Teen empowerment: youth, police, and neighbors in partnership.

The Center for Teen Empowerment has used a particular model of building relationships to empower youth and adults as agents of positive social and institutional change. The Teen Empowerment Model is the product of over twenty-five years of thoughtful experience in changing the values, beliefs, and behaviors of youth and adults; making institutions more effective; and developing mechanisms for people of all ages to work together productively toward achieving their goals. The comprehensive methodology for working with groups is described in this chapter, using as an example work that the center has done bringing youth and police together.