Gang prevention, intervention and suppression for youth at risk and gang members are strategies for addressing the recent increases in youth and gang related problems in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. State and local policymakers as well as citizens are concerned about public safety and want to avoid a continued increase in gang activity and membership. An effective response to the problems of youth must be built on a thorough understanding of the problem. There is an important role for Norfolk State University (NSU) to assist the City of Norfolk in addressing the problem and designing an effective program built on the strategies of prevention, intervention and suppression. This white paper outlines …show more content…
The set of services we intend to use have been provided for several years by the Virginia Gang Prevention Program, which includes God’s X Gangsters. They are familiar with and have provided some services in the areas we intend to serve. NSU has been partnering with them for a little over three years, have been the site of a couple of conferences, and it is where many meetings of the group have been held all within the School of Social Work and NSU’s Brambleton Center of late. more lately its Brambleton Center. In this context we envision developing a peer mentoring program in the community, such as gang prevention for youth, gang intervention for youth, intensive gang intervention services, group/6-week certificate, gang awareness for parentsparents’ in-home/group, intensive in-home services, train the trainers, and certificate training for trainers. These workshops and training programs have already been provided, but we will need to do it in a consistent, systematic and developmental manner, and make certain that we cover a …show more content…
This will likely be accomplished when the information is distributed in the community organizations and commercial operations. There will be a checklist which we will use to contact those who complete them and indicate what they would like us to addressed. It is likely that we might see several services or courses checked off and we would maintain a list of needed service as well as a mailing list of folks for us to contact for over time. We would also have a blank where one would like for the services to be held, and we would go to those locations. It may be that we would hold some classes in barbershops, which would be an excellent resource because we want to address people in their own back yard and then encourage them to go to other locations when they feel