On behalf of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) proposes to conduct three activities targeted at addressing gang problems during the period October 1, 2004, through September 30, 2006:
1) Conduct the 2005 National Youth Gang Symposium in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, to provide 25 hours of training to approximately 1,200 professionals from the fields of law enforcement, education, youth outreach, juvenile and criminal justice, and youth-serving agencies. Training topics will include gang awareness, culture and identification, assessment of gang activity, and proven/promising programs/strategies to address gang involvement and crime.
2) Conduct a Community Mobilization Project to assist communities in mobilizing to prevent gang crime. Based on a review of literature on the topic, this project will develop guidelines and materials for implementing low-cost community mobilization and action plans to reduce gang crime and increase community pride and cohesiveness. These tools will be tested in one or more pilot sites, then made available through multiple media.
3) Conduct a Gang Prevention and Law-Related Education Project that will enhance gang prevention materials in law-related education curricula and textbooks and pilot test the material with small groups of general population youth, delinquent youth, and parents of delinquent youth.
CA/NCF