Troubled Teens Resources

Prevention is the most effective means of teen crisis intervention. But how do you prevent gangs from staking out your small community and starting to lay out their turf? Because it seems that gangs are looking into rural America.

“Brunswick’s growing gang problem mirrors a national trend… They’re springing up in small communities across the nation due to several contributing factors.”

Small towns 50 miles from the nearest big city are not as immune to gangs as they once were. And unfortunately, bored teens are likely to welcome the distraction. Unless, you do something to prevent it. But how do you know if the invasion has started?

“Tagged” abandoned buildings – structures with gang-related graffiti – offers from drug dealers and economically depressed pockets of people are telltale at-risk signs he discovered while driving around Brunswick earlier this week.

In a nutshell, conditions are ideal for gangs to flourish unless a community-wide counteractive coalition reaches out to at-risk youth, said Reid, director of delinquency prevention for Boys and Girls Club National Headquarters..”

And of course, gangs make their money through criminal activities. Wherever gangs appear, there follows an upsurge of teen drug substance abuse. After all, gangbangers aren’t going to be applying for any local jobs.

The best antidote to gangs is make sure that teens are busy with better things - and that is a tall order.

“…it’s best that a community ensures the schools are performing so more kids can graduate and be more employable,” Reid said.

“It’s important to make sure all kids have opportunities to be involved in sports, education and cultural based activities to reinforce healthy youth development.”
(source)