Michigan Neighborhood Partnership
(MNP), in conjunction with the Detroit Public Schools, the Detroit
Police Department's Gang Squad, the Michigan Department of Health
and Human Services and several other faith and community based organizations,
will implement a community demonstration project aimed at reducing
the level of gang participation in Detroit.
Gangs continue
to be a growing problem in Detroit and its' surrounding communities.In
the 1970's the Errrol Flynn Gang dominated our Detroit communities and
by the 1980's gangs such as the Pony Down, Best Friends, Black Killers
and the Black Mafia Family had evolved to terrorize our neighborhoods.
There are an estimated 25 gangs currently operating in the Detroit area.
This contingency
of gangs include: The Latin Counts, Surenos 13, Gangsta Disciples, Niggas
from Linwood (NFL), Dexter Boys, Schoolcraft Boys, 7 Mile Boys, The Brightmoor
Boys, the Eight Mile Boys and The Dark Army. To the credit of our local
law enforcement, only a few of these gangs have national affiliation
or any real longevity. Although many of these gangs are loosely structured,
their presence in and around our schools seriously impedes the learning
process and the murders, drug trafficking, extortion, and other crimes
committed by these gang members contributes to the fear and panic that
exists in some of our communities. The continued glamorization of violence
in the media and many of our youth's pre-occupation with the persona
of the American Gangster has led to an influx of "wanna be gang
members", declining neighborhoods, a middle class Black exodus from
Detroit, school expulsions, increasing high school dropout rates, high
numbers of incarcerated youth and the erosion of the family unit. Providing
viable alternatives to gang participation is the only antidote to this
serious epidemic.
Michigan
Neighborhood Partnership (MNP), in conjunction with the Detroit Public
Schools, the Detroit Police Department's Gang Squad, the Michigan Department
of Health and Human Services and several other faith and community
based organizations, will implement a community demonstration project
aimed at reducing the level of gang participation in Detroit. This
project will identify high-risk youth in the Brightmoor Community and
work with the families of these youth to ensure that they have the
support necessary to help them achieve positive youth development outcomes.
Through services such as family counseling, mentoring, academic support,
parent workshops, vocational exploration, entrepreneurship training
and/or employability development classes these families will also have
resources made available to them that will help to strengthen the family.
In addition, this project will yield a cadre of volunteers skilled
in new approaches to community development. This demonstration project
will incorporate best practices and is expected to be suitable for
replication locally and nationally. An external evaluation team will
be retained to chronicle the process and determine project success.
