Stopping Gangs

" Understanding can begin a friendship without being convicted for the past, so we must give a little to receive a little"-Nanon Williams
We need to first understand why kids would consider joining a gang in order to find solutions to stopping gangs, or maybe just reducing the gang memberships in the United States. People who don’t know anything about what goes on in the ghettos, and other places like this, where most of the gang members are coming from, who have low income families, drugs everywhere, and lack of parents at home because of having to work all day to maintain the household, will never understand the gang scene, and like Williams said in his essay," Understanding Gang Life”, “We will always have separate world in the same country." We need to find solutions and ways to prevent kids from joining gangs and to those who are involved already ways to keep them out of trouble and possibly get them out.

For example a solution I would give is to try to have a stronger family environment at home. What I mean by this it’s the parents need to be involved in the child’s life. Take the time to communicate more with them. Be involved in there life as much as possible, such as school, know who they are hanging out with, congratulate them on there accomplishments, and things like that. Let them know you care about them, and that you are with them in every step they take in life. These things are important to do in a child’s life, because lack of parent’s interest is one of the reasons a kid joins a gang. Feeling lonely and the need of attention can cause them to join in a search for acceptance and the feeling of being needed.

Also, another solution is to have more employment training, and have more placement programs. It is known that gang members come from very low income families. Thats one of the reasons gang members start committing crimes, such as stealing and selling drugs in order to survive. If they had something to look forward to in life, such as a decent job that can support the household, they wouldn’t be so angry at life and wanting to go in the streets and cause trouble. More money should be invested in poor communities to help them have a better life.

At last, another thing is having more organizations like the Homeboy Industries. These types of industries help out gang members in many ways. It was created by Father Greg. At first it was called "Job for the future", then he made a small bakery to place the most challenging, difficult to place young people in a safe environment. The Homeboy industry has made a great impact on Los Angeles gang problem. They provide job training and placement assistance. They help gang members that want to better there life do it. They also provide tattoo removal services. We need to all work together in trying to stop gang violence to help make our