Gang-exit initiative risks closure without funding
Youth at Risk Development program gives hope to participants, helps take guns off the streets
When a young person is involved in a shooting or another act of violence in Hamilton, the John Howard Society’s youth-at-risk program is often the “go-to” agency for police, schools or concerned community members.
Yet as police and the city grapple with an escalation of gun violence — including a record 40 shootings in Hamilton last year and several more so far this year — the Youth at Risk Development (YARD) program is seeking new funding to stay afloat. It has less than six months until its one-time federal funding ends in August, and the agency has not yet secured new funding.
“We are very concerned, given the gun violence has been escalating in this city,” said Ruth Greenspan, executive director of the John Howard Society of Hamilton, Burlington and Area.
“We are the go-to person in many of the communities when that has happened. We get phone calls, are asked to be part of solutions, invited to bring communities together.”
YARD helps young people who are involved with gangs or at risk of becoming involved reshape how they think about community, violence and money.
The key to the program, say its front-line workers, is that it is completely voluntary, highly adaptable and gives young people a respectful and safe place.
Despite all the tension and violence in the community, when participants step inside the John Howard Society’s Barton Street East building, there is never physical violence, staff say. Instead, there is respect.
Workers can often be found at young clients’ hospital bedsides, or sitting next to them through long court cases. They help them do everything from getting a driver’s licence to reconciling with family.
Since it began in 2013, YARD has had more than 850 referrals and almost 500 participants. Depending on the level of risk, the youth complete a 12- to 48-week program that involves weekly group meetings followed by community mentorship.
Right now, there are about 130 young people in the program, and no one is ever put on a wait list. They could get a call from a school on a Friday afternoon, drive straight there and have that youth in the group by Monday.
The team of 13 includes one staff member whose sole job is tracking down youth who cannot be found.
They’re a “well-oiled machine,” Greenspan said, adding it would be a shame to shut down now when they’ve found their “sweet spot.”
There are a whole range of reasons a young person might be referred to YARD, from missing classes, to getting into fights, to substance abuse, to being involved with police, team leader Lisa Gajewicz said.
Barriers include poverty, a lack of affordable housing and the opioid crisis. They pick up kids all over Hamilton for weekly group meetings.
Not every youth fits YARD, but workers refer a youth to another program or service.
For those who are gang-involved or at risk, there is often a huge transformation.
“You go from a youth who is completely disengaged in every aspect of their life to after a few weeks (and) YARD is their favourite part of the week,” Gajewicz said, adding it’s like a “light bulb goes off.”
Gajewicz said the youth in the program have been getting younger, with the biggest age group 14 to 17.
This follows national trends that show kids as young as eight are being groomed to be part of gang lifestyle.
Over the years, YARD has also encountered more and more addiction, mental health, sexual assault and human trafficking issues. But Greenspan said it’s impossible to say whether these are actually bigger problems or if there is just more reporting.
Hamilton police have said most of the shootings and gun violence, including armed home invasions, in the city are tied to the drug trade and are “targeted” — meaning it’s not random people being attacked. The crimes have been all over the city.
Police say there are clearly more guns on the street.
Every time someone in Hamilton is arrested with a gun, the gangs and weapons enforcement unit is called in to interview that person, said Sgt. Matt Reed.
The team, which works under the umbrella of the vice and drug unit, often gathers intelligence from these “off the record” interviews that help police find guns, drugs or bad guys.
Last year, police seized 156 guns in the city, according to statistics provided by the Hamilton Police Service. That was down from 267 in 2016 — however, that year was unusually high, with one bust that saw 51 guns seized and another that had 29.
Reed said the traditional idea of a street gang with control over a specific territory does not happen in Hamilton.
Rather, there has been more of a shift away from street gangs to looser criminal affiliations.
“The common goal is to make money,” he said. “A lot of that money is made through the drug trade.”
Hamilton used to be a traditional cocaine and crack market, but police are seeing more and more crystal meth and fentanyl (or fentanyl mixed with other drugs).
The main reason people carry guns is for protection, Reed said. But just because they carry guns, doesn’t mean they necessarily plan to use them — it’s often for “street cred” or a “badge of courage.”
Generally, there are no trends around the type of illegal guns — typically handguns — people are carrying. But Reed said they have seen a “small blip” in the number of people modifying starter pistols to fire bullets.
Hamilton police have been a proponent of the YARD program, including negotiating a $100,000 policing grant last year to cover one full-time youth worker.
That grant runs out at the end of March, but the John Howard Society was invited to submit a proposal that would continue funding for that one staff position from 2018 to 2020, said Donna de Jong, the agency’s manager of adult justice and community services.
Now they are “diligently” looking for any and all other funding opportunities.
Ultimately, YARD offers youth hope — hope that they can rise above and change their life, de Jong said. The program also helps youth change how they value themselves and their community.
Young people often carry guns because they feel they need them for protection, but do not think of the wider consequences. When a youth is reconnected with their community, however, they often start thinking about them.
“They go from, ‘I’m going to carry a gun,’ to ‘Well, no I’m not going to carry a gun because I don’t want my neighbour who is 10 years younger than me to carry a gun,’” said one front-line YARD worker.