Suffolk Police Department Gang Resistance Education and Training Project 2008

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 curricula help students develop values and practice behaviors that will help them avoid destructive activities. G.R.E.A.T. program staff coordinate project activities with federal, regional, state, and local agencies, as well as individuals from community and civic groups. The goal of the program is to train criminal justice professionals to deliver a school-based curriculum that teaches life-skills competencies, gang awareness, and violence-avoidance techniques.

The City of Suffolk, through the Suffolk Police Department (SPD), will use the grant funds to continue the implementation of the G.R.E.A.T. program. The SPD will teach the middle school component to all sixth graders in the Suffolk Public Schools, reaching 1,028 students as part of their health and physical education classes. The SPD will also provide the middle school component to students attending Suffolk Public Alternative and Night Schools, reaching an additional 177 students.

The G.R.E.A.T. middle school curriculum will be provided in all four middle schools and taught in twenty-six sessions. The middle school curriculum also will be taught in night school and Turlington Woods, which is the alternative school for the city. It is anticipated that the G.R.E.A.T. training will be provided to 77 students from Turlington Woods and 100 from the night school. The night school will require 65 hours and the alternative School will require 39 hours of instruction.

The SPD, in cooperation with the Parks and Recreation, and Redevelopment and Housing will provide G.R.E.A.T. training two times per week for a total of 140 hours of instruction during the summer component. In an effort to give parents a mechanism to monitor the online activity of their children, SPD will purchase a CD which is designed to keep track of internet activity at home. The CD called 'ComputerCop' is used throughout country for this purpose. The SPD will purchase 1,500 CDs to distribute to parents of students receiving G.R.E.A.T. program instruction, as well as other parents who desire to have this monitoring tool.

CA/NCF