Church programs aim to combat gang recruitment

Published: 2005-07-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As youth gangs are growing in the Hispanic community, so are efforts by church people to fight the allure gangs have for teens and young adults faced with a fractured family life and a U.S. society they often consider hostile. Efforts involve working with law enforcement and community agencies to provide viable alternatives to at-risk kids who have little home life because their immigrant parents often are away from home working several jobs to make ends meet. For such programs to succeed, they have to provide formation as well as instruction and instill a sense of purpose in the lives of young people, church people working with gangs told Catholic News Service. So in the Washington suburb of Woodbridge, Va., Father Jose Hoyos has partnered with businesses to set up a youth center in a shopping mall and provide counseling as well as classes in running computers and in English as a second language. In the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, Claretian Father Bruce Wellems worked with city officials in 1998 to set up a public high school in a church building so that his young parishioners no longer had to cross three separate gang turfs to get to school.

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