Latino Community At Risk Youth Focus Group Of Forsyth County

A two-pronged prevention approach has proven effective, with primary prevention strategies aimed at the community 's general population and secondary prevention strategies targeting youth between the ages of 7 and 14 who are at high risk of joining gangs. Prevention efforts undertaken by law enforcement departments around the country include: “Participating in community awareness campaigns (e.g. developing public service announcements and poster campaigns). Contacting the parents of peripheral gang members (through the mail or during personal visits) to alert them that their children are involved with a gang. Sponsoring gang hotlines to gather information and facilitate a quick response to gang-related issues. Organizing athletic events with teams of law enforcement officers and gang members. Establishing working relationships with local social service agencies. Making presentations about gangs to schools and community groups as a combined effort at prevention and information gathering. Sponsoring school-based gang and drug prevention programs (e.g. DARE and GREAT)” (Hess, 2013 p.230).

Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang

At any rate, it is very clear that some youths engage in more gang activity than others; some might be called "the wannabes" who move out of the influence of the gang on the basis of whether or not a program of interest intercepts drawing them completely away from the gang. Within the "wannabes" there are many little brothers and sisters, sometimes referred to as "pee wees." However, on separate and certain occasions they are sent home by their older siblings when something was about to happen for which only older members were being mobilized. Moreover, I am going to go into explicit detail on two Hispanic gangs The Mexican Mafia, the Nuestra Familia, and the Latin Kings.

The two most critical social issues that are impacting the Alvarez family are gang involvement and violence, and a lack of community involvement. Gang involvement is especially troubling to both the community and the immediate family as it is directly related to violence and crime. “Gang members engage in a higher level of serious and violent crime than their non-gang-involved peers. Research about gangs is often intertwined with research about gun violence and drug crime. It is clear that gangs, guns, drugs, and violence are interconnected.” (Gangs and Gang Crime, 2017)

"The Oklahoma Arts Council and the Oklahoma City Police Department may seem unlikely partners in gang prevention, but their work together has been promising. since 2007, the police department has operated the F.A.C.T. program (Family Awareness and Community Teamwork), which aims to step into the lives of youths who are walking a tightrope between falling into gang

I am grateful for the opportunity to be allowed to address joint meeting in this country that I personally call my home. This country is the land where people can be free and pursue their dreams that can not be done in any other country. As the United States Congress the whole body of this organization is to be able to defend the lives and rights of the people. This country is the home of the people that keep this country running, and part of those people is the Latino community. The Latino community now make up 1 out 4 school students in the United States and are a rapidly growing population in nontraditional settlement areas (Gandara 2017). But as the Latino community keeps growing the youth is not getting enough help to continue into higher

The purpose of this paper is to understand, acknowledge and challenge communities to recognize gang behavior and gang affiliation. This paper will also describe the culture and what it means to be in a gang; key findings of the research; recommendations the community can employ to remedy the need; and discussions and implications for further study.

Hispanic/Latino are often overlooked and silenced due to language barriers between the instructors and students (Rubin, 2014). In order to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, students and their families should have the opportunity to understand classroom and college access material. GEAR UP provides translation services for Hispanic/Latino families and translate documents such as handouts and letters given in schools. The agency also translates for school events and provides services for parent-teacher conferences and parent

For my final paper I am going to talk about a program that in my eyes is a great way for our youth to receive different views and healthy choices when it comes to avoiding and confronting gangs or gang members. Gang Resistance Education and Training, abbreviated G.R.E.A.T., and provides a school-based, police officer instructed program that includes classroom instruction and various learning activities. The mission of the program is to provide a range of activities to our kids to keep them away from gangs or related activity as well as educate them on competency, usefulness, and personal empowerment which will prevent them from

In order to come to a solution, an understanding of different aspects of the problem is required. Gangs are not a recent trend. “While they have existed in some verifiable form in the United States since the 19th century, the 1950’s showed the worst juvenile delinquency statistics the world had seen (Siegel and Welsh, 2011).” Major cities such as New York enacted curfews to help curb this issue, however at the time not many studies had been performed to realize the widespread activity and cause of such delinquency rates.

There are several positive and successful programs that are put in place in which involves the help and deterrence of youth from engaging into gangs. Such task of helping out the youth and future generations takes time and commitment. Possible solutions of getting involved in helping the youth that are in the gangs to get them off the streets are implementing the same gang model that they already know in which involves the commitment of one to another as members of a close-knitted family but without the drugs and violence. With the ideas and belief that they have already known would be easier to implement and develop programs that they are familiar to. Such programs should instill the same love, respect, and belonging as one would receive when joined a gang; therefore, it gives them another option of committing themselves in a positive way as a model citizen. It gives them

The Town of Anthony, Texas is a rural community that is 30 miles apart from two major cities which are El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Due to the location of this particular community, there are limited activities for the community available. This allows teens to get involved in gang activities and to explore risky behaviors such as substance abuse use. In order to keep the adolescents off the streets, the Community Relations Coalition for a Drug Free Anthony hosts movie nights. This activity gives youth in the community a safe environment to include substance abuse messages. The Community Relations Committee for a drug free Anthony, Texas coalition organizes activities and events for the residents and families of all ages. The purpose

Community oriented policing is the proactive deployment method used by patrol officers in order to find solutions to why crime is occurring within a given community. Officers use their critical thinking and problem solving skills to analyze and uncover the underlying issues of a community that are posing threats to public safety and address ways this can be prevented. In many communities throughout the United States, police officers strive to build better relationships with community members, yet building relationships with youth within a community, especially a community over run by gangs, crime and drugs is a much tougher issue. These juveniles are at higher risk for entering into the juvenile justice system based on the many risk

Gangs have become a large problem in areas of the United States. Teenagers are initiated into these groups when they are younger than ever before. Parents and teachers want to stop the gang activity, starting with cutting down on gang colors and insignia on

A core group of girls continues to attend each summit, including girls adjudicated to a therapeutic group environment. More girls attend each subsequent summit. In one case, one of the girls attending the Teen Summit had planned to meet two older teenage boys prior to going home. As a result of the summit, she called her parents to pick her up instead. Two teen mothers attended the summit with their infants and admitted the serious hardships of teen motherhood and issues that impair their ability to continue their education. At another summit, when questioned ¾ of the group indicated that they knew gang members and one participant asked the gang prevention specialist strategies on how she could help get a friend out of a gang. Another participant felt safe enough to disclose to the whole group of girls that she had be physically and sexually abused by her boyfriend. Coalition experts immediately