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All America City Focus: The Peacekeeper Program
(Stockton, CA) - As Stockton prepares to compete in the 2004 All America City competition, part of the City's presentation will explain the role in how Peacekeeper is helping to reduce serious incidences of youth violence.
The Peacekeeper
outreach program focuses on working with youth, ages 13 to
18, who are either at risk or already involved in a gang.
The Peacekeeper outreach workers are on the front lines in
the effort to reduce gang violence. The group offers help
in schools, homes and on the streets of Stockton.
Peacekeepers
proactive approach offers community and school site gang
education for teachers, administrators, and parents in gang
awareness and prevention. The outreach workers roll up their
sleeves and work one on one with kids looking to get out
of the gang life, and serve as a liaison between gang members
and law enforcement. The outreach workers also conduct weekly
home visits in gang infested areas to make sure those looking
to get out don't get sucked back in to that life.
Peacekeepers
formed in 1997 after the murders of seven young women. All
seven were innocent bystanders who were caught in the crossfire
of gang-related shootings. The community outcry prompted
the formation through city and county funds. The outreach
program works to entice young people to leave gang life or
never join in the first place.
The impact
Peacekeepers has made to Stockton is noticeable by law enforcement.
In the mid-1990's, Stockton was infested with more than 150 Latino, African-American, Caucasian, Hmong, Lao, Cambodian, and Vietnamese gangs. Serious gang violence is much less prevalent today due to thanks in large part to the efforts of the Peacekeeper program. Stockton has dropped from 150 known gangs to 93 with 2,140 documented members.
The Peacekeeper
program has worked with 2,335 teens over the past three years.
This intervention has seen 357 individuals leave gang life.
Over that same three year period, 25 percent have received
their high school diplomas or GED, 20 percent have found
jobs, 15 percent have started college or vocational school
and 9 percent have been successfully discharged from probation.
In the
past three years only 10 juveniles have been arrested as
homicide suspects, and Stockton has seen only four gang related
homicides per year. That is down from 22 in 1997. During
this time, no juveniles have been gang-related homicide victims.
The All
America City delegation heading to Atlanta, Georgia, will
include David Soeun. David is a former gang member who was
able to turn his life around through Peacekeepers.
"When I met [Peacekeeper] Tracy Barries, my life perspective changed. I was on a road that leads to death. Tracy took me out of the street life, and made me something that I knew I could be," David
Soeun said.
Today,
David is a high school graduate, holds down a full-time job,
and is taking college courses. David is also pursuing a singing
career. A dream that may come true thanks to the dedication
and support of Peacekeeper.
For more
information contact: Tracy Barries, Program Coordinator,
Youth Outreach Services. 403-7503.
Florence
Low, City of Stockton. florence.low@ci.stockton.ca.us,
(209) 937-8279. |
Stockton,
CA 
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