Leaving New York....

I can’t believe my time in New York has come to an end so soon. I have very much enjoyed my time here and think I have had a good balance of work and play. I have spent a lot of time building a relationship with my family in Brooklyn while I have been staying here which has been great! I feel that we are now really close. We visited many places over the last couple of weeks such as Atlantic City, where I was introduced to gambling, Long Island where we spent the day on the beach, Nyack with the biggest shopping centre I have ever seen and the most beautiful lake. Oh and of course, how could I forget Manhattan! Shopping in Time Square and sipping cocktails in Greenwich Village. Amazing all round!!!!

I also very much enjoyed my week in Syracuse meeting with Police, Probation officers, Correctional officers and Gang Specialist to talk to them about how the gang problems are managed by the teams that they work in. I meet some very interesting people and hope to keep in contact with many of them. Unfortunaltey I did not get the opportunity to visit Sing Sing Correctional Facility this week but during my visit to Council For Unity I was offered the opportunity to return later in the year and visit Sing Sing with them. This is an offer I am very much considering as it would be such an amazing opportunity to see how they operate there and how they run the course with the gang members.

This week I also went to the school that my Aunt works at and she introduced me to a few of her pupils who were playing in the park next door and I interviewed them about what it is like to grow up in Brooklyn where they are surrounded by gangs. This was a very interesting meeting and it was good to get the perceptive of the teen ages that are actually living in it as well as the professionals that work with these young people. I also spoke to a local Police officer about the issues that the Police face with gangs in the area and he told me that recently they had had 15 shooting in the space of 11 days! I couldn’t believe it!! The policing in this area has now been stepped up and just walking around the streets you can see Police all over.

I feel over the last couple of weeks, I have learnt a lot and gathered much information relating to the severity of the problem of gangs in New York and how Law Enforcement as well as other grass roots organisations are dealing with these issues and how successful they are. All involved appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet and agree that the problem is growing. The reason that these young people are joining these gangs is due to them feeling the need to ‘belong’ as they do not get that from their family so they seek alternatives and that more needs to be done in the community to bring people together to try and help and support these young people to change their way of thinking and give them options so they don’t feel that the gang life is the only way to go.

I am off to Miami tomorrow and very much looking forward to seeing how the gang problems are managed there.