"STREET OUTREACH" PROGRAM

Street outreach has reemerged recently as an important component of comprehensive drug abuse and violence control strategies. Communities throughout the nation are implementing outreach programs, and local governments are becoming interested in both cooperating with outreach workers and regulating this work.

All-American Sambo Federation continues its participation in the Program by providing training to the Club owners, as well as financial assistance in the form of Grants to the qualified students.

Our goals - to connect youth to positive social services and role models and to make youth understand that they do not need to follow a gang lifestyle to gain acceptance. Outreach coaches in these programs may also work closely with the families of the at-risk youth to address the root causes of the youth's behavior.

Outreach coaches must be able to connect with the youth targeted - It is essential that the outreach coach identify appropriate youth to target and establish trust and open communication. A similarity in background and ethnicity and an established reputation and relationships in the community can help a coach to connect with local youth.

Collaboration - An outreach coach cannot directly provide all the services a child may need. Our outreach program actively collaborate with others and build relationships throughout the community with other groups, individuals, and agencies to provide its participants with the services they need or advocate successfully on their behalf.

Responsiveness and flexibility - Outreach coaches should not provide the same response to all participants; they should tailor their approach to the individual youth with whom they are working. This requires that programs have strong collaborations with service providers and employ people with flexible schedules that allow them to respond to the needs of program participants and to conflicts as they happen.

Relationship with police departments - our street outreach program includes partnerships with local police departments which is essential to this program. This can be a very complicated, sensitive relationship that is difficult to build, but it is well worth it for programs to make the effort, and sometimes to coordinate strategies to help reduce violence in the targeted communities.