Youth violence has found more targets. Earlier this year, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in broad daylight in downtown Santa Barbara. In July, there was another stabbing in the college community of Isla Vista that left a young man with a punctured lung.

While seemingly out of character for Santa Barbara County, these incidents of acts of youth violence that have taken place in our community in recent months continue to shock everyone.

As the city of Santa Barbara’s police chief, I have witnessed first-hand the senselessness and escalation of youth crime in our community.

There is a common misperception that this type of violence is always a product of a specific group, culture or environment. The sad fact is that youth violence plagues all communities, and, like drug and alcohol abuse, crosses all ethnic lines and socio-economic boundaries.

As a law enforcement official, I also believe it is equally important to be personally involved in preventive measures to deter our young people from ever choosing a path of crime and violence.

Toward that end, in October, I became a board member of a local nonprofit substance abuse counseling organization called Zona Seca, or “dry zone.” With offices downtown and in Lompoc, Zona Seca has served more than 60,000 Santa Barbara County residents of all ages with affordable counseling and rehabilitation services. But for me, what was most inspiring about Zona Seca was its award-winning Youth CineMedia program that provides teens with a truly wonderful alternative to truancy, violence, drug use and gangs. It’s a nationally recognized early prevention program, and yet, ironically, it is Santa Barbara County’s best kept secret. I hope to change that.

Zona Seca’s Youth CineMedia program allows local at-risk teens to enroll in free classes and hands-on training to learn skills such as video production, photography, graphic design, and music engineering, among others. They then use these skills and state-of-the-art equipment to create professional level media products. YCM students can earn school credit, community service hours, fulfill court probation requirements, or simply learn valuable and marketable skills from experts in the field.

It’s one of the most valuable alternatives to idle time I’ve seen developed for local teens. Just last month, students from YCM developed video public service announcements for the city of Santa Barbara Creeks Division, helping the agency educate local Spanish-speaking residents about various environmental considerations associated with living near and along the local creek beds.

Youth CineMedia Director Osiris Castaneda says his goal is not only to help teens who are heading toward trouble and gangs, but to reach young people before they ever have to make those tough lifestyle choices. Mr. Castaneda personally reaches out to local teens where they hang out after school — at youth clubs, on basketball courts, and those on detention — to tell them about the program.

Success stories are becoming commonplace for YCM. Mr. Castaneda tells of one young man who entered the program in 2006 as a teenager. He was heading in the wrong direction; he was on probation and addicted to methamphetamine. However, he quickly became one of YCM’s most talented students, and went on to create a documentary about gang life and his new desire to go to college instead of continuing on a path that could lead to disaster in his life and that of his family and community.

Mr. Castaneda proudly reports that today the young man has a good job and attends college full-time. His story is representative of a simple but vital axiom: If we provide teens with a useful skill and sense of purpose in their community, they will gain self-worth and be more likely to succeed in life.

I urge all Santa Barbara County residents to become involved in efforts and organizations like Zona Seca that seek to improve opportunities for local young people, before they make wrong choices. By promoting these meaningful alternatives, we can maximize early prevention efforts and encourage more at-risk teens to be involved in learning marketable skills that will benefit their future and our economy.

Zona Seca’s Youth CineMedia program has developed at least one method to do exactly that: putting teens behind a video camera to keep them from participating in unhealthy and dangerous activities that could alter their lives in a negative way, which could include not only incarceration, but even worse, the loss of another young life.

The author is the chief of police for the city of Santa Barbara and serves on the board of directors for Zona Seca Inc.