Learn what you can do to keep your child safe from gangs

The event is sponsored by New Directions Youth and Family Services, New Era Cap Company, Inc., the Buffalo Police Department, the East Coast Gang Investigators Association, the Erie County Department of Social Services, the Department of Justice (U.S. Attorney’s Office) and Buffalo Public Schools.

The presentations grew out of trainings initiated by New Directions Youth and Family Services in conjunction with the Buffalo Police Department. Last year, a training session was held for law enforcement personnel and human services staff from Western New York. With New Era Cap stepping up as corporate sponsor, the event this year has been expanded to two days. It is geared to families. It will be an annual event.

National events and current trends indicate that there is gang activity in every community.

“Awareness is prevention,” said Margaret Flannery, clinical director of Wraparound Programs for New Directions Youth and Family Services. New Directions is a non-profit agency that helps youth with emotional and behavioral problems.

At both presentations, Officer Richard Woods of the Buffalo Police Department will speak on “Gangs in Your Neighborhood?”

A panel of local experts will field questions from the audience.

The main speaker at both presentations will be a representative of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association (ECGIA).


Main Speaker(s)
The main speaker will discuss the reasons that youth join gangs, the signs and behaviors that may indicate that your child is involved in gang activity, and what parents can do to help keep their children out of gangs. The East Coast Gang Investigators Association (ECGIA) is providing the main speakers. The same information will be presented on both days, though there will be a different main speaker each day.

Saturday, Sept. 13
The main speaker will be Christina Lickmann, director of the YouthBuild Program in Lancaster, Pa., which is part of the Spanish American Civic Association. (YouthBuild is a national youth and community development program.) Ms. Lickmann is on the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force in Lancaster, Pa., which collaborates with the school district and police department on gang prevention, intervention, and re-entry into society after being in jail or in a gang. For seven years she worked in Chicago with gang members and their families, first through a faith-based organization, and then through a YMCA street intervention program. She is part of a team that is using the curriculum of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association (ECIGA) called Gang Reduction through Intervention, Prevention and Education (GRIPE), for younger students.

“It’s sad that when you’re talking about prevention, you have to go so young,” Ms. Lickmann said. “You have to get them before they’re already convinced that gangs have something for them.”

She has worked with schools in Lancaster, Pa., that offer gang prevention to students in fifth grade, and to selected students in third and fourth grades.

Many people think of Lancaster, Pa., as being a quiet area, but “One of my students got shot this year,” she said. “I appreciate that the mayor’s office addressed this before it became an issue. Sometimes communities wait too long.”

Ms. Lickmann hopes to educate and encourage parents during her presentation.

“I want them to walk out of there knowing a little bit more and feeling like it’s not a hopeless situation,” she said.

Reporters may record sound and visuals during Ms. Lickmann’s talk. She can be available for phone interviews in the days before her presentation.
Christina Lickmann’s cell phone: (717) 725-1108

To schedule an interview the day of the presentation, please call Connie Oswald Stofko, Communications director at New Directions Youth and Family Services, at 834-9413, ext. 203.


Tuesday, Sept. 16
The main speaker will be Mike Pacific, who is community resource administrator with the East Coast Gang Investigators Association (ECGIA). He is the architect and director of ECGIA’s Gang Reduction through Intervention, Prevention and Education (GRIPE) program. He is former president of the New York State Chapter of ECGIA. For several years, he served as president of Gang Member Alternative, a grass-roots organization whose principal activity was getting youth out of gangs. He has been in law enforcement for 23 years and is currently assigned as a sergeant in the New York State Court Officer’s Academy. He assisted in the development of the current Gang Intelligence Training program. He is a New York State certified General Topics Police Instructor, Police Mental Health, Defensive Tactics and Firearms Instructor.

The GRIPE curriculum is aimed at fifth-graders in an attempt to reach children before middle school, he said, but they’re working on a curriculum for second-graders because gangs are targeting kids as young as seven.

Younger children are more gullible and easier to recruit, he said.

“If you’re a little kid and a guy says he’s going to give you $25 or $50 a day, you’re happy,” Mr. Pacific said. “The gang treats you great and you feel like a big shot.”

Another reason gang members target younger children is that they know that kids under 16 who are caught selling drugs or are involved in other illegal activity generally are back on the streets more quickly than older teens, he noted. The younger ones are usually sent to Family Court rather than criminal court.

“Parents become concerned when something happens, but they’ve got to be concerned before something happens,” he said. “It’s doable to get out of a gang, but very difficult.”

He suggests that parents bring up the topic of gangs with their children before they are approached by a gang, be involved with their children, and make sure their children know they care about them.

Reporters may record sound and visuals during Mr. Pacific’s talk. He can be available for phone interviews in the days before his presentation.
Mike Pacific’s cell phone: (646) 235-3363

To schedule an interview the day of the presentation, please call Connie Oswald Stofko, Communications director at New Directions Youth and Family Services, at 834-9413, ext. 203.

General Information
The same presentation will be held on two different dates:
1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13
6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16
Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts
450 Masten Ave. at East Ferry, Buffalo

Free child care will be available.
Seating is limited to 600, so please come early.
Parking is limited and carpooling is encouraged.


Contacts:
Margaret Flannery
Clinical Director of Wraparound Programs for New Directions Youth and Family Services
Snyder Square North
4511 Harlem Rd.
Amherst, NY 14226
839-1392, ext. 219
mflannery@ndyfs.org 

Officer Robert Woods of Buffalo Police: Contact Officer Woods through Mike DeGeorge, Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Communications
Phone: 851-4036
Cell: 341-9522
Fax: 851-4543
mdegeorge@bpdny.org

New Era Cap
Dana Marciniak
Public Relations
604-9259
dana.marciniak@neweracap.com

Connie Oswald Stofko
Communications Director, New Directions Youth and Family Services
Office: 834-9413, ext. 203
Home: 833-5187
Cell: 830-7984