Programs & Education

Our programs and education services supply the best practices needed for a comprehensive gang strategy. The US Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence tells an important part of the story regarding what prevention strategies work and what do not based on scientific study.

DO NOT WORK:

• peer counseling
• peer mediation
• peer leader programs
• academic non-promotion (holding children back a grade due to risk factors alone)
• nonspecific universal prevention programs like DARE

DO WORK:

• school-based social skills training combined with parent training for at risk students
• academic improvement programs including mentor tutors
• moral reasoning, social problem-solving, and thinking skills training
• wholistic programs including social skills training, parent training, home visitation, academic tutoring, and classroom behavior management
• home visitation and case management
• parent training

The Gang Alternatives Program has established a targeted prevention program that incorporates virtually all of the “DO WORK” strategies, including:

• Gang prevention education programs for 2nd, 4th and 6th grades supporting LAUSD and State of California Principles of Learning and objectives in reading and writing, reinforcing moral reasoning, social problem-solving, thinking skills, and classroom behavior management
• Graffiti education and prevention assemblies in elementary schools; graffiti abatement partnerships with communities actively resisting the effects of gang culture
• After school programs for social skills, homework assistance, and tutoring
• Referral Services
• Parenting Programs (i.e. Parent Project^® and Teen Project^®) in English and Spanish addressing parent training
• LIBERTY – “Life Is Being Equal, Responsible, and True to You.”