Programs to Eradicate Gangs in LA

Gang Prevention Programs in Los Angeles

The issue of gangs and the gang related deaths and violence has been a thing of concern across the nation and in Los Angeles in particular due to the alarming high levels of gang activities within the city. Los Angeles City has been described severally as the "gang capital" of the nation, due to the numerous gangs that are in existence as well as the long history of these gangs, going back to 50 years ago. Los Angeles Police Department (2016) there are approximately 450 active gangs in Los Angeles with a membership exceeding 45,000 members. The membership of these gangs has continued to increase over the last five years due to the lucrative narcotics trade. Over the last three years, it is documented that 16,398 violent crimes were associated to gang activities, 491 of these being homicides and 7,0478 being felony assaults, 98 rapes and 5,518 robberies.

It is at the background of such grim statistics that the need to have urgent and effective and continued intervention in LA is inevitable. For the LA community to continue thriving, the gang menace cannot be left to the LAPD alone and the other law enforcement agencies, but the community-based solutions also need to be put in place. This is where the gang intervention organizations with various programs are required like the V2K H.E.L.P.E.R, R.A.C.E. foundation, B.U.I.L.D foundation, and APUU foundation among others.

V2K H.E.L.P.E.R was originally known as Vencie 2000 and is a nonprofit organization and its primary preoccupation was gang intervention and prevention services. The V2K H.E.L.P.E.R is currently a community-intervention that is aimed at making LA a better place for all to live in. It focuses on providing resources and the guidance that will help the numerous struggling youth as well as the community members of varied ages. It targets to lead the members of the LA community to transition from the prevalent negative and anti-social behaviors, to start following and showing the positive and value-centered behaviors.

V2K H.E.L.P.E.R. is deemed to be the first organization in Venice region to act as a link between the community, the law enforcement and street organization members and over the years it has gained the respect of both the community and the local government. This organization has been providing gang intervention and prevention services for the LA probation department as well as the LA county office of Education. They have also worked with the County of LA Department of health Services and several other community-based organizations that work on faith based initiatives, job training, community policing and victims assistance and victims rights.

The main aim of V2K H.E.L.P.E.R. is to develop a cohesive community that works together to improve the economic and social conditions for all LA residents. This they envision to do through peace treaties and community mobilization in order to impact positive changes that will ultimately benefit everyone within the community. The approach that makes this initiative to stand out is their ability to engage the community-based organizations (CBOs), business owners and the faith-based organizations in their transformative agenda within the community. This practice enables them to reach out to multicultural populations in LA who can receive spiritual guidance from the churches and mosques that the organization works in collaboration with. The organization is preoccupied with teaching youth towards leading a life that is structured and purpose driven and training the population on problem solving skills, and importance of setting goals. They also encourage youth to pursue their education to a logical conclusion and even to enroll for occupational training there after school. They also help the youth to find jobs and stay in work as well as supporting entrepreneurs and in this process helping in economic stability of the community (H.E.L.P.E.R Foundation, 2016).

The other organization is the R.A.C.E Foundation which is also a respectable organization in LA that deals with the issue of gangs. The Reclaiming America's Communities through Empowerment is a non-profit organization that operates in West Athens and their main focus is on gang intervention and prevention programs as well. It is an organization that has had impact on West Athens in that it helped reduce murder rates in West Athens by 70%. RACE also has significant focus on the community development programs for the at-risk families and the youth therein. Some of the key areas they focus on are youth sports programs which they use sports to convert the youth to positive thinking and behavior, job training and placement for the youth within the community, school and park safety programs that ensure the youth are safe in their environment. They are also deep in the mentorship programs for girls and young women so that they can have equal chances in the community to be what they would like to be without undue hindrances. RACE foundation, in contrast to the HELPER foundation which focuses on gang activities, RACE engages more the youth as a preventive measure to them joining these gangs and being radicalized into drug dealing and crime. They also focus on the students and the learning institutions where young people spend most of their time and influence them towards shunning gang violence and leading productive lives (A Better LA, 2016).

B.U.I.L.D Foundation is yet another empowerment program in LA. Brotherhood for Independent Leadership through Discipline (B.U.I.L.D) is a non-profit and pro-social youth empowerment program that focuses on providing a comprehensive program of direction, focus, responsibility, self-discipline particularly for the vulnerable population. It strives to provide all-inclusive victim services, quick grief response stress management. It also helps the freed inmates get back to the community seamlessly through the incarceration re-entry adaptation. B.U.I.L.D Foundation also provides personal achievement courses as well as violent behavior management trainings. The foundation is known to provide high risk youth modification programs and advanced educational literacy, co-ed adolescent and adult mentorship. The program also offers targeted survival life skills as well as womanhood and manhood developmental intensification programs. The B.U.I.L.D Foundation is also known to provide the tutorial guidance and youth education, specialized job training and placement and safe passage implementation and training for the vulnerable community in LA (Basheer A., 2016). This foundation is seen to mainly focus on the vulnerable members of the community and helping them avoid getting into the allure of gang life through empowering them with knowledge and skills that enables them to be self-reliant. This program, unlike the others focuses more on the victims and the vulnerable population and helping access education and training that will be beneficial to them and hence avoiding the gang violence and getting involved in the drug trade that the gangs are associated with.