Opening Remarks

Hi folks,

As I mentioned in my email/letter, I thought that an online forum to brainstorm might be a better option for narrowing down a direction for this group to take, rather than meeting in person immediately.

To recap the brainstorms emerging from the "community response" portion of our May 22, training, they were as follows:

• Getting parents involved
• Peer mentoring
• Mediation with follow-up
• Education to the general public on gangs, "less fear through education, more likely to help"
• Services for expelled youth
• Distributing information to general public on after-school youth centers
• Gyms opening on Friday and Saturday nights
• Would school be willing to open for afterschool programs in their buildings? (Lots of kids home alone afterschool)
• "Lots of great starts, tough to sustain/implement"
• "Anything that is to be done needs to be well thought out"
• Asking youth for imput
• Communication between authorities and youth - facilitating communication
• United Nations - letting kids ID gang leaders, get them together to talk
• Using community agencies as central location for multiple services/service providers
• Start intervening and "make us part of something positive" with younger grades
• Recruiting for positive mentors, retraining staff to become positive mentors
• One-on-one relationships

I hope to solicit comments here, further responses and ideas for direction for this group to take, not take, etc. Additionally, I would hope this group would support the efforts to reduce violence in the area by the Fort Wayne Urban League. When the Urban League publishes the findings of the surveys and community meetings they have recently completed, we may wish to merge this group with their efforts, to further strengthen the community's resolve to address the issues of gangs and violence.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Megan