Targeted Outreach - Governor's Office of Crime Control & Prevention ...

Who Did the Clubs Reach and How? 9
II.
Who Did the Clubs Reach
and How?
In this chapter we address two questions:
• How many youth did the Clubs recruit and
where did they come from? Clubs implementing
GPTTO had a goal of recruiting 50 new
youth at risk of gang membership. Clubs implementing
GITTO had to reach 35 new youth.
Clubs used many different methods to reach
these at-risk and gang-affiliated youth.
• Did the Clubs implementing GPTTO and
GITTO reach the intended population of
youth? Clubs adopting the prevention approach
targeted youth who either live in gang-infiltrated
communities or communities that are
ripe for gang activity. The targeted youth have
displayed either characteristics that make them
vulnerable to the appeal of gangs or “wannabe”
behaviors. That is, while they are not official
gang members, they may participate in some
gang activities or be nominal gang members
(Boys & Girls Clubs of America, 1993). The
intervention model was originally developed to
serve youth who have demonstrated a gang
lifestyle. However, two of the three GITTO
Clubs in the study modified this approach, targeting
instead youth who were at very high risk
of gang involvement but were not necessarily
hard-core gang members.
How Many Youth Did Clubs Reach and
by What Means?
As part of their case management effort, Clubs were
required to complete an intake form on every new
youth brought into the Club as a result of the
GPTTO/GITTO outreach efforts. On average, prevention
programs recruited and submitted intake
forms for 44 new GPTTO youth, 88 percent of their
goal of 50 youth. Intervention programs were more
successful. On average, they recruited 34 new GITTO
youth, 97 percent of their goal of 35.
Table 2 (Recruitment by Month) shows the distribution
of youth taken into the program by month.
On average, Clubs that recruited 44 or more youth
required approximately eight months to reach the
youth. This is in keeping with the program philosophy
that suggests that Clubs bring in only about five
new youth per month. This allows Club staff to support
incoming target youth, who may have more