College Could Get $20k for Gang Prevention
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 – North Shore Community College will receive $200,000 in federal money to establish a continuing gang prevention initiative, thanks to a spending bill the House passed on Wednesday and the Senate is expected to take up shortly.
The money will be used to extend “Project YES,” a gang prevention pilot program in Lynn that the college’s Education Department ran in the summer and again this fall.
The money was included in a bill that provides funds for the State, Commerce, Justice and related departments; it will be disbursed to the college in fiscal year 2006, which ends next Sept. 30, according to an announcement from the office of Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem).
The program is an effort to fill adolescents’ needs in a positive and constructive way, said Wayne M. Burton, president of the college. The program is aimed at preventing middle-schoolers from joining a gang in the first place, because “the problem with the gangs is, once they’re in, it’s hard to get out,” Burton said.
“What’s critical is that it may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a city to beat the gangs,” he added.
The program provides services to at-risk youth, including computer training, school testing preparation, and recreation, among other things. “We had a former gang member come in and talk about some of the horrors that he endured,” Burton said.
Burton said he is working with a task force that he put together with Lynn Mayor Chip Clancy that consists of representatives of many fields in the community, including schools, police representatives and lawyers.
Tierney said in a release that he was “pleased” to have worked to provide the federal funds.
“Engaging young people and providing opportunities will stem a tide of crime and violence that often leads to larger community deterioration and dissolution,” Tierney said. “President Burton has shared with me specific cases where the program has had a positive impact.”
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