Bayview Safe Haven

The Bayview Safe Haven (BVSH) is an after school program targeting high-risk individuals who are 12-21 years old and living in San Francisco Bayview Hunter Point community. The program is designed to help individuals create a second home for themselves and to provide different services to the participants. These services are broken down into four categories that include: academic, vocational, recreational, and life skills/community service. The program includes academic tutoring and study halls, computer instruction, supervised outings, gender specific support groups and outreach, training, and employment for the Bay View Hunters Point Farmers Market. In addition the Bay View Hunters Point Farmers Market gives participants in BVSH the opportunity for employment in the agency's two urban organic farms. The participants learn composting techniques, recycling processes, community stewardship, and a sense of responsibility white running the Farmers Market booths. (http://www.hunterspointfamily.org/urban.html)

To provide academic, vocational, recreational and life skills for at risk youth ages 12-21 in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

The Harvard Family Research Project evaluated the results of the BVSH program from 1998 to 2000. Findings were summarized into the following categories: academic, community development, and prevention.

Academic results included:
• 100% of treatment youth that had a history of school suspensions were not suspended during the program.
• A higher percentage of treatment youth with attendance problems before participating in the program had no attendance issues during the program.

Community Development results included:
• Data showed that juvenile crime did decline. Of the 5 census tracts, the group with the highest level of crime (which was the experimental group) showed the biggest drop in crime.

Prevention results included:
• There were statistically significant differences in the mean number of arrests experienced by the treatment and comparison groups.
• BVSH youth who came to the program voluntarily had lower rates of arrest.
• Approximately 44% of comparison group youth recidivated before intake to the intervention period. 19.8% of the treatment group recidivated.
• A higher percentage of treatment youth had their wardship of the court status terminated during the follow-up.