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Gang Resistance Education and Training

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Gang Resistance Education and Training
Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T) is a national program that educates elementary and middle school children how to avoid becoming a gang member. The program is instructed by police officers and is part classroom instruction and other learning activities. “The goal of the GREAT program is to teach youth how to set goals for themselves, how to resist peer pressure, how to resolve conflicts, and how gangs can affect the quality of their lives.” (Ramsey, Rust, & Sobel, 2003) The program also teaches the youth personal empowerment, among other things, that prevent them from getting into any gang activity. Originally the program was based off a nine lesson middle-school curriculum. …show more content…

This is why the goals of G.R.E.A.T. are to stop gang involvement, violence, and prevent youth crime. They do this by providing a pathway to develop relationships with their family, other young people, and most importantly law enforcement officials in order to create a safer environment for the youth. In order to make a bigger impact, the program is taught in two different school levels.
The G.R.EA.T. program is taught to the youth starting in elementary and continuing until middle school. The elementary program and middle school program are both skill based learning. The elementary program is designed as an introduction course to the middle school program. The elementary program sets the foundation that begins to teach the youth skills that are needed for the more intensive program that is taught in middle school. All of this is done while they develop the bond between the youth and law enforcement officials. These bonds continue to develop once the students move onto the middle school program.
The curriculum of the middle school program is more in depth in an attempt to cement the good behaviors of the students. This is done by enhancing their knowledge of their actions and consequences. These courses are taught to the sixth and seventh grade students. They are based on scenarios in order to show the student how to avoid engaging in violent behavior. At the middle school level the youth should

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