PeaceQuest Centre for Human Excellence

  Faith-based Approach to Hate and Violence Prevention Abid Ullah Jan In the 1990s, youth violence connected to gangs and drug-related crimes was escalating to unprecedented levels in many neighbourhoods within the city of Boston. A record of 152 homicides and 1,000 aggravated assaults were reported in 1990. Religious organisations formed a coalition called TenPoint and changed the situation dramatically. The number of homicides in Boston dropped dramatically from a high of 152 in 1990 to 31 in 1999. Between August 1995 and January 1998, Boston had not one teenage homicide victim. Homicides during the 1990s declined by 80 percent. Further, complaints against police dropped by over 60 percent during the same period. Two and a half years with no teenage homicides looked very much like a miracle to most reasonable observers. The dramatic results that followed received national attention, and Rev. Rivers, one of the visible leaders of the  TenPoint Coalition , would find himself o...

  Published on November 26, 2018 by   Abid Ullah Jan Save   Abid Ullah Jan “We” first approach is the key ingredient for the success of the evolving collective Impact work for P/CVE in Ottawa. In the wake of rising extremism and hate crimes, the Chief of Ottawa Police, the Mayor’s office, Yasir Naqvi – the then MPP – and the chair of OLIP Network approached United Way Ottawa in February 2017 for a mechanism: 1) to respond to groups and organizations in the community who are active in preventing hate crime through diversity, inclusion and integration of services perspective, 2) to find ways to support and champion that work, 3) to engage those who not currently involved, 4) to engage passive supporters who need information and opportunity and 5) to identify disenfranchised and vulnerable groups who stand in opposition to efforts at diversity and inclusion. United Way has since taken a lead on convening and engaging the right partners. We have made considerable progress. We...

  A Note to TST and CVE Training Designers and Facilitators Abid Ullah Jan Content from PeaceQuest could be used for Muslim Youth Resilience projects to avoid a disproportionate number of them ending up in the criminal justice system. The themes that PeaceQuest has picked up and the relevant research that has been done will be helpful in building knowledge and capacity to develop the right training/workshop material for children as well as youth which might be at risk of criminal involvement. Adding the faith factor to the evidence-based Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) sessions for at-risk youth to address anti-social behaviour and preventing criminal inclement is necessary. The content on PeaceQeust shows which theme and what specific info needs to be incorporated for a deeper impact. Adding these Islamic concepts to the TST and other resilience-building programs add inspiration, hope and motivation to act moderately; to improve sense of safety, permanency, and wellbeing among the vu...

  IMPORTANT: We Need to Bridge the Gap Between Faith Community and Social Services Sector ~ Abid Ullah Jan A Conversation About the PeaceQuest's Approach  In our struggle to stem gun violence, youth joining gangs, drug dealing/abusing and stemming extremist tendencies, the most important protective factor that we are ignoring is the faith factor. For that we need to bridge the gap between social services sector and the faith organisations – particularly Muslim community centres/mosques. To understand Please also see: PeaceQuest in the broader context : Addressing gun violence and extremism in Ottawa through collective impact work Bridging the Gap: A conversation with Musleh Khan The Faith Factor: Attention Muslim Parents Developing a Counter Narrative A Note to CVE Training Designers

More God, Less Crime – A Leap of Faith or Matter of Fact ~ Abid Ullah Jan Religion and spiritualism can foster cooperation or foment strife, but does religion play a uniquely powerful and positive role when it comes to preventing crime and rehabilitating criminals? In his book,  More God Less Crime , noted Baylor criminologist Byron R. Johnson has amassed evidence that it does — evidence that he argues has hitherto been ignored due in part to elite academia’s secular biases. In this video, Johnson discusses and debates this vital topic with John J. DiIulio, Jr., Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania; Beverly Frazier, Assistant Professor in the Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and Reverend Eugene F. Rivers, whose faith-based anti-crime program in Boston was featured on the cover of Newsweek. The discussion is moderated by Robert P. George,...

  The forgotten factor In Preventing Hate, Crime and Violence Abid Ullah Jan One of the interesting questions is: how do we know that nurturing our spiritual self is key to staying away from hate, crime and extremist tendencies? To answer this question, we need to look into credible academic research first to see the impact of mere involvement with religion on crime in general, and then deduct how profound the impact will be will be when a systematic approach is adopted to inspiring spiritualism and putting individuals on the right path to achieving human excellence. Richard Freeman 1  at Harvard University conducted a study in 1986 which was particularly helpful in turning our attention to religion as a factor helping at-risk youth become resilient youth — youth who stay out of trouble despite living in the neighbourhoods where crime occurs all around them and even though there was no specific content or delivered to those you. Freeman found that mere frequent church attendan...

Nugget: How to avoid losing your life? A way out for youth in general and Muslim youth in particular who excel is negativity once off the track. Watch full video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b74I… Watch Video PeaceQuest CommDev About the Author: Abid Ullah Jan Abid Ullah Jan’s Awards Abid Ullah jan’s Books Abid Ullah Jan’s Manuals Abid Ullah Jan Videos Crime Prevention through Social Development (French) by Abid Ullah Jan Implementing Crime Prevention through Social Development by Abid Ullah Jan Highlighting Success Stories – Abid Ullah Jan When Neighbourhoods Bounce Back – Abid Ullah Jan Crime Prevention Outcome - Abid Ullah Jan Crime Prevention through Social Development - Abid Ullah Jan Crime Prevention Ottawa – Safety Community Guide - Abid Ullah Jan Abid Ullah Jan’s Art Work Abid Ullah Jan’s Art Work Abid Ullah Jan – Heroes Among Us Award Abid Ullah Jan – Community Safety Leader Award Abid Ullah Jan – Communi...