Transcript Insert title here - Organization of American States

The arts, culture and education as
factors in comprehensive prevention
strategies
Second Meeting of Ministers dealing with Public Security in the
Americas MISPA II
November 5,2009
Lenore Yaffee García, Director
Office of Education and Culture, Executive Secretariat for Integral Development
Washington, D.C., 6 de octubre de 2009
Elements of the Presentation
• Risk factors (violence affecting youth,
delinquent behavior, gangs)
• One response: “Toward a Culture of NonViolence: the role of arts and culture”
• Research findings: Arts, culture, prevention
• Research findings: Education and prevention
• Some OAS responses
• Conclusions
Risk factors
• Absence or weak presence of the state (the gang
provides what legitimate institutions do not)
• Presence of organized crime, easy access to arms
• Absence of viable options for young people
– Employment
– Relevant education
– Legitimate spaces to associate, express themselves, and be
recognized
– Negative image of youth in popular media
• Family factors
• Fragmented responses, lack of comprehensive
policies
Youth unemployment
• Youth face much higher rates of unemployment than do
adults.
• In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), open
unemployment is at 16% for youth while for adults, the rate is
5% (worse in some countries).
• Among the unemployed, youth represent 46% of the total.
• There are 10 million unemployed youth in the region.
• 22 million youth neither study nor work.
• More than 30 million work in the informal sector or in
precarious conditions.
ILO. Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean Decent work and youth - Latin America Lima: ILO,
Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2008.
Education in numbers…
• 57.6% - net enrolment rate in pre-primary education
(children 4 – 5 years old), much lower for 0-3 years
• Low levels of educational quality: nearly half of third
graders in LA performed at the lowest measurable
level in math and 1/3 performed at the lowest level in
reading (SERCE UNESCO study)
• Secondary education (2007): on average 70.8% of the
population had entered secondary education;
however only ≤ 60% of the population between 20
and 24 years old had completed this education level
(2007 data)
Completion of Secondary Education - 2007
88
90
78
80
68
70
58
60
48
50
38
40
28
30
18
20
8
10
(2)
I (Population 30-34)
III (Population 20-24)
Change I - III
SR
DM
HN
GT
NI
UY
BZ
MX
SV
PY
DO
CR
BR
EC
CO
PN
VN
BO
PE
AR
CL
(12)
BS
0
Percentage change I-III
100
BB
Completion ISCED 3
We see improvement in conclusion of this level in all
countries.
Nonetheless, in 11 of 23 countries, more than half of
youth did not finished secondary education
“Towards a culture of non-violence: the role of arts
and culture”
• Project of the InterAmerican Committee on
Culture (CIC) on the topic
of the 39th OAS General
Assembly: “Towards a
culture of non-violence”
• 4 experiences, one per
sub-region
• Governmental and civil
society programs
• Developed with the
“Ignite the Americas
2009” network
Arts and culture in prevention strategies
• Culture engages vulnerable and marginalized youth and can
serve as a bridge to broader civic engagement.
• A longitudinal study of after-school arts programming for
youth found that at-risk children demonstrated art skill
development, pro-social skills, increased confidence,
improved interpersonal, conflict resolution and problemsolving skills, and decreased levels of emotional problems,
anti-social behavior, academic failure, and alchohol use.
• A U.S. study found that quality arts education for students 412 lets the state recover 1.5 times its investment through
savings to the justice system and more tax revenue.
• (In Canada) there is high demand for relevant cultural
programs from youth but limited supply.
Other examples of prevention programs based on arts
and culture in the member states
•Escuelas libres – Dominican Republic (State Secretariat of
Culture), and related programs in Brazil, Guatemala
•National Child and Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela –
involving more than 250,000 students each year from very
high-risk communities
•Orchestra Program for Youth at Risk in the Caribbean (based
on the Venezuelan Child and Youth Orchestra System) OAS
Cultural Affairs
•Puntos de Cultura (Brasil)
Education as a Prevention Strategy: Starting Early
•
Investment in early childhood education (Perry
Preschool study) – Nobel Economist James Heckman:
1
US$15,000
p/person
2
Results: society
and the
individual
reaped
US$195,000
(US$171,000
deriving from
less crime)
05-231
High Scope – Age 40
Program No Program
%
%
Arrested 5+ times
36
53
Graduated High School
63
45
Earnings > $20K at age 40
60
40
Schweinhart, 2005
Early Brain Development and
Aggressive or Criminal Behavior
• “Many of the most costly and damaging societal
problems (e.g., delinquency, substance use, and
adult mental disorder) have their origins in early
conduct problems. ….Approximately half the children
identified with behavior problems in preschool
continue to exhibit the behavior pattern throughout
childhood and into early adolescence….Several
preventive interventions, particularly those focused
on enhancing children´s cognitive skills, have also
reduced child aggression.
