Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2006, $68,360)
The Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program is a life-skills competency program designed to provide students with the skills they need to avoid gang pressure and youth violence. G.R.E.A.T.'s violence prevention curriculum helps students develop values and practice behaviors that will assist them to avoid destructive activities. The G.R.E.A.T. program coordinates with federal, regional, state and local agencies, as well as individuals from community and civic groups. The goal of the G.R.E.A.T. program is to train law enforcement officers in a school-based curriculum in which the officers provide instruction to school-aged children in life skill competencies, gang awareness, and anti-violence techniques. Training in the core G.R.E.A.T. program is provided to officers from any state or local law enforcement agency.
The City of Bethlehem Police Department will use their 2006 G.R.E.A.T. grant funds to start the G.R.E.A.T. Families component. They believe that by starting this program they will have the ability to get parent(s) more involved in their kids' lives. The fostering of positive family functioning cannot be overlooked. The City of Bethlehem Police Department looks forward to helping families strengthen themselves by improving communication, increasing family skills and enhancing family role models and decision making skills.
The grantee expects to instill a sense of community in the partiipants. They want to show the youth how and why they need to avoid gang involvement, violence and criminal behavior. They want to instill to show that everyone has a duty to themselves and their community to be a useful community member and to make the community safer.
The results of these projects will be measured by school officials and uniformed Officers in terms of student participation, attendance, attitudinal surveys, and assessment of awareness of the affects of gangs and their impact. The students in the G.R.E.A.T. program will be given pre/post tests provided by the G.R.E.A.T. organization for knowledge evaluation. Parents will also be given pre/post tests in an effort to measure the impact of this component.
CA/NCF