Project Hope Plainfield, sponsor of a well-attended May 3 forum on gangs, has set two dates for a new effort to encourage youth mentoring to ward off gang involvement.
The first orientation to the Eagles Academy Mentor Me program is Wednesday, Aug. 25 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall at First Unitarian Society of Plainfield, 724 Park Ave., Plainfield. Parking is available directly across Park Avenue in Municipal Lot 7, also accessible from East Seventh Street. The second session will follow at the same time and place on Sept. 8. Light refreshments will be served.
Information in a reader-submitted article to the Courier News includes the following description of the Eagles Academy program:
"Project Hope Plainfield will sponsor two free orientations to Eagles Academy's Mentor Me program. Eagles Academy (EA) is a comprehensive, multi-tiered prevention, intervention, and post-intervention program. It offers pro-social solutions and resources to youth and young adults about violence and gang prevention, peer pressure and conflict resolutions, health and family services, entrepreneurship, and youth career development. EA provides pre-release transitional services to youth, young adults and adults exiting juvenile justice facilities and correctional facilities to reduce recidivism and provide support to their successful reintegration back to family and communities in partnership with their transactional teams. EA also provides mentors/services to children/youth of incarcerated parents to help break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration that affects society's vulnerable children and youth."
To read an article from the Newark Unitarian Universalism Examiner about Project Hope, click here.
The Star-Ledger has an article today about another program to reduce gang involvement. The first session is supposed to take place in Plainfield, but there is no date or location mentioned. This effort is backed by The Violence Prevention Institute. For a virtual primer by the institute on youth gang involvement , click here.
--Bernice Paglia
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Music, movies, yes even word of mouth make gangs a desired alternative for kids to become involved with . . . where else can they get love, attention, respect, discipline and a feeling of belonging? That's right says Mr. Cosby, in the family . . . but so many families are screwed up because of the entitlement program syndrome! No one out there is entitled to anything more than a shot at a good life. Good character and a good work ethic are invaluable!
ReplyDeleteThose qualities are learned, and then passed on. If you do not possess them, you cannot teach them to your children! There is more to life than smoking whatever, drinking, laying around the house watching bootleg dvds, but you do not have to keep track of the postal carrier anymore, you got a state issued plastic card! You do other things to get by . . . your children see you do these things and belive this is what they must learn to do when they grow up . . . not get an education or a job!
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