Paterson,
NJ -- Attorney General Anne Milgram today
announced the appointment of Creighton Drury,
the executive vice president of the New
Jersey Community Development Corporation
in Paterson, as the first statewide prevention
director for Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s
anti-crime strategy.
The anti-crime strategy, announced in the
fall, takes a three-pronged approach in
attacking gangs, guns, and violent crime
– law enforcement, prevention and
re-entry programs for released prisoners.
Former East Orange Police Director Jose
Cordero was appointed the law enforcement
director in December.
Drury, 37, has worked for the New Jersey
Community Development Corporation in Paterson
since 2001. The NJCDC is a 14-year-old non-profit
community development and social services
organization which serves approximately
1,500 children and families each day through
educational, youth development, job training
and housing initiatives.
“Creighton
has been on the front-lines in the development
of community-based programs that attack
the risk factors associated with crime –
poverty, high drop out rates in schools,
and the lack of job opportunities,’’
Attorney General Milgram said. “His
work at the New Jersey Community Development
Corporation involves the kinds of programs
we need all across the state to prevent
crime before it happens – after school
programs for teenagers, youth councils,
and community leadership programs.’’
“I
am excited at the opportunity to be selected
to be part of the Governor’s major
initiative to fight violent crime and street
gangs in New Jersey,’’ Drury
said. “Community-based programs aimed
at preventing crime are essential components
in an anti-crime strategy. Building communities
– by strengthening the children, families
and stakeholders who live and work there
– is a critical ingredient to countering
violence and eliminating the risk factors
that lead to problems.’’
At
the New Jersey Community Development Corporation,
Drury worked closely with Robert Guarasci,
the president and chief executive officer,
and with the board of trustees, and was
involved in all aspects of agency operations,
ranging from managing staff and programming
to external relations and development. He
also led efforts involving comprehensive
youth development strategies and programming.
Examples
of some of the programs sponsored by NJCDC
include the Paterson Family Center, a pre-school
for more than one hundred three and four
year old children; school-based youth service
programs at the Passaic County Technical
Institute, Clifton High School and Passaic
Valley High School; and Great Falls YouthBuild,
an alternative education and job training
program for teenagers who have dropped out
of high school.
The
prevention component of the Governor’s
anti-crime plan focuses on providing positive
alternatives and intervention to prevent
juvenile delinquency and gang involvement.
At its core, the strategy aims at greater
coordination of state prevention efforts,
encouraging local planning, creating opportunities
for jobs and training for at-risk youth,
and the use of evidence-based prevention
programs.
“We
must make kids at risk more resilient to
the pressure of gangs, and we will,’’
Milgram said.
The
prevention plan will seek to measure and
evaluate the effectiveness of programs by
structuring a statistical analysis center
to ensure baseline measures are collected
and tracked and by developing benchmarks
for ongoing analysis of the implementation
and outcomes of prevention recommendations.
Drury
was an attorney at Lowenstein, Sandler from
September 1997 to July 2001 before going
to work at the New Jersey Community Development
Corporation. He was graduated from Rutgers
University in New Brunswick in 1992 and
earned a law degree at the University of
Virginia School of Law in 1997. Drury was
a member and captain of the Rutgers University
men’s basketball team and was an assistant
state director for former U.S. Sen. Bill
Bradley from December 1992 to August 1994.
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