(Domitrovich, C, and Greenberg, Mark, Preventive Interventions that Reduce Aggression in
YOung Children, online 6-16-03
Aggression, early development, and
later outcomes
• Children who from a young age do not learn to
replace physical aggression with more appropriate
social behaviors…are much more likely to leave
school, to be problematic, to have criminal or
delinquent behaviors, to have problems with drug
consumption and unemployment.
(Tremblay 2003 in Early childhood learning prevents youth violence, Tremblay, Gervais,
Petitclerc, CEECD 2008)
• A significant correlation found between juvenile
crime and the development of language at 6, 18 and
24 months.
(Stattin, H. et al en Journal of Abnormal Psychology)
The paradox of Prevention, costbenefit, and politics
• Full benefits of early childhood care and
education will be realized in 25 years.
• Democratic governments face elections every
4 or 5 years.
• There is a need to sensitize the public in
general and reach a consensus that permits
prevention to become a policy of the state,
not a single administration (Fraser Mustard)
Some responses in the OAS Framework: Citizen,
community and youth participation
Some responses in the OAS framework: An holistic
approach and inter-institutional coordination
•Collaboration CIE – CIC: “The role of arts and
communications media in the promoting democratic values
and practices in children and youth”
•Planning meeting Nov 09
•Inter-American Cultural Information Network
•Communications strategy. Horizontal cooperation fund.
•Collaboration with UNHABITAT and Harvard University –
the role of arts in the prevention of urban youth violence;
portfolio on promising practices.
Some responses in the OAS framework:
political commitments
• Hemispheric Commitment to Early Childhood Education
(2007)
• Quito Declaration (Better Opportunities for Youth of the
Americas: Rethinking Secondary Education) and Youth
Encounter (2009)
• Interamerican Program on Education in Democratic Values
and Practices
– Courses for educators
– Educational and informational resources
• Declaration of Medellín (GA 2008), Focal Point on Youth and
Youth Strategy; collaboration with UN exemplary programs)
• Regional Youth Forums in Central America and Prevention
Strategies through Social Networking (through Mérida
initiative)
What young people are asking for
(from Quito Charter August 2009)
•
•
•
•
Una educación activa y participativa que permita aprender
haciendo, que el alumno sea actor y no solo receptor.
Garantizar que los estudiantes puedan desenvolverse en
diferentes actividades deportivas, artísticas y culturales en
los centros educativos.
Fortalecer y crear organizaciones nacionales estudiantiles,
respaldadas por acuerdos y reglamentos internacionales y
locales para incrementar la participación como ciudadanos,
que por no ser mayores de edad no se les restrinja ser parte
de la democracia participativa y protagónica.
Apoyo desde el Ministro de Educación, para dar mayor
importancia la participación estudiantil, apoyando a las
organizaciones que aglutinan a los estudiantes de
secundaria, aceptando la institucionalidad y criterios que
establezcan dichas organizaciones. (de Carta de Quito)
What young people are asking for(cont’d)
• La incorporación de talleres de prevención de riesgos en los
establecimientos….Además, exigir que el tema de seguridad
escolar sea preocupación permanente y no eventual,
incorporarlo en la práctica diaria, en un proceso formativo
desde la base de valores de una manera integral a la conducta
humana.
• Crear mecanismos que detecten a jóvenes en riesgo y les
ayuden a superar su problemática.
• Trabajo preventivo entre el Ministerio de Educación y el de
Salud, para capacitar a los estudiantes para que sean
facilitadores en sus instituciones educativas alrededor del
tema de conductas de riesgo, en especial sobre el tema de
educación sexual, consumo de sustancias, etc., creando
programas sociales y de recreación sana.
• La resolución pacifica de conflictos se logrará cuando los
estudiantes se sientan capaces de proponer y se tomen
verdaderamente en cuenta sus opiniones como personas y
sujetos de la educación, ya que somos nosotros los que
conocemos mejor que nadie nuestras necesidades y
demandas
Conclusions: effective prevention strategies
• Invest and intervene early
• Foster societal commitment to support the adoption of
policies of state focused on prevention
• Seek comprehensive solutions by working intersectorally
• Identify high-risk communities, offer services to all
• Promote youth participation and leadership – see young
people as part of the solution
• Criminalize crime, not the fact of being young or of belonging
to a group
• Consider programs involving arts, culture and education to
give young people viable paths to the future, development of
skills that are in demand in the labor market and the
affirmation of their worth as people
• Support the collection and analysis of data to determine
effectiveness.
RM00084E