ESCAPING VIOLENCE
White Pony Lodge co-founder Shawna Oochoo says breaking free of a life that for many is steeped in violence and tragedy is not an easy task. The community organization is trying to generate dialogue around how to help youths who want to quit street gangs.
Facing the barrel of a gun, the teenage girl wasn’t afraid of the weapon or the man who held it.
“If I died right there and then, I would’ve died,” she says.
She never saw the threat to her life coming. But that didn’t matter. “I didn’t care.”
When that gun was pulled on her last year, the 17-year-old had been walking with a friend along Regina’s 5th Avenue. Her head was down, trying to steer clear of police when the friend suddenly stopped.
Turning to see what the other girl was looking at, the teen’s eyes fell on the man.
“Take off your f--king flags,” he ordered, referring to the gang colours the pair wore, identifying their affiliation.
She spun her head back around to look at her friend, but the other girl had already taken off on foot.
Understanding she was alone, she looked back at the man. “Shoot me then,” she uttered. The lifelong Regina resident recalled being ready to take a bullet rather than removing her gang colours — her symbol of belonging.
She was among guest speakers sharing their experiences with representatives from community groups gathered at White Pony Lodge, a grassroots community organization that’s promoting safety in the North Central neighbourhood. Her testimony is part of an effort by the lodge to generate dialogue around how to help youths who want to leave street gangs.
The young woman, who spoke to the Leader-Post on condition of anonymity, recalled her brazen response, leaving the man with the gun somewhat stunned. Instead of a bullet, she got the butt of the gun, she said.
As she recounted the incident, she mimicked the man’s motion with the gun and mouthed the sound of the blow, briefly touching the side of her head where she was struck.
Then her assailant hopped into a truck and sped off.
“At the time, I didn’t really care,” she repeated.
“Thinking of that now, it’s just — it would never have been worth it.”
The teen recounted a harrowing story about her life’s involvement in gangs, beginning with her exposure when she was just seven or eight. She gravitated closer to the gang lifestyle as a teen, when her boyfriend died. She fell into drugs and ended up with a weapons charge for the machete she carried for protection.
The path was an easy one to follow for the teen, because the gang life was family life. Her father was, and still is involved with a gang, she said, noting his history placed a certain expectation on her own life.
Struggling with a drug addiction, sometimes she wouldn’t be sober for weeks, she recalled. At one point, she laid in her bed for days, unable to move or to eat. It was then that she began to think about a change.
Breaking free of a life that for many is steeped in violence and tragedy isn’t an easy task, according to White Pony Lodge co-founder Shawna Oochoo.
Oochoo’s own tale echoes those of the youths speaking at her organization’s meeting. She became known to a gang when she was 11 years old. Oochoo said it’s easy for young people to find a sense of belonging in gangs as they often share experiences with members, such as living with poverty, violence and abuse.
Later in her years, she met a gang member with whom she had a child.
“He was a higher ranking member, and I was able to leave without any serious consequences to myself,” she said, stopping for a moment to dwell after referring to her circumstance as “lucky.”
“That’s not always the case.”
Through four days of community consultations taking place over the weekend and on Monday, White Pony Lodge hopes to plan out an eight-week pilot project for a gang exit program slated to start Dec 1. Oochoo said that through the program, the organization hopes to get a better understanding of the needs of those trying to leave gang life.
The information gleaned from project may serve to inform other currently operating gang exit programs, or potentially form a totally new permanent program, she said.
Spurgeon Root, a pastor who has lived in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood for 18 years, has just launched his own gang exit program that he calls the Regina Gang Exit Network (ReGEN).
It was put together using a combination of research on successful strategies elsewhere, years of informal public consultation, and personal experience, Root said.
“This has basically been in the process ever since Regina AntiGang Services (RAGS) shut down,” Root said, noting he’d spent four years working with the nowdefunct program, which ended March 2011.
Root said he’s in touch with both current and former gang members.
In fact, three former gang members are volunteer staff for ReGEN.
The network only publicly announced its existence Thursday and is in its early stages, with no formal office space.
“ReGEN has zero budget. None of us are being paid to do this,” he said, noting that the program will partly operate out of vehicles and coffee shops.
Currently, Root said he can’t put a number on how many people might choose to take part in ReGEN, but he noted conversations are ongoing with a number of gang members.
The aim of ReGEN is two-fold: To help gang members get out of that lifestyle, and to help them become a positive influence within their communities.
“That has a spillover effect for North Central and then, eventually, Regina and the province,” he said.
Exactly what supports are needed to facilitate an exit from gang life may be unique to each individual. That’s the approach ReGEN plans to take.
The 17-year-old girl, who was once willing to take a bullet for her gang affiliation, feels that returning to tradition has been a starting point for her.
“When I pray and I smudge it just feels like it lets some stuff off my shoulders,” she said.
“It just makes me feel better about myself.”
She cut ties with her peers in the gang as summer came to an end, and the transition hasn’t been easy, but it’s “for the best,” she said.
When asked what message she would give to others who might be considering leaving gang life behind, she said: “Leave. It’s not worth it.
“You could do so much better with your life, instead of being somebody’s bitch.”
When I pray and I smudge it just feels like it lets some stuff off my shoulders. It just makes me feel better about myself.