using the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET), youth are evaluated based on a series of nine risk factors at a family, peer and individual level domain.

Based on evidence and proven success, Proponte Más builds on Creative’s USAID-funded Proponte pilot, which reduced youth risk factors significantly at the end of the one-year period, including a 77 percent drop in the crime and substance abuse risk factor and a 78 percent drop in antisocial tendencies.

Using a family-centered approach, Proponte Más will train and certify 50 family counselors to work in close partnership with the families of high-risk youth to establish positive relations and behaviors to lower the youth’s risk factors.

The project will also reach an additional 500 to 700 youth at an even higher level of risk—first time or nonviolent juvenile offenders—with targeted support to improve their chances of reintegration after a period of incarceration.

Working along with Creative are international and local organizations with expertise in evidence-based secondary prevention, alternative justice and place-based strategy implementation. These groups include Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Casa Alianza Honduras and Centro de Prevención de la Violencia.

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In Honduran communities with alarming levels of crime and violence, a small number of youth are most at risk of falling into the gangs that fuel conflict in their neighborhoods.  The USAID Proponte Más project’s evidence-based approach identifies these youth and works through specially trained family counselors to put them on a more peaceful and promising path. Meet the families and youth that are building resilience, reducing risk and envisioning a brighter future.

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