Page 38 - Preventing Youth Violence

as to the children, youth and their families.

● Belief that change is inevitable: that all individuals have the urge to succeed,
to explore the world around them and to make themselves useful to others and

their communities.
● Positive change occurs in the context of authentic relationships. People need to

know that someone cares and will be there for them, unconditionally. It is a
transactional and facilitating process of supporting change and capacity building

− not fixing.
● A person’s perspective of reality is primary (their story). Therefore, there is a need to

value and to start the change process with what is important to the person, not the
expert.

● People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future, into the
unknown, when they are invited to start with what they already know.

● Capacity building is a process and a goal – a life long journey that is dynamic, not
static.

● It is important to value differences and the essential need to collaborate. Effective
change is a collaborative, inclusive and participatory process: “It takes a village to

raise a child.”

According to Brun and Rapp (2001), “the strengths perspective is based on the belief that
individuals possess abilities and inner resources that allow them to cope effectively with

the challenges of living.”

Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) Model
“Developed in the 1980s and first formalized in 1990, the Risk-Needs-Responsivity model

has been used with increasing success to assess and rehabilitate criminals…around the
world.” (Bonta & Andrews 2007, i). The model is based on three principles:

1. The Risk Principle asserts that criminal behaviour can be reliably predicted and that
treatment should focus on the higher risk offenders: high to moderate risk individuals

should be prioritized for more structured and more intensive treatment and control
programmes to maximize outcomes; and over-intervening with low risk individuals

can make them more likely to reoffend.

12