Florida Gang Reduction Strategy 2008 - 2012

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Resources
tion model funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and awarded
to the Miami-Dade Schools Police. The funding for
the demonstration project was awarded to four
major cities in the United States: Miami, Cleveland,
Houston, and Pittsburg.
It is based on a previous model used in Chicago
to reduce gang-related criminality among youths
in urban communities. The program follows five
main strategies: suppression, social intervention,
organizational change, opportunities provision and
community mobilization. The project began by
recruiting at-risk youth between the ages of 12-22.
To prevent youth from joining or falling back into
a criminal gang, MPACT Project provides opportunities
that foster positive life choices. It is the
project’s conviction that youth who are given an
opportunity to become productive citizens will select
an honest path and turn away from engaging
in criminal activities. Once the candidates have
been assessed and identified as eligible for programmatic
services, the project offers the targeted
youth a wide range of collaborative programmatic
services. The services include:
• Opportunities in cultivating their minds
• Marketable skills training and development
• Personal development, while raising their
self-esteem and confidence
The personal development component emphasizes
work ethics. Experiences gained in the program
have been shown to facilitate a youth’s successful
transition into the workforce and to positively
cultivate their self-esteem and self-worth. Along
with personal development, the OJT program is
the main intervention strategy of the project. The
OJT component expands the classroom learning
experience by promoting youth participation in
the labor market. The goal of the OJT program is
to provide youths an opportunity to learn and apply
marketable employment skills, which in turn
fosters positive life choices and decreases the likelihood
of criminality. The outcomes from Project
MPACT have demonstrated that when the targeted
youth in the program are given the opportunity
Florida Gang Reduction Strategy
to become socially-contributing and economicallyindependent
members of society, the participants
of the project have chosen to participate in legal
and worthwhile endeavors.
The outcomes so far achieved demonstrate that,
when given the opportunity, the targeted youth
have immense possibilities to become sociallycontributing
and economically-independent members
of society. That is the goal of every participating
member of the project. MPACT is currently
located in the northern end of Dade County and
the long term goal is to spread throughout the
county as the “best practices” model for gang
intervention. One of MPACT Project’s long term
goals is to expand throughout the state of Florida.
Information about MPACT Project is available on
line at: http://www.mpact.dadeschools.net.
AMER-I-CAN Program
Both the Amer-I-Can Program and the Amer-I-Can
Foundation were founded in 1993, by NFL Hall of
Fame running back and motion picture actor, Jim
Brown, who through many years of experience
as a community activist, recognized that in order
to be successful, the attitude of the recipient is
paramount.
The Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change
(AFFSC) operates nationally. The Amer-I-Can
Foundation has affected positive change in
the lives of tens of thousands of young people
through life management skills training in
schools, juvenile camps and communities. Additionally,
Amer-I-Can has trained thousands of prison
inmates, police officers, and deputies across
the United States.
Among its most recent accomplishments, Amer-I-
Can initiated a gang truce and cease fire agreement
between rival gangs in Los Angeles, resulting in a
significant reduction in gang-related homicides.
Currently Amer-I-Can is running pilot programs
in schools in three Florida counties: Manatee,
Hillsborough and Brevard Counties. They started
in the fall of 2007 and early signs of success are