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

58 Targeted Outreach
Many of the older youth who are being referred through
the alternative high school housed in the back of the Club
had not yet been mainstreamed into the Club at the time
of the visit. They use Club facilities (the gym and the computer
room) as part of their alternative high school day,
but they are still too “hard core” to integrate into the Club
with the younger kids.
Changes to the Club
The staff identify the needs and interests of the kids and
use this information as they develop programs. They do
that with all the kids now, not just the Right Trak youth.
The program has brought community awareness in terms
of what the Boys & Girls Club is doing. The Club is now
recognized as more than just a hang out and recreation
center. It is viewed as a youth development center with caring
staff. A probation officer noted that, before, she would
refer kids and they would go to play and have fun; but,
now with the Right Track program, the Club offers so
much more.
Girls & Boys Club of Garden Grove
Goals
One of the main goals in implementing GPTTO at the
Club was to encourage staff to start thinking about an
underserved segment of the population and then develop
better strategies for serving them. Another goal in implementing
GPTTO was to change the community’s view of
the Club. The Club leadership was eager to have the
agency known for providing intervention/prevention services
in the community instead of being known strictly as a
recreation facility and daycare provider.
Gang Problem
The police officer with whom we spoke approximated that
there were roughly 2,000 gang members ages 13 to 23 in
the Garden Grove area. Although some are traditional territorial
gangs, primarily Hispanic, there has also been a
huge influx of Vietnamese to the community and with that
the police have seen an influx of Asian gangs. These Asian
gangs are more likely to be profit oriented and transitory
(not territorial), are more likely to do well in school and
don’t “hang out” or wear traditional “clothes,” which has
made them harder to identify.
History and Development of the Initiative
The Girls and Boys Club of Garden Grove had been looked
upon by teachers and social workers primarily as a daycare
center. Prior to initiating the GPTTO program, the club
placed greater emphasis on management and business training
and providing daycare-type services to youth. There was
no emphasis on the one-on-one aspect that GPTTO encourages
and promotes. In the past, staff were not open to listening
to individualized information and therefore, would not
have known about a youth’s particular interests.
Thus, the Club used the GPTTO model to get the Club
directors back in tune with the youth, listening more and
providing opportunities for more hands-on activities. The
idea was to get the staff doing more follow-through in
response to what the teens wanted.
Recruitment and Referral
During the first year of implementation, staff reported that
they did not get much response to their efforts at community
mobilization and therefore were not successful in
building an external referral network. They focused instead
on getting parents of existing members to refer youth to be
“tracked” and to make sure that their programming was
enhanced to meet the needs and interests of the youth.
Club staff also reported referring existing Club members
who were trouble makers, or who showed signs of risk for
gangs, such as style of dress. Using the GPTTO approach
gave Club staff the tools to provide more individualized
attention to the youth already in the Club.
In the second year of implementation, the Club still had
not established a referral relationship with the schools. It
had, however, become the “manager” for the Youth and
Family Counseling Program, a diversion and truancy
reduction initiative housed in the police department
offices. Police officers refer youth to the Youth and Family
Counseling Program for counseling and to do community
service. The Youth and Family Counseling Program could
potentially refer youth to GPTTO but had not as of
October 1998 because none of the youth had exhibited
risk behaviors for gangs.
Staffing, Intake and Tracking
At the time of the site visit, the staffing structure and
process for intake and tracking was in transition. During
the first year of the program, the Club director had been
managing the program and the paperwork. The youth
were divided among the staff for tracking. Between the
first and second year of implementation, however, the
Club experienced a lot of staff turnover as well as promotions
and other internal changes.
Just prior to our visit, the Club had hired a Director of
Prevention Services who would be taking over responsibilities
for GPTTO as well as the other Prevention Programs
and services for teens run out of all the Clubs. Plans called
for returning to a coordinated sequence of intake and
tracking that would involve other Club staff, as well as a
weekly meeting to discuss targeted outreach youth.