There he was. At a friend's funeral in South Central L.A. wearing a black hooded shirt and standing with a group of men twice his age. But this wasn't always his scene.

He had been to see Connie Watson before and was on the verge of changing his life. Watson, Executive Director of the community-based group People Who Care, knows he is a bright boy, but he was not able to break free of the gang lifestyle.

"His mother used to move just to keep him out of harm's way. These older guys were everything to him," she said.
 
When youth with gang ties fall back into their group, it is hard to pull them back out, Watson said. But that day after the funeral, she tried.

On a walk to her car she asked him if he was planning for his own funeral and asked him to reconsider his decision to hang with his friends on the street.

"You try to hit them with a little reality. We try to save those we can. You lose a few, but for the most part we keep hoping," said Watson.

For Watson, this one wasn't a victory. The boy is now in a detention center. But there, at least, he's likely to his focus on something other than gangs, she said.

Watson's experience is replicated in many urban areas with gang problems. In L.A., she heads one of several community-based organizations working collaboratively with government agencies and others to discourage youth gang activity and membership. This approach has also taken hold in other communities as many realize that prevention of youth gang involvement requires constant attention from multiple directions.

While difficult to pinpoint on a national scale, the prevailing belief is that youth gang involvement is continuing at a steady pace and that gang membership is happening at a younger age -- 11, 12 and 13 years old.

According to John Moore, Executive Director of the National Youth Gang Center, the numbers from the center's latest youth gang survey shows that after a period of decline in gang membership for several years, it now seems to be on the rise.

 "There was a was a slight downward trend in the agencies reporting gangs -- a one percent drop or two percent drop -- but in 2001 that decline stopped," he said of the most recent survey, which polled 2,500 police and sheriffs' departments nationally.

This trend combined with other factors, such as recent outbreaks of gang-related violence, has prompted some to take a fresh look at how prevention efforts are shaped and who is involved in shaping them.

"The first place people turn to is law enforcement but even the most optimistic police force will admit they can't, on their own, handle the problem entirely. So the rest of the community has to buy into the prevention effort -- courts, probation, schools -- and concentrate on it as a community problem," said Moore.

Understanding the Problem

According to James C. "Buddy" Howell, an adjunct researcher with the National Youth Gang Center and an author on the subject of gangs, each community needs to be aware of its own gang circumstances.

In major cities, such as L.A. and Chicago, for example, little has changed in terms of the quantity of youth gang activity. Major metropolitan areas have always accounted for a large chunk of gang activity nationwide and still do.

"You can't make a sound statement about a general trend in the severity of gang problems. They are always increasing in some areas and decreasing in others," said Howell.

In suburban areas, there may be an increase of activity and some regions may be seeing an influence by newer groups, such as the recent rise of Hispanic gangs on the east coast. It takes a candid look by each community at its particular problem to help determine the correct strategy for prevention of youth gang involvement.

But Howell said one area that has been overlooked in terms of prevention is in juvenile detention.

"There's been a lack of attention in classifying them. [Several years ago only] a few detention facilities used formal criteria for assessing risk and classifying gang members and in general they rarely used risk assessments to assess the risk of recidivism.  The number who are using these instruments is growing rapidly, but it isn't [yet] common," said Howell.

Howell said this is unfortunate when youth gang members are typically the most violent offenders and are most likely to recidivate.

Moore agrees.

"First of all, [detention] doesn't last very long. The kids' alliances do. I think there is an opportunity to intervene right there and then. Most detention is preceded by some kind of assessment. That's the time to ID them as being gang involved," he said.

But this is only part of the prevention puzzle, Howell said.

He believes that a comprehensive approach that utilizes law enforcement and the criminal justice system to suppress gangs and then the community to help intervene with youth who are not yet a problem is a successful strategy.

"In the continuum - the suppression component allows police to target the most violent gangs with arrest and incarceration but allows the intervention team to work with the less dangerous gang members either by referral by the court or police, corrections, schools, social services, so that you provide services and sanctions for those kids at the same time," Howell said.

This approach, known as the comprehensive gang intervention and suppression model by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, has been tested in several cities across the country. According to Howell, the model works and will be the subject of a forthcoming publication by OJJDP.

"The thing is you can't reduce the gang problem significantly or eliminate it with suppression alone. Conditions [in society] keep generating them [gangs]," he added.

Community Models for Success

Several different communities in California have separately come up with their own approaches to youth gang involvement and how to prevent it, but have some of the same elements in their programs.

In L.A. for example, People Who Care works collaboratively with the local probation department and children's services agencies to reach out to at-risk youth.

"Most have had some involvement with criminal behavior. We provide counseling services for the kids and their caregivers. We also have a focus on academics," said Watson.

She added that the organization, which provides tutors to work with the children involved with the agency, is part of a local movement to link academic performance to delinquency prevention.

"The courts are recognizing the connection between academic performance and poor performance and delinquent criminal behavior. You hear about the critical hours between 3 and 7 p.m., but more importantly we are looking for not only a place for them to go but also getting the individualized attention they need during the school hours," said Watson.

She said that the courts have started to require the maintenance of grade point averages as conditions of probation and in some cases have referred kids to programs like People Who Care.

"The goal is to steer them away from gang violence," she said.

Watson also said her organization has begun working with families whose children are already in juvenile detention prior to their kids' release to mitigate some of the circumstances that can contribute to recidivism.

