THE ALTERNATIVE Project

The Youth Gang Suppression Implementation Grants Program is designed to reduce violent crime, gangs, and youth victimization, while enhancing public safety in communities by utilizing gang suppression efforts for at risk and gang involved youth.

Gang Alternative, Inc. will service high-risk youth in the Little Haiti community of Miami, Florida. This program will use an integrative approach with a collaboration of community organizations to incorporate a broad spectrum of proven, research-based interventions designed to address the full range of personal, family, and community factors that contribute to high levels of juvenile delinquency and gang activity. The primary goal of the program is the reduction of youth gang activity through the employment of prevention and intervention strategies. The target population for The Alternative is at-risk or gang-involved youth living in Little Haiti. The Comprehensive Gang Model, which focuses resources on evidence-based primary and secondary prevention and intervention initiatives to stabilize and build prosocial influences, will be used as the model for this project.

Prevention and reduction programming will target the risk and protective factors identified in the community. The Alternative will be guided by a multisector community task force, a network of various social partners collaborating for collective impact to address the social and environmental challenges that enable and foster youth engagement in gang activity in Little Haiti. This community task force will participate in information sharing, program coordination, joint planning, and responsibility sharing. The Alternative will (1) mobilize the local communities through a multisector social intervention; (2) integrate and coordinate outreach and intervention efforts across sectors; (3) develop soft skills, life skills, and occupational skills training as well as a job development program to position at-risk youth for self-sufficiency; (4) suppress youth gang activity through one-on-one and group mentoring involving faith-based organizations, law enforcement, transitioned/former gang members, fraternities, schools, and other community agencies; and (5) develop data, knowledge, and resource sharing systems to track interventions, leverage and maximize resources, and map services.
CA/NCF