Houston Surge in Homicide Among Young Offenders is Worst in Nation. Small Steps Strives to be Part of the Solution.
Homicide Rate Up in Houston’s Young People
Recently published research by Dr. James Alan Fox and Dr. Marc L. Swatt states that “While overall homicide levels in the United States have fluctuated minimally in recent years, those involving young victims and perpetrators-particularly young black males-have surged.” Within this disturbing national trend, Houston experienced the highest increase of all 28 cities studied, with a 139% increase from 2001 to 2007 in the number of homicide offenders among young black men (age 14-24).
Small Steps is Part of the Solution.
The authors cite a number of fundamental principles that would contribute to reversing this trend. Excerpts from these principles show that Small Steps is a part of the solution:
- The greatest opportunity for positive and lasting impact comes with a focus on young children. Small Steps has intentionally chosen to focus on children ages two to six in order to maximize impact.
- Prevention should take a multi-faceted approach. Small Steps is committed to the social, emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual growth of economically at-risk children in the inner-city of Houston, Texas.
- Patience is more than a virtue, it is a requirement. Small Steps preschool program – with four years of classes from age two to kindergarten - allows enough time for its developmentally appropriate curriculum to impact young students.
- Prevention is cost-effective. The leading long-term early childhood study, the Perry preschool program translated into a 17-to-1 rate of return on investment in early education. These benefits – higher incomes, lower crime and incarceration rates, and lower use of government income supports – last for decades. The funders of Small Steps are committed to investing to change young children’s lives. We all benefit through the avoidance of greater costs to society later.
Numbers from studies such as these are disheartening, yet it is encouraging to know that each day as the children walk through the doors of Small Steps, they will be surrounded by people who respect them and want the best for them. Our innovative social-emotional curriculum helps our students develop self-respect which will allow them to be productive risk takers and healthy learners. It also helps develop respect for others and the skills needed to constructively negotiate and resolve conflict. All of this sets our children on a path in the opposite direction from those headed toward a life of violence.
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