Whether family members require substance abuse treatment or a juvenile needs employment training, People Who Care has tried to stop the trend of juveniles going right back to gang life on the street after release.

Also in South Central Los Angeles, the Challengers Boys and Girls Club offers families a refuge for their young children.

While the club provides sports and other activities that are often the draw for youth in the area, it is the expectations and the family involvement in the club that makes the difference, according to Executive Director Lou Dantzler.

Dantzler explained that parents are required to be involved in the club as part of their child's membership and the youth themselves are required to meet certain standards to be members.

"We don't allow boys with braids, sagging pants or earrings in their ears. That's what has been so successful. The people adhere to that," he said.

Like People Who Care, there is a specific focus on academics and the youth must do their homework every afternoon. But there are other opportunities as well including job training for youth to get them on the right track.

"We have gangs all around us, [but] the kids don't bother with that. What happens is when you get kids involved in positive things, [they don't need that]," said Dantzler.

Similarly, in Orange County, California community groups and government officials have begun to utilize the local Boys and Girls Club to give at-risk youth an option other than gangs.

According to Al Valdez, Supervising District Attorney for Orange County's gang prosecution unit, a new program called Right Track has been having positive results.

The local Boys and Girls Club has targeted after school hours - between 2 and 6 p.m. - to help youth complete their schoolwork and provide job training for the youth. And, there are no special requirements to participate, Valdez said.

"You can be any kid to join. It doesn't focus just on gang members. The exciting part, I think, is it is very palatable in that it is aimed at any kid," Valdez said. "If a kid truly wants to change, we have a mechanism in place."

Valdez, who has seen a rise in the number of youngsters becoming involved in gang activity, said this program should be able to make a difference with those kids who are on the fence and haven't yet become full-fledged gang members.

"Our program involves the juvenile courts [where] they order juvenile offenders into this program in lieu of incarceration. Their grant of probation is dependent on their successful completion of the program. It motivates these kids to follow a lifestyle other than [what they know]," Valdez said.

The goal is for the program to become a model that can be shaped by other communities, in conjunction with Boys and Girls Clubs, to impact youth gang involvement.

Valdez said it is important for each community to be able to customize programs like Right Track to adequately meet their needs.

"That's one of the hard things we as a public haven't comprehended is there is no single solution. They [gangs] have their own unique personalities and traits and those have to be identified in your prevention programs," he said.

And, when thinking about where to identify youth gang members, detention centers are an important part of the community effort.

Approaches in Detention

While community organizations and government agencies look for ways to reach youth who are at-risk for becoming involved in gang activity, some detention centers are trying to help those who already have those ties.

According to Howell, the effort by detention centers to work with gang-involved youth shows that there is a new awareness about this population.

"What people [have] failed to realize is you can reduce gang involvement by not necessarily isolating them but dealing with their problems. They have the same problems they just have more of them," said Howell.

Youth gang members, like other delinquent youth, have drug and alcohol abuse issues, family problems, criminal families and are also subject to community conditions, and feeling unsafe. By addressing these issues, Howell said, counselors and other detention center staff can have a positive effect on whether or not youth re-join a gang after release.

Larry Miranda, Departmental Gang Coordinator for the California Youth Authority, said that each facility has staff that monitor and identify youth gang members.

Currently, these staff members work with the wards and intervene to pull them away from their gang affiliations. In recent years, the budget for gang intervention has waned, but recently the authority has begun to rebuild its program to work more heavily with the community.

"We are looking at trying to partner with the community-based organizations and have former inmates come to talk to our ward population. We are exploring that as far as them making decisions, the choices they have made and the consequences of that," said Miranda.

The new program will focus on those youth gang members who want to change, he said.

"Where we are going is - just because you have one who says he is a gang member we don't lock him up for that. The new program is behavior based. If he's doing what he is supposed to be doing, we'll work with him," Miranda said.

The Massachusetts Department of Youth Services is also working on a new initiative to identify and address youth gang issues among the ward population.

"In our new employee training statewide we've identified that staff need to be aware of [gang issues]. We really try to key-in on the point of entry and how to ID the gang members and graffiti on intake, tattoos, and talking to them," said Rick Valente of the Warrant Apprehension Gang Unit for DYS.

Over the years, DYS has employed a number of strategies to work with youth gang members including a "scared straight" model and a collaborative approach with other law enforcement departments to reach out to at-risk youth.

But Valente said the key to success is really understanding and identifying the needs of the youth who want to change.

"With the shooters and the stabbers, it's very difficult to get them to leave that lifestyle. Many don't have family members. They will take a bullet for each other. A lot of them don't have a lot," he said.

Valente added that by reaching out to the "Wanna-Bes," officials have a fighting chance to turn these kids around. But, like many are realizing across the country, Valente said the effort must take place on several fronts with law enforcement, human services, community-based and faith-based organizations all working together.

By addressing the youth gang problem on multiple fronts, this population can see over and over again the alternatives available to them.

"Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't but you have to make the effort. We put it out there if they take it that's the hope," Valente said.

Resources:

SafeState - Preventing Crime and Violence in California - www.safestate.org

Gangs: A Community Response - http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/gangcorr.pdf

Highlights of the 2002 National Youth Gang Survey - http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/fs200401.pdf