Boys and Girls Club Gang Prevention Through Targeted Outreach

The overall philosophy of the program is to give at-risk youths ages 6 to 18 what they seek through gang membership (supportive adults, challenging activities, and a place to belong) in an alternative, socially positive format. There are four components of the initiatives as stated by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA): 1) community mobilization of resources to combat the community gang problem; 2) recruitment of 50 youths at risk of gang involvement (prevention) or 35 youths already involved in gangs (intervention) through outreach and referrals; 3) promoting positive developmental experiences for these youths by developing interest-based programs that also address the youths' specific needs through programming and mainstreaming of youths into the Clubs; and 4) providing individualized case management across four areas (law enforcement/juvenile justice, school, family, and Club) to target youths to decrease gang-related behaviors and contact with the juvenile justice system and to increase the likelihood that they will attend school and improve academically.

The goal of this program is to decrease gang-related activity and to increase socially positive interactions for children and adolescents.

The evaluation included 21 Boys and Girls Clubs that used the prevention approach and 3 Clubs that used the intervention approach. The study included 932 prevention youths and 104 intervention youths who were recruited to each Club/project over about a 10-month period. The target youth survey subsample consisted of 236 prevention and 66 intervention youths. Given the complexity of the Gang Intervention Through Targeted Outreach and GPTTO models, the evaluation used multiple methods for gathering information, including a review of case management records, questionnaires, and interviews and focus groups with program youths and Club directors.

The evaluation concluded that more frequent GPTTO Club attendance is associated with the following positive outcomes: 1) delayed onset of one gang behavior (less likely to start wearing gang colors); 2) less contact with the juvenile justice system (less likely to be sent away by the court); 3) fewer delinquent behaviors (less likely to steal and less likely to start smoking pot); 4) improved school outcomes (higher grades and greater valuing of doing well in school); and 5) more positive social relationships and productive use of out-of-school time (engaging in more positive afterschool activities and increased levels of positive peer and family relationships).