Gazette - Steering youth away from street gangs

COVER SECTION

By Caroline Ross

RIGU members (left-right) D/Cst Andy Clark, D/Cst Sean Mulligan and D/Cst Rob Steudle, all of the Thunder Bay Police Service, prepare to speak to students in Fort Hope, Ontario, about the dangers of gang involvement.

Talk to any gang investigator, and you’ll learn that enforcement is only part of the solution to any gang problem. Police and community partners must also focus on gang prevention — particularly among youth at risk for gang membership.

Defining youth at risk can be challenging, says Sgt Rob Cameron, commander of the RCMP detachment in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and a leading force behind the formation of northwestern Ontario’s Regional Integrated Gang Unit (RIGU). “It’s (usually) those youth that are exposed to gang activity, and because of certain lifestyle aspects they are subject to the recruitment process that gangs often employ,” says Cameron. “But any youth is a youth at risk when gang activity is within their area.”

Because gangs cast such a wide net, police and community partners must employ a range of prevention and intervention strategies.

In northwestern Ontario, for example, RIGU officers spend a significant amount of time visiting schools and Aboriginal reserves to speak about the dangers of gang involvement. Officers also show kids a locally produced video called “Gangland – No Tomorrow,” which features interviews with area gang members and ex-gang members.

“Some of them are serving life sentences, some have lost friends and family members, and they speak about that kind of thing,” says Cameron, who adds that the video gives kids a perspective they won’t hear about from gang recruiters.

Drawing on gang members’ experiences in a different regard, the North End Women’s Centre (NEWC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has created a gang prevention program aimed at single mothers who live in high-crime or gang-run neighbourhoods.

“Peace Begins at Home” teaches single mothers about positive parenting techniques and provides a support network to help mothers keep their children away from crime, says Patty Parsons, executive director of the NEWC.

Some program content is based on NEWC interviews with incarcerated gang members, who spoke about what their parents could have done to keep them away from gangs. While the answers might seem simple — like putting kids in sports or kissing them good night — some mothers don’t have these skills because they never learned them from their own parents, says Parsons.

“The number one reason ex-gang members said they joined gangs was for a sense of belonging,” says Parsons. “Our program teaches moms how they can incorporate this (sense of belonging) into the everyday lives of all the children they’re living with.”

Preventing kids from joining gangs is one thing, but what about kids who are already entrenched? Community partners in Surrey, British Columbia, have some answers.

In October 2007, the Surrey School District launched “iR3” — intervention, Rethink, Refocus, Reintegrate — as part of its Safe Schools initiative.

iR3 targets students in Grades 6 through 8 who have been suspended for violence, bullying or possession of drugs, alcohol or weapons. The students spend two days at a community centre learning about conflict resolution, self esteem, and the realities of drugs and gang life.

“We send them back to school with a whole new set of skills,” says Rob Rai, Youth Diversity Liaison with the Surrey School District. It’s much more effective, he says, than sending kids home to fester, unsupervised.

And iR3 may soon become part of a larger, community-wide gang intervention effort.

Last year, youth-serving agencies in Surrey — including the School District, Parks and Recreation, the RCMP and the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development — drafted plans for a Community Action Assessment Network (CAAN) that targets youth on the brink of gang activity.

Set for launch in mid-2008, the network will assess at-risk youth on an individual basis, then provide program options that both deter gang involvement and fit each youth’s specific needs — a sports program, perhaps, or one-on-one mentoring.

Best of all, says Rai, the CAAN ensures that all of Surrey’s youth-serving agencies are on the same page with regards to gang intervention tools and strategies.

“A kid could be anywhere in the city,” he says, “and front-line staff would all have the same training and understanding of gang-associated youth.”