Troubled Teens Resources

Are middle school age adolescents vulnerable to the attraction of gangs? Does it really start so young? Yes, unfortunately, most teen crisis intervention has to start well before a child enters his teens, in fact, pre-teens are as vulnerable to the cultural hype as their high school counterparts. That’s why new programs for troubled teens about gang recruitment now are aimed at middle school.

“The presence of Tracy’s Gang Task Force at Monte Vista Middle School on Tuesday morning was akin to putting out a grass fire before it becomes an inferno, officials said.

While officers said that the school was far from being a hotbed of gang activity, they were quick to note that middle school years are when students are most vulnerable to being recruited by a gang.

“This is the time when they start seeing it and it starts to become normal to them. The real danger is when they feel that joining a gang is the normal thing to do,” said officer Ricardo Hernandez. “We want to get the message to them now before they hit the high school level.”

The presentation included detailed photos of gang activity and members, a drug dog demonstration and stark descriptions of what that lifestyle is really all about.

“It really hits them when they start seeing pictures of gang members here in Tracy,” Hernandez said. “Then they realize it is happening all around them and not just on television.”
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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.”
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It depends on what part of the country that you live in, but many teen crisis intervention efforts are directed towards youth in gangs. As traffic continues to moves freely across our Southern borders, gangs are starting to proliferate in areas of the country that never had problems before. With gangs come the usual problems with teen drug substance abuse, crime, murders and abuse of young teen girls.

“Acts of violence and crime are on the rise in St. George due to an increase in gang activity as more gang members are moving to the area, and more kids are becoming involved with these gangs.

Ex-gang member Alii Alo is reaching out to the youth in schools and on the streets. He has seen firsthand the devastation that comes with gang affiliation. Alo, known as Bear on the streets, co-created Team RAW in 2003 with Tami Fullerton. They saw the need for an organization that offers an alternative to the gang lifestyle by providing activities for at risk youth, developing friendships with the kids, and building a rapport with current gang members.”
(source)

Team RAW, like so many community efforts is in need of funding. Staff is short and there isn’t enough money to conduct the type of outreach the founders wish to perform. This is where parents can play a part by being pro-active for their teen’s safety. Gangs are a danger to an entire city, not just the parts of town that they control. When parents demand safety from their law enforcement, they also need to see what they can contribute to community efforts like RAW.

They park their gang colours at the door, handing over bandanas from the Crips and Bloods and Gators to teachers every morning to put in a drawer, then getting them back at the end of the day in case they need them for protection going home.

That is the opening paragraph of an encouraging story about a troubled teen program being conducted in Canada.

It reminded me of a friend who worked for a very small, experimental troubled teen boarding school. It was actually a micro study of teen behavioral therapies that resulted in substantial progress for the subject teenagers. The troubled teen population numbered only 40 and every one of the teens housed there came from gangs from several states away. All were far from home and any possible triggers. Outside those walls they were sworn enemies. Inside those walls, they became the teenagers that drugs and gang warfare had all but obliterated.

And so it is in this “last chance saloon for students.”

Members of three different gangs are enrolled in this class of 16; sitting together over breakfast cereal, learning Grade 9 math together, washing lunch dishes side by side and playing afternoon “ice-breaker” games that get them talking about feelings that sometimes boil over.

“When I’m out on the street, sure I’ll talk to someone from this class who’s in another gang,” says one student. “It’s all about respect.

“If I respect them here, why wouldn’t I respect them on the street?”

My friend normally observed these teens behind a one way glass in her part-time capacity as monitor and athletic trainer.I recall her being so profoundly moved by the transformations of these young men and women from hard, brazen punks to expectant young people with an interest in living, creating and excelling.

It is simply heartening to see the same results replicated in Canada.