and are left with permanent physical and emotional scars; and
WHEREAS, The CDC further reports that violence erodes
communities by reducing productivity, decreasing property values
and disrupting social services; and
WHEREAS, A national initiative lead by the CDC, Striving to
Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere, assists communities in
applying a public health perspective to preventing youth
violence; and
WHEREAS, In 1985, former United States Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop declared violence a public health issue and called
for the application of the science of public health to the
treatment and prevention of violence; and
WHEREAS, In 2000, former United States Surgeon General David
Satcher declared youth violence a public health epidemic; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Satcher released a report that deems youth
violence as a threat to public health and calls for Federal,
state, local and private entities to invest in research on youth
violence and gain knowledge to aid intervention programs; and
WHEREAS, The report states that the public health approach to
youth violence involves identifying risk and protective factors,
determining how they work, making the public aware of these
findings and designing programs to prevent or stop the violence;
and
WHEREAS, The 2000 public health report calls for national
resolve to: confront the problem of youth violence
systematically, facilitate entry of youths into effective
intervention programs rather than incarceration, improve public
awareness of effective interventions, convene youths, families,
researchers and public and private organizations for a periodic
youth violence summit, develop new collaborative
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