An ecological developmental community initiative to reduce youth violence: safe schools/healthy students.

A social ecological framework integrated the six elements of the U.S. Department of Education Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative in High School District 201, Cook County, Illinois. Program components were organized across ecological levels (community-wide strategies, school-wide strategies, classrooms, and targeted individual students) along the developmental continuum from preschool to Grade 12. The goal of the community initiative was to promote positive youth development and social and emotional learning in all youth settings in the community, including the schools. There were demonstrated program effects for each of the components of the Initiative. The coalition and the program's activities have been sustained and have brought new interagency collaboration to more effectively serve Latino immigrant youth and their families.