Fighting Gangs With Frying Pans And Pastries
Mecklenburg County commissioners this week approved acceptance of a $340,000 grant that will be used to help combat crime and juvenile delinquency by teaching gangbangers the fine art of professional culinary skills. In the process, a popular West side recreational facility that was closed this year because of budget cuts will receive a new lease on life.
The proposed culinary arts program will be housed in a refurbished and renovated Greenville Center and administered through the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Gang of One program. The initiative aims to serve up to 60 “gang-involved juveniles” who currently are either doing time at the Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center near Concord and are scheduled for release and return to Mecklenburg County, or who already reside in Mecklenburg and have been referred to the Gang of One’s recently launched Gang Reentry and Intervention Team (GRIT) for services. The clients served by the GRIT team are predominately male, African-American and Latino, and between the ages of 15 and 17.
While acceptance of the $340,000 grant, which was doled out by the NC Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, received unanimous support from the county board, several commissioners expressed doubts and concerns about the culinary arts program’s efficacy.
“I’m not sure how this is going to change their involvement with gangs, through culinary science,” said Commissioner Vilma Leake, a Democrat whose district includes the shuttered Greenville Center.
Gang of One Director Fran Cook said other programs that teach life skills and job training, along with one-on-one mentoring of participating youths, would augment the culinary arts school.
“It’s one part of a larger picture,” she told commissioners.
Cook said officials anticipate that at least 20 percent of participating youths would obtain employment through the new culinary arts program. The GRIT model, she said, has already proved successful serving clients – essentially former and current gang members – through its reentry and intervention programs. Six of 13 clients referred for reentry mentoring having already gained employment, Cook said; six are currently working to obtain their GED and one has applied to Johnson & Wales University of Culinary Arts. All seven clients that had been referred to the GRIT team for intervention services are currently enrolled in school, Cook said.
Four people will be hired to staff the new culinary arts program and oversee the renovated recreation center: a facility manager, a program coordinator, a culinary chef, and a job-skills manager.
The refurbished Greenville Center, Cook said, would also be made available for other youth programming initiatives and, to that end, Gang of One is currently working with potential partnering agencies like the Police Activity League and other after-school groups.
With the grant money secured, Cook said, the goal is to have the culinary arts program up and running in a newly renovated Greenville Center by February.
The potential for refurbishing and reopening the shuttered recreation facility, in fact, seemed to resonate with commissioners as much as the potential of a culinary arts school for gangbangers. Renovations slated for the center include remodeling its small group and classroom meeting spaces for GRIT clients, upgrading its existing kitchens for culinary classes, and overhauling its multi-purpose rooms to house anticipated out-of-school time programs.
“This is a facility that Mecklenburg County had to close because of our budget cuts,” said Commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts. “And now the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Gang of One are going to be assuming the operation and maintenance of the center and trying to restore that facility to serve the community.”
Roberts, a Democrat, said that launching a culinary arts program to help rehabilitate gang members, housed in a renovated rec center that otherwise would likely remain shuttered because of budget constraints, was an appropriate use of grant money and a good example of collaboration between partnering agencies.
Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, was skeptical of the results that a culinary arts school for reforming gangbangers could produce, but agreed that using grant money was a good way to reopen a recreation center without directly tapping county dollars. James, however, said he was concerned what would happen if the grant money runs dry.
“I don’t want to get so invested in the plan that if the rug gets pulled out from underneath you in 12 months,” he said, “you’re sitting there with stuff that’s brand new that you can’t use because you have to close the facility again.”
The current grant period is scheduled to end in June 2012, but Cook said it’s anticipated that a third year of funding will be made available. City and Gang of One officials, she said, have also created a draft fee schedule for use of the renovated center that will assist in long-term fiscal sustainability.
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