Helping kids: Updated plan IDs risk factors for Erie County's youth, offers recommendations

Imagine Erie County's youth caught in a river of risk factors.

There are organizations and entities in place working to pull the kids out of the river's strong current, such as child welfare, probation, social service and mental health providers and foster care, said Amy Eisert, director of the Mercyhurst University Civic Institute.

But the Erie County Policy and Planning Council for Children and Families, a nearly three-decades-old, county-created collaborative which supports those organizations and entities that address violence prevention and youth and family issues, focuses on what it calls "upstream prevention," Eisert said.

"The PPC is the entity that asks who's chucking these kids in the river, and looks to prevent them from getting in the water in the first place," she said.

Eisert made the analogy Tuesday morning as she and others involved in the entity released the council's updated community action plan for children and families during a news conference at Mercyhurst.

The council serves as the collaborative entity for the prevention prong of Unified Erie, an antiviolence initiative launched in 2010. Enforcement and reentry are the other prongs of the initiative. Eisert said that while the PPC is the prevention entity, it goes beyond just the violence aspect and focuses holistically on youth and family issues.

More: Unified Erie keeps focus on youth as gun violence involving juveniles continues to rage

The community action plan, which follows similar plans that were released in 2013 and 2017, identified four main risk factors facing Erie County's youth — depressive symptoms, low commitment to school, neighborhood attachment, and parental attitude favorable to antisocial behaviors — and offers recommendations for addressing them.

Battling depressive symptoms

Eisert said depressive symptoms have been a growing problem among the county's youth. While the county has many resources to address issues of mental health, the service system can be complex and challenging, she said. At times, an individual may be on a waiting list for services only to find the services the individual is waiting for aren't the ones that meet the individual's needs, Eisert said.

Recommendations addressed in the plan include increasing awareness and sharing information, implementing school-wide prevention programs that include self-regulation, and providing training and education on what depressive symptoms look like at various ages and stages.

Among the things the community action plan supports is the implementation of a universal detection screening for early detection of depressive symptoms, said Jeffrey Natalie, regional director of the Community Care Behavioral Health Organization.

Strengthening commitment to school, future careers

In speaking on the low commitment to school risk factor, Eisert said that, according to Pennsylvania Youth Survey data, nearly 60% of Erie County's youth is at risk for problem behaviors because they are failing to see the connection between their education and their futures. Among the plan's recommendations are involving students in their plans for their future, exploring mentoring opportunities for life skills, career and enrichment, and providing enrichment opportunities for youth in school and community.

One effective effort that has been underway since 2014 is Career Street, an initiative that connects employers, schools, nonprofit organizations and students for career exploration and workforce preparation, said its director, Jennifer Nygaard Pontzer.

Addressing neighborhood attachment, parental guidance issues

Recommendations suggested for addressing neighborhood attachment include offering year-round neighborhood events, recruiting neighbors for neighborhood participation, involving youth and college students in their neighborhoods, and utilizing new forms of communication such as apps and social media within neighborhoods.

Eisert said the final risk factor, parental attitudes favorable towards antisocial behaviors, is undoubtedly the most challenging. While most parents are doing the best they can, some need more guidance and support, she said.

Among the recommendations outlined in the plan include addressing family barriers surrounding basic needs, creating a portrait of what a supportive parent looks like, exploring a lack of faith in existing resources among families, and addressing families who have antisocial behavior ideals.

The community action plan isn't about reinventing the wheel, creating unnecessary duplication of efforts or taking credit for something, but is about ensuring efforts are being concentrated in the community's greatest areas of need among its youth, Eisert said.

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Plan IDs risk factors for Erie County's youth, offers recommendations