June 19, 2013 – After a series of shootings left seven dead earlier this month, Santa Monica officials are once again taking steps to address the youth violence that continues to flare up in the normally sleepy beach town.

Officials announced Tuesday that a new “collaborative” effort between the City, the schools and Santa Monica's myriad nonprofits will be formed to draft a new action plan that aims for closer coordination between all the youth services in the bayside city.

Though the June 7 shooting rampage that took six victims, including the gunman, was not related to two separate incidents that left another victim dead four days later, the community is aware of the “profound and deep ways they were connected,” said Julie Rusk, the City’s assistant director of Community and Cultural Services.

Rusk was speaking in front of a crowd of about 30 members of the press, activists and other City and nonprofit officials behind the Teen Center at Virginia Avenue Park, once an epicenter for gang violence in Santa Monica.

“It is imperative systems begin to 'shift' to a collective impact model of service delivery,” City officials said in a press release. “The action plan will be a public/private partnership of the Cradle to Career partners.”

Rusk announced the formation of A Youth & Family Violence Fund that officials said would help “accelerate implementation of this work.” The fund started off with a $50,000 donation.

Behind Rusk sat a panel of representatives from Santa Monica College, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Monica and other partners of Santa Monica's Cradle to Career Initiative, which officials called “a public/private partnership dedicated to addressing the healthy development of youth.”

Rusk said it was too early to detail what changes would be made, to set a timeline for those changes or to estimate the cost. But she added that immediate action is underway, including the opening of the Community Connections & Support Center at Virginia Avenue Park, where people can seek counseling from mental health professionals or local clergy.

The City and its youth-oriented nonprofits also have collaborated on a “youth wellbeing report card,” which helped to identify where Santa Monica's services might be falling short.

“Many of our teens feel like they don't have someone to talk to,” Rusk said, referring to some of the findings in the report card, which was presented in a glossy 21-page booklet as part of a hefty press packet.

In fact, according to the report, a quarter of Santa Monica's youth -- people under 25 years old -- reported that they “experienced significant periods of extreme sadness and hopelessness over the previous 12 months.”

Nearly 30 percent of youth said they have used alcohol over the previous month and nearly 32 percent said they have used “substances” in the same period.

“As we learn more about the June 7 shooting,” said Rusk, “it's clear that addressing complex issues of mental health and domestic violence should be top priorities.

“These are complex issues that affect us all and are not specific to any one neighborhood or population,” Rusk told the crowd.

Rusk was referring to a shooting rampage that started at a house in a quiet corner of Santa Monica's Pico Neighborhood and ended at Santa Monica College's (SMC) library. The final death toll of the Friday shooting spree by 23-year-old John Zawahri eventually rose to six, including the shooter, who was killed by police

A police investigation revealed that Zawahri was a troubled young man with a history of dark and violent fantasies from a family with a history of domestic violence. Zawahri, who killed his father and brother before heading to SMC's campus on June 7, even had a run-in with the law in 2006 as a minor.

Zawarhi's spree was one three violent incidents that rocked Santa Monica within a five-day period. Two gang-related shootings -- on June 9 and June 11 -- left two young men seriously injured and one dead.

City officials believe the answer to what they have called “an entrenched problem” will come from tightening the City's social safety nets for families and youth suffering from mental illness.

Jonathan Mooney, a consultant who works with the Cradle to Career Initiative, said there is a “critical and urgent need for mental health services.”

Rusk told The Lookout that a solution to these problems requires more “than just another program” and more funding.

“We've had a lot of funding,” Rusk said, pointing out that the City's youth budget is about $40 million. “And we're still dealing with these problems.”

Irma Carranza, with the Cradle to Career Initiative, said that the major difference this time is, “We've never had a group of all the different institutions come together.”

Rusk is also hopeful.

“The pieces have not all worked as well as they would together,” she told the crowd Tuesday. “There is a chasm between the systems.”