Since it's founding in 1997, the CYC-Net discussion group has been asked thousands of questions. These questions often generate many replies from people in all spheres of the Child and Youth Care profession and contain personal experiences, viewpoints, as well as recommended resources.
Below are some of the threads of discussions on varying Child and Youth Care related topics.
Questions and Responses have been reproduced verbatim.
Listen to thisHello everyone,
I am in a community where gang violence has grown over the last couple of
years. I am wondering if anyone knows of programs that they find especially
effective to reach those involved in gangs or anything that the community
can do differently. I know this is a wide question, but I am curious to hear
what our community could do differently to help these troubled individuals.
Thanks,
Callie Zerr
British Columbia, Canada
...
Hi Callie
I work in Edmontonfor a gang diversion program called Pohna, feel free to
contact me via email
christina-frantik@ncsa.ca or 780-451-7559 if you would like to discuss
more.
Christina Frantik
...
Hey Callie,
In my opinion this is a very complex topic. I believe early
intervention is the key to prevent gang violence. A lot of these
individuals who join gangs generally come from poverty stricken areas and
broken homes. These individuals are usually longing for acceptance.
I believe if we put into effect programs where individuals go into
elementary school and high school and teach the consequences and negatives
of joining gangs then we could have a chance of prevented some gang
violence. Also I believe the RCMP have put a program like this into
effect and its apparently a good program. Also getting children/youth
involved with community based programs, like big brothers or participating
in local drop in centers is always a good idea as well.
Prab Virdi
...
Hi,
There is a program in the Boston area "ROCA" who do some really good work
with high risk youth. You might want to search them out on the web. They use
relationship base model, stages of change and motivational interviewing.
They have an interesting approach to working with their target population.
James Hartley
...
Try aggression replacement training
Manjit Virk
...
You might be interested in an article on preventing female gang involvement
by Gretchen Snethen in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior
2010 issue 1
Ni Holmes
Scotland
...
Look at Geoffrey Canada's project in Harlem Children's Zone.
Or the book Gang Intervention Handbook by Goldstein and Huff is a good
resource for understanding and addressing gang affiliated and involved
youth.
Midnight Basketball has some mixed outcomes.
Peter DeLong
...
I would recommend bringing all relevant service providers together and
having some training done around gang intervention in your community.
There would need to be some kind of follow-up where a commitment is made by
each agency to work on this issue using the strategies learned, otherwise
motivation and inspiration may be short-lived and people will just fall back
into their regular routines. An approach that was recently tried in my
area is having an interactive action-plan developed with everyone in the
community, focusing on specific issues and brainstorming about effective
ways of addressing them. The various strategies would be put together
in a report and presented to all participants afterwards. You could
also put together an action committee of various service providers that
could meet afterwards (bi-weekly, monthly) to discuss what is working and
what could be improved upon. I wish you all the best, it's a tough
issue. Below are a few national organizations that offer this kind of
training and an informative pdf publication with good information about
youth gangs.
http://www.notogangs.org/
http://www.cantraining.org/
Mitch Bourbonniere, Wpg. Manitoba (bourbonn@mts.net)
Amazing, educated, front-line speaker who brings along a panel of former
youth and adult gang members who share their stories. Lots to learn
from these guys!
www.gov.ns.ca/just/publications/documents/GangPrevention.pdf
Ron "Cook" Barrett, Senior Gang Prevention Specialist
www.nysgangprevention.com
Clover Roy
...
Hello everyone,
I actually just did an essay on this topic, and there are programs available
to youth who are in gangs or are at-risk of joining gangs. There are eight
programs in British Columbia and they are: MOSAIC in partnership with the
South Asian Community Coalition Against Youth Violence, Surrey School
District, Kamloops School District, Touchstone Family Association
(Richmond), Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre Society,
Abbotsford Community Services, Vancouver School District, Prince George in
partnership with the Justice Education Society. However, they are only
offered to communities that are at high risk of youth joining gangs and are
already in them, and not all youth and communities are receiving this
education which is very unfortunate. If I am correct, I believe the Surrey
School District ‘program’ is only accessible online.
The community members can educate their children about the dangers of gangs,
and by teaching them important life skills such as achieving success by
legitimate means (careers) and to teach them conformity. Community members
can also help by reaching out to youth that are at-risk or troubled and
report crime as you see it.
This is a great document describing the gang issue in British Columbia and
what is and what can be done.
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/crimeprevention/publications/docs/youth-gangs-preventing.pdf
Teela Allen
...
Hey there...
I have been living amongst youth issues in my own apartment building... I
live on the fourth floor and every Thursday, Friday, Saturday for the past
four months they have parties, there was a four person brawl right outside
my apartment door, damage to the inside of the elevator and the walls up and
down the hall in varied places, last Saturday 1 a.m. I was woken up from a
solid sleep because a young girl was trying to break into my apartment.
This is a "brand" new apartment community with three buildings: A, B, C and
it was advertised as an "adult oriented" community that is why I moved in...
Apparently there is a group of young people classified as a "gang" that
meets a mile down the road and police are actively attempting to keep the
neighbourhood safe and at peace... Practicing Micro Skills and Empathic
Understanding has its limits and becomes VERY difficult when inappropriate
actions begin to intervene with your personal safety, health and
well-being.. What other options are there? The police have limited
resources, the community officials seem to have their hands tied, and at the
moment all I can think about is moving away from Abbotsford!! BUT
financially it is not an option.... There has to be more that can be
done for these young people struggling with their own life issues – BUT – what AND how?
Leah Connell
...
Hi there I just want to share my friend's story
I have a friend who was used in the Asian gang since he was 12 and got out
when he turn 20. It was not easy for him to get out of the gang, but finally
he did it. I asked him why he wanted out and he said, let’s say, I joined
the gang with about a 100 kids and by the time he reached 17, about 80 % of
his group died really young and he got really scared. The head of his gang
was about 23 years old and he ran his gang and the members under him were
all 12- 16 years old, the head of the gang give special permission to (kill
somebody) to the younger kids because they could not be touched by the law.
He started working with gangs (doing gang ministry), said, sometimes it got
really scary because of the violence, but it kept him going, because these
kids in the gang really do need somebody to listen to them and care for
them.
Christine Kang
...
As someone previously mentioned, early intervention is key. After school-programs need to focus on having the child come there after school and keep them occupied to keep them away from gangs. Schools and local community organizations need to set up workshops or dicussions for parents on how to be a positive influence in their child's life and how to help them keep away from gangs as well. Churches can be involved as well to help children be involved in other things.
