Promising Youth Project

The Salt Lake City Police Department’s core youth prevention and intervention component the Promising Youth Project is a comprehensive crime, violence, and gang reduction program. The project works with collaborating government agencies and community groups in Salt Lake City. The purpose of the Promising Youth Project is to provide promising youth with the opportunities and support needed to unlock their promising potential. The project achieves this by teaching life skills, social-emotional learning skills, conflict resolution skills, and resistance techniques to antisocial behaviors. The Promising Youth Project conducts case management for program participants by assessing their individual risks and needs, connecting them with a variety of services and opportunities through a multi-disciplinary intervention team, and conducting ongoing support and follow-up with participants.

Unlocking Potential in Salt Lake City’s Youth:

The Promising Youth Project is aimed at fostering a collaborative, community-based approached to violence, crime, and gang reduction.

The project is unique to Salt Lake City and operates within the Salt Lake City School District as a school-based program. Led by the Civilian Advocates within the Salt Lake City Police Department the Promising Youth Project brings key, on-the-ground resources to children, parents, and faculty members in participating schools. The Promising Youth Project supports youth between 8 and 18 years old in a 15-week long program utilizing evidence-based curriculums to address specific social factors that predispose youth to violence, crime, and gang involvement. Advocates within PYP intervene and take effective action with the youth and their family in the form of case-management.

Currently

36

schools served

Has supported

113

clients

Over

60

Community Organization partners

Over

30

Awareness Trainings provided

Salt Lake City Police Department Promising Youth Summer Opportunity (PYSO)


In hopes of promoting safe and healthy communities the Promising Youth Project, Salt Lake City Police Department, Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation, and the Salt Lake City School District have come together to create the Promising Youth Summer Opportunity. The Promising Youth Summer Opportunity is an 8-week summer long program (Tuesday-Thursday) where youth between the ages of 12 and 18 who currently reside in Salt Lake City have the opportunity to use their free time during the summer to participate in: recreational activities, outdoor adventures, community passion projects, life skills training, and community networking. Our promising youth will forge meaningful and positive relationships with peers, civilian advocates, community leaders, and school resource officers while learning about and experiencing all that Salt Lake City has to offer. The Promising Youth Summer Opportunity is predicated on the simple but powerful concept that a community must work together to provide its youth with opportunities to succeed, and that by uniting peers, families, and community leaders the social forces that contribute to violence, crime, and gangs can be effectively combatted. There is no cost to this program. Transportation is provided. Equipment and all other essentials are provided through the program. Each youth will receive free lunch daily provided by Salt Lake City School District.

INTEREST FORM

The interest form will be posted once applications are being excepted for the next Summer Opportunity.
Check back for updates.


For more information on the Promising Youth Summer Opportunity (PYSO), click the button below:
Key Components of the PYSO include:
  • Community Building and Passion Projects
  • Community Networking and Mentor Programs
  • Cross-Cultural Adventures
  • Development in Empathy, Resilience, and Leadership Skills
  • Involvement in Recreational and Physical Activity
  • Life Skills and Social Emotional Skills Training
  • Outdoor Adventures in National Parks and Public Lands
  • Parent Education and Resources
  • Positive Community-Police Relations

Resources


The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has created a parents resource guide which contains information on behaviors associated with joining gangs, common gang identifiers, and what parents can do. Click below for the guide: