Learning useful lessons at National Gang Symposium
Published: June 27, 2011
Participants at our CeaseFire anti-violence "ring the bell" event leave flowers for those that died too soon from violence in South Chicago. The event was part of CeaseFire Week, which raises awareness about mediating violence through peaceful interventions. Claretian Associates' staff from our South Chicago New Communities Program attended the 2011 National Gang Symposium in June in Orlando, Florida to learn about best practices in gang prevention and intervention that could be replicated in South Chicago.
Staff from Claretian Associates' South Chicago New Communities Program atended the 2011 National Gang Symposium, which was hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention (OJJDP) and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and coordinated by the National Gang Center and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Claretian Associates hoped to learn best practices in gang prevention and intervention that could be replicated in South Chicago. In September 2010, Claretian Associates participated in the Chicago Public Schools' Culture of Calm Community Watchers program, providing safe passages for student to and from Bowen High School. Last fall, we hired a new Safety Manager and contracted with 30 community watchers to be the eyes and ears of Bowen High School. In November 2010, CeaseFire began its violence provention program in South Chicago led by Claretian Associates.
"Attending the National Gang Symposium was the perfect opportunity to learn more about how to maintain both of these programs successfully," said Jackie Samuel, South Chicago NCP Director. "The students, parents and broader community have been very appreciative of these programs. Many youth expressed that this was the first time they did not have to take an indirect route home from school and felt safer on the streets."
The 2011 National Gang Symposium featured innovative, successful programs for preventing young people from joining gangs, intervening with gang members, suppressing gang-related crime and violence, and facilitating reentry of incarcerated gang members into local communities. The conference theme, “Progress Through Partnerships,” describes the essence of what has been learned about anti-gang strategies in the past few decades.
South Chicago NCP team with plenary speaker, Luis J. Rodriguez: from left: NCP Director Jackie Samuel, Safety Manager Katrina Parker, Mr. Rodriguez, Tenth Ward Alderman Staff Yessenia Carreon and NCP Organizer Graciela Robledo. Mr. Rodriguez is the bestselling author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., a memoir that explores the motivation of gang life and cautions against the destruction that claims its participants.
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