Highlights
- Program Type: Intervention, Prevention, Suppression
- Ages: 15-38
- Effectiveness: Promising gang program (Read the criteria for this rating)
Project 110% provided a broad spectrum of services for specific groups of youth and adults in the focus area (two zip codes) of Raleigh, NC, an area characterized by elevated gang violence. The targeted individuals included potential victims, high risk youth, both non-violent and violent criminal gang members, incarcerated or deported gang members, and inmates returning from confinement. Parallel services consisted of global prevention, targeted prevention, intervention, law enforcement suppression, intensive intervention, and supportive interpersonal networks. The program integrated Prevention, Intervention, Re-entry, and Enforcement components, coupled with Outreach Workers.
In this large-scale undertaking, Project 110% set out to achieve several broad goals: to make collaboration the norm among service providers, to lower barriers to services, to encourage sustainability, to alter criminal careers of individuals, and to reduce gang-related crime in the southeast Raleigh target area. Collaborative problem solving became the norm among many service providers, shifting from “silo” maintenance to “team-player” modes of service delivery. Many service providers no longer disqualify applicants with criminal backