Youth Safe Haven/Police Ministation Programs

In the nineteen-eighties, the Eisenhower Foundation merged the American concepts of after-school youth safe havens, youth mentoring and community advocacy with the Japanese concept of a neighborhood-based police ministation out of which officers work, prevent crime and assist citizens in the surrounding community.

The Foundation calls this the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation model or Safe Haven-Ministation for short.

Replications of the Foundation model are operated by a grassroots nonprofit organization and led by civilians. A Safe Haven-Ministation can be located in the headquarters of the nonprofit organization, a community center, public housing, or other low income housing. The location also can be a school – in which case the Foundation seeks to leverage the Safe Haven-Ministation presence to create a Full Service Community School.

Police officers are trained by the Foundation to assist civilians as mentors to and advocates for youth. These officers also undertake problem-oriented policing, based in the neighborhood surrounding the Safe Haven-Ministation. To determine the problems, police consult with neighborhood residents – beginning with the parents and the extended family of the youth who attend the Safe Haven-Ministations. Police ask program participants about what the youth perceive to be the neighborhood’s problems. Police then strive to solve the problems, secure the neighborhood and provide safe passage for Safe Haven-Ministation participants from school, to the program location, and on to home.

Current Youth Safe Haven programs supported by the Foundation
are at the following locations:

The Youth Safe Haven - Police Ministation Replication Guide is available by clicking here or the cover picture above.

The Eisenhower Foundation's Deep Mentoring Curriculum is available by clicking here or the cover picture above.