A newly restructured strategy to combat youth violence in Reading aims to reduce arrests of juvenile offenders by 15% over the next 12 months, city administrators say.<\/p>\n
After years of fragmented efforts and limited progress, the city\u2019s new approach will emphasize clearer benchmarks, structured coordination and greater transparency, Managing Director Jack Gombach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to cover how the city plans to address youth violence overall,\u201d he told City Council at a recent committee of the whole meeting.<\/p>\n
The strategy comes in the wake of council\u2019s press for tangible results after a recent upswing in youth arrests.<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, the city recorded an increase in juvenile arrests to 206 in 2025 from 168 in 2024, Gombach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a 22% increase year over year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Records indicate 85% were Part A offenses, which are serious, violent and sometimes felony-level acts committed by individuals under 18 that can result in adult-level consequences.<\/p>\n
Gombach noted that simple assaults jumped sharply, increasing to 102 from 63, a nearly 62% rise.<\/p>\n
While arrests among older teens remained essentially flat, arrests among children ages 11 to 15 increased by a disturbing 36%, he said.<\/p>\n
Gombach said data suggests that fights are occurring more frequently among middle school-aged youth, who are struggling with impulse control, social media dynamics and group behavior.<\/p>\n
The administration is reviewing five years of data to determine whether the recent spike represents a short-term anomaly or is part of a longer trend, he said.<\/p>\n
The renewed effort to reduce youth violence, he said, is anchored by updated data and structured community engagement.<\/p>\n
Central to the plan is a narrowing of the focus, Gombach said. Rather than attempting to reach all 20,000 children in the city, the city plans to concentrate on the roughly 102 simple assault cases recorded last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we say these 102, we want to reduce that by 15% in 12 months, and we tell everybody that that gives everyone a clear idea of the finish line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Council members asked about the status of the Youth Violence Prevention website, launched nearly two years ago and funded with $50,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.<\/p>\n
The intent was to create a resource hub and networking space for youth-serving organizations, Gombach said. But the site has not been regularly updated because organizations did not consistently provide content, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reached out to about 20 different youth serving organizations\u201d Gombach said, \u201cand did not get the results or the feedback or the input that we were really hoping for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many groups are stretched thin, he noted, saying, \u201cWhat could have been seen as an opportunity for them to engage was probably seen as just another item for them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members expressed frustration that the website has yielded little visible progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know if we can even get back to that after this,\u201d Councilwoman Melissa Ventura said, noting that the city has been discussing youth violence for years without clear outcomes. \u201cAll we do year after year is have meetings with no results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gombach acknowledged the criticism but said the city is pivoting. The updated strategy, he said, will focus on transparent data, measurable goals, a schedule of events and programming and organized resources that families can navigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe website will not be a dumping ground,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it will serve transparency, access and engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members emphasized the need for parental engagement, targeted intervention for repeat offenders and better coordination among organizations.<\/p>\n
Sustained coordination, not just funding, will be key, Gombach said.<\/p>\n
The administration plans to finalize working relationships with the school district, juvenile probation and community partners in the coming weeks, he noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth violence is addressed, in our view, by disciplined engagement, coordination over time, in partnership with the communities that we serve,\u201d Gombach said.<\/p>\n
Three structured, professionally facilitated town halls targeting parents, youth providers and other stakeholders are planned between April and June, he said.<\/p>\n
Gombach said the website is expected to be updated after the community engagement process concludes, likely this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly restructured strategy to combat youth violence in Reading aims to reduce arrests of juvenile offenders by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-152039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-berks-county","9":"tag-essential-reading","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-reading","14":"tag-reading-city","15":"tag-reading-city-headlines","16":"tag-reading-city-news","17":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}