Analyzing Gang Intervention Programs

¶ … Los Angeles' gang intervention initiatives. Program shortcomings as well as potential future improvements will be discussed. Limitations of Gang Intervention Programs The V2K helper foundation's efforts are targeted at adolescents and young adults (aged between 14 and 25 years). Initiated in 1997, the intervention's goals are providing counseling, anger management training, mentoring, life-skills education, parenting classes, and extracurricular activities like art programs, field trips, and sports.

Trained personnel directly interact with people embroiled in criminal gangs to offer crisis intervention for defusing potentially violent scenarios, making peace between enemy gangs, and providing them with positive alternative options like employment, vocational training, treatment referral for alcohol/drug abuse, etc. (V2K Helper Foundation, n.d). Brotherhood for Independent Leadership through Discipline (B.U.I.L.D.) is a category 501c3 not-for-profit pro-social initiative for youth empowerment, providing a holistic program of self-discipline, direction, responsibility, and focus, directed at vulnerable groups (Funded Programs, n.d).

G.R.A.C.E. endeavors to lower violence-causing tensions among ethnic groups; decrease gang violence as well as retaliation violence; improve public safety; increase resources for young adults and older adolescents at community centers, local parks, etc.; and expand prevention resources as well as resources for positive development of Los Angeles's youth (Gang Intervention, n.d). Efforts of APUU in Los Angeles In Los Angeles, the main intervention program for members of gangs is APUU (Advocates for Peace and Urban Unity).

Under its LTO (license to operate) banner, the APUU assists other prevention and intervention services on Los Angeles's City side and has strong collaborations, allowing them to work hand-in-hand. As authorities have now understood Westmont streets' "death rows," if intervention organizations receive appropriate resources and enough time, significant changes can be witnessed in about 6 years, in the area. Furthermore, decrease in violence occurs swiftly if resources are provided for helping any locality's youth.

Challenges of Current Programs Watching the drug-injecting process, coupled with concentrating on isolating avenues for HCV/HIV exposure was the main reason behind striving for direct observations. Furthermore, attempts at interacting with gang youngsters in gang environments proved unsuccessful. Community and youth organizations invited investigators to numerous local sporting events and barbeques for attempting direct interaction. While some gang youth were approached at these events, they were non-responsive when asked about their involvement in risky activities, let alone their criminal lives.

Furthermore, gang specialists often advise social workers not to directly confront or observe gangsters, the rationale behind this recommendation being that they will hesitate to share their guilty personal experiences with people who are literally strangers to them. Also, intervention organizations may be viewed with suspicion by gang members, who may feel investigators are plain-clothes policemen who are a threat to their activities and lives (Sanders et al., 2010).

Flaws in Intervention Programs A study by an intervention organization could not effectively obtain the required variability in sample age, ethnicity/race, and gender. Of the sixty youngsters interviewed, females constituted only 10%, with 18.3% of them aged from 20-25 years. Most of them were Latinos or African-American, while some were identified as Caucasian/African-American or Caucasian/Latino. Native American, Asian, and Pacific Islanders weren't included in the study for the simple reason that the investigator wasn't acquainted with any. The lone Caucasian male gangster did not agree to answer questions.

Outreach workers refusing to aid the research contacted relatively "older" youth (aged from 20-25 years), who are usually associated with higher substance use histories and greater risk-taking. Additionally, one community organization that refused to aid the research specifically worked with young female gang members. Flaws in Intervention Programs in Los Angeles (LA) Boyle Heights' Operation Ceasefire mainly enjoyed success on account of local church support, particularly those located in East LA's Catholic Archdiocese Deanery. It signified a long street intervention tradition in the locality on local youth's behalf.

This support to the initiative proved critical to the locality's acceptance of law enforcement roles in intervention, because of concerns with regard to previous interventions by the LA police which exclusively relied on suppressing gangs (Howell & Curry, 2009). Analysis of Intervention Programs in Los Angeles The city of LA lacks a large-scale, comprehensive youth job plan. In summer 2005, a mere 3000 jobs were created for youth during school vacations; this figure doubled the next summer.

Multi-track calendar of sixteen LA high schools that returned in 2008 to the traditional calendar left roughly 65,000 pupils with no summer jobs. This group coupled with the whopping 93,000 youngsters (aged between 16 and 24 years) who were already without jobs or didn't attend school reflects how necessary it is to create opportunities for youth engagement. Urgent attention must be given to creating recreational activities and jobs for countering a potential swell in destructive/gang activities by unoccupied youngsters (Citywide Gang Activity Reduction Strategy, n.d).

Future Directions Participation of multiple media representatives is necessary for avoiding media competition, problem neglect, or exaggeration (Howell & Curry, 2009). The recommendation of a few community mobilization specialists is to develop a strategy for information dissemination prior to engaging broadcast media, necessitating subsequent information collection. Meanwhile, others emphasize the significance of participation right from the start. Nevertheless, one must bear in mind two important points: 1. Try engaging reporters who normally cover positive community events. 1.

Excessive media attention (e.g., publishing the names of gangs), might give local gangsters notoriety, confirming their existence as well as importance. Intervention Programs as Part of School Curriculums As gang violence is on the rise, and a growing connection is observed between drugs and gangs, the SANE (Substance Abuse and Narcotics Education) program has integrated a new course -- CIDAP (Curriculum Integrated Drug.