Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2006, $83,325)
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 Wakefield Police Department will use this award to implement a twelve-month G.R.E.A.T. Program that will enable 1,349 Middle and Elementary School students to acquire gang resistance skills. The G.R.E.A.T. Program will begin March 1, 2006 and conclude on February 28, 2007. The Wakefield Police Department has determined that there is a high risk that youth will participate in gang-related crime at the high school level and therefore the Department will implement an education-based gang resistance and prevention program at the elementary and middle schools in order to prevent the ever-increasing presence of youth crime and violence in and around the Town of Wakefield, Massachusetts. The Town has a rather unique situation wherein there is a large Middle School population, combined with not only a public high school, but also a twelve-community regional vocational high school, where the presence of gang membership and crime has been well documented.
CA/NCF