Gang Prevention Strategy

The fiscal year 2014 Comprehensive Antigang Strategies and Programs solicitation provides funding for localities to enhance coordination of federal, state, and local resources in support of community partnerships implementing the following antigang programs: primary prevention, secondary prevention, gang intervention, and targeted gang enforcement. This program is authorized pursuant to paragraph (3)(B) under the Juvenile Justice heading in the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2014, P.L. 113-76; 128 Stat. 5, 64.

The City Prosecutors Office of Long Beach has begun to lay a framework for a comprehensive program focused on reducing gang violence and keeping kids out of gangs. The current Gang Prevention Strategy has elements of the Comprehensive Gang Model at its core, but the Gang Prevention Strategy can be improved by utilizing a Multistrategy Gang Coordinator (MGC) and application of best practices. In 2010, the City Prosecutors Office set a course considered unique for prosecutors that focused on community-based intervention efforts to help prevent crime before it happens. The result was a three-part Gang Prevention Strategy that has forged community partnerships many thought were not possible and earned national recognition. In 2013, the City Prosecutors Gang Prevention Strategy was chosen as one of the nations Best Neighborhood Programs by Neighborhoods, USA, a nonprofit devoted to promoting neighborhoods and civic engagement. This proposed project will incorporate and improve on all aspects of the current Gang Prevention Strategy by ensuring the use of all five strategies from the Comprehensive Gang Model. This application will enhance the City Prosecutors Gang Prevention Strategy by formalizing the partnerships that drive the program, improving the coordination of existing services, and most importantly, creating and developing the role for a MGC who will serve multiple functions within the project. The MGC will serve as a coordinator between public agencies, a case manager for youth and families identified as at-risk, and a leader in the community to ensure best practices are being used in order to maximize limited public resources. This proposed project will enhance the City Prosecutors current Gang Prevention Strategy by creating an effective, accountable Multistrategy Gang Coordination program. CA/NCF