Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ “If the children aren’t initiated into the village, they will burn it down just to feel its warmth.” African Proverb
The first time I heard about gangs and finding valuable alternatives to them was in the very early 50’s. As an 8-year old boy I recall sitting at the top of the stairway of our G-town home in Philly when the “Black Clergy of Philadelphia” regularly gathered at my father’s house on Saturday mornings. My dad represented the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office. Together they would brainstorm potential solutions to Philadelphia’s mushrooming gang challenges. At that time the epicenter of gang activity in Philadelphia was North Philly with the legendary “Zulu Nation Gang”. Back in the day gangs fought over respect and turf and gangs were armed with steel pipes, knives, baseball bats, zip guns, and occasionally sawed-off shotguns and revolvers.
Even back in the 50’s those meetings between the Philadelphia Black Clergy and Philly’s city hall focused on alternatives and opportunities for young people. This stuff passed the litmus of time. When we heard “Boy’s Clubs”, playgrounds, mentoring, recreation facilities, gyms, science clubs, art and music classes and various team sports–these were the stalwarts in attracting young people away from the gangs. Just about anything absorbing and stimulating would be examined for its ability to extract young people out of gang life. Most of those early alternatives and opportunities are alive today, yet not always employed by some city halls out of touch with many of their communities.
A good starting point for knowing how to attract young people out of gangs is understanding why young men get drawn into gangs in the first place. Talk with former gang members who “matured out”, adults who mentor with gang members in transition, or criminologists who study gangs and what makes them attractive to young people. Pretty much universally they spell out why young people are drawn to gang life.
The Generally Accepted “6 Keys to Why Gangs Attract”:
CONNECTION/RELATIONSHIP: Young people crave friendship, closeness, connection and belonging to a group. Often times gangs replace families or become the missing friends a young person never had. Connection is very important. How can kids find connection and relationship outside of gangs?
RESPECT/STATUS: Gang membership provides a measure of respect and stature among neighborhood teenagers and at school. It’s like being on a high school football, basketball team or being on a golden gloves team. You are “cuts above”–you are important. How do young people achieve this ingredient outside of gangs?
MONEY: Gang membership can provide sources of money often viewed as superior to a low-wage jobs at fast food joints, bagging groceries, or doing yard work. Gang members, in leadership roles and higher up in the pecking order, get a larger take from drug sales, extortion, armed robberies, pimping, human trafficking, break-ins, and other criminal enterprises. The regular rank and file gang member usually gets slim pickings the further down they are on the totem pole. Also lower ranking gang members are more exposed to arrest, imprisonment, a life long felony record that inhibits getting employed, and sudden life ending violence. At the low end of stick gang members take is often less than the weekly pay at a fast food joint and certainly far more dangerous.
REBEL/OUTLAW: Gang members often possess an adolescent bravado about being in opposition to social norms and values. Frequently gang members are at an oppositional life stage–you know “rebels without a cause”. Being a gang member provides a sense of resisting control or being forced into the status quo. Being an outlaw has a certain appeal.
SAME AS ME/LIKE MINDED: Often overlooked is the fact that many young people who drift into gangs share commonalities, like mindedness, and “same as me” traits. It’s noticed by social psychologists and criminologists that many gang members share common traits: a dislike for school, living in poverty, learning disabilities making literacy difficult, minimal life success, challenges in tolerating boredom and frustration, and being socially unskilled sometimes due to parental role models missing in action.
SAFETY/PROTECTION: While gangs expose their members to violence, they also stand up for their own. A young gang member is unlikely to be trifled with if they are part of gang. If an outsider disses a gang member they would likely receive a payback from members of the disrespected gang. Respect and turf, even today, are boundaries not to be crossed without paying a price. In Philly you could wind up stuffed in a trash bag back in the weeds.
What can municipal governments, school systems, recreation centers, communities, volunteer mentoring organizations, and literacy programs do to attract young people away from gangs? Gangs have an enormous downside, even though they fill some seemingly worthwhile gaps in young people’s lives. Gangs breed violence, incarceration, drug abuse, and felony records making future employment tough.
Alternatives and Opportunities Test for Keeping Young People Out of Gangs
• Does your city have a recreational infrastructure supporting teams, swimming, basketball, youth leagues, baseball, soccer, football, softball, track, and other important athletic activities? Is there adequate transportation to the recreational facilities?
• Does your city have facilities supporting exercise for teenagers? Is there adequate transportation to those facilities? Better still are these facilities in the neighborhoods they need to serve?
• Does your city or school system have social skills training and parental kills training for parents with children at risk? Are there behavior management classes for students with discipline challenges?
• Is there adequate literacy training throughout the week in your city, such as the Tsunami Literacy Program, at a number of convenient locations?
• Do the local social systems support home visitation and case management for distressed families with teens in gangs?
• Are there arts, music, and science programs to stimulate young minds?
• Are their certified and research-backed gang prevention programs in place?
• Are there special programs in place to assist gang members in transitioning out of gangs?
• Do the schools, rec centers, and libraries support academic improvement and homework assistance programs staffed with trained mentors?
• Do the schools and social systems have critical thinking skills classes? Decision making skills training? Social problem solving? Ethical Reasoning skills training?
**”The Alternatives and Opportunities Test for Keeping Youth Out of Gangs” is a work in progress. Feedback is strongly encouraged.**
A Turnaround is in the wind…
