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Allentown moms want to know what's being done to reduce violence

Morning Call - 8/1/2019

Aug. 1--The Morning Call this month asked the Allentown Police Department the same question Jeani Garcia had seven years ago: What can a mother do to get her child out of a street gang?

The answer to Garcia, whose son would be killed in an alleged gang slaying weeks later, was nothing, unless her son had been arrested. Little has changed.

In answering the question, Allentown interim police Chief Tony Alsleban referred a Morning Call reporter to Lehigh County Juvenile Probation, the first leg in a circular journey that would involve multiple agencies and organizations.

Juvenile Probation programs are only for children who have been arrested. If not, Juvenile Probation told the reporter to check with two county entities: Children & Youth Services, which gets involved if a child is abused or needs foster care, and Information and Referral, which is part of the Human Services Department.

A Children & Youth supervisor said the reporter was "kind of misled" because that agency doesn't offer anything specific to gangs, but works with police and juvenile probation for such concerns. She noted that Children & Youth has parenting support services, and also recommended a nonprofit whose website doesn't mention gang intervention. Information and Referral had three suggestions: a counseling agency, Children & Youth, or the Allentown Police Department -- which put the reporter back where she started.

Lehigh County refers concerned parents to a number of nonprofits that offer family therapy. The two that The Morning Call reporter was referred to are: Valley Youth House, a 40-year-old Bethlehem-based organization that provides residential treatment and therapeutic services for youth and families; and K/S Consultants, a Bucks County-based agency that collaborates with Children & Youth, Juvenile Probation, police, hospitals and school districts in treating children.

While both agencies have programs for at-risk children and teens, neither has one tailored to gang members.

"If there were programs more specific to addressing specifically gang involvement, I can't say that wouldn't be helpful,"said Michael Ramsey, a program supervisor at Valley Youth House, "That's not to say other programs or counseling in general can't address those issues."

Family therapy, he said, can get at the reasons kids join gangs in the first place. It looks at the entire family and creates a space for family members to talk about their behaviors, he said.

Getting children out of gangs is about empowering parents to regain control, said Michelle Jarrouj-Weaver, a program director for K/S Consultants.

"A lot of times these parents, they're afraid to discipline their own kid," she said. "We're their cheerleader."

They'll encourage parents not to give their children permission to leave the house, and to report them as missing if they disobey. In what Jarrouj-Weaver calls "poisoning the safe house," they'll locate the child and then call police to retrieve him or her. The idea is to make it inconvenient for the gang to have the child around, she said.

Kids who join gangs want to belong and they see gang leaders as having "things they think are cool," such as drugs, money, cars and power, she said. "If those are the people they see in their community who have those things, those are the people they're going to want to emulate."

She tells parents not to give up or try to do it alone but to reach out for help, as Garcia tried to do.

Unlike when Garcia's son was killed, there are a handful of programs rolling out across the city to reduce violence among youth. This summer's spate of gunfire has given those efforts a sense of urgency.

The Allentown Police Department worked with the nonprofit Promise Neighborhoods last year to get a $150,000 state grant to implement a program called Zero Youth Violence in the city. The goal, said Pas Simpson, program director, is for the organization to form relationships in the community and get to a point where if someone wants to leave a gang, Promise Neighborhoods can negotiate their release.

The group uses the Cure Violence model, which was developed by an epidemiologist and approaches crime with methods similar to those doctors use to stem infectious diseases. It has shown promise in cities across the country including Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore. The goal is to reduce the risk of violence, while changing behaviors and norms.

Promise Neighborhoods was just getting its program off the ground had only used about a quarter of the money when the grant expired. The state has since said the grant likely will be extended.

Jeani Garcia says it's not enough. She'd like to get a bill passed in her son's name that offers more protection for police informants and a halfway house for people who want to leave gangs.

She's also advocating for programs that specifically tackle gang violence, such as Gang Resistance Education and Training, which targets younger children and once was up and running in Allentown.

In the fall, GREAT will return, as the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office introduces it to students at Central and McKinley elementary schools. The kids will get six lessons on how to make choices and how to say no to gangs and other behavior that puts them at risk for violence.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Dimmig said if the program goes well, it could be expanded to other Allentown elementary and middle schools.

Morning Call reporter Michelle Merlin can be reached at 610-820-6533 or at mmerlin@mcall.com.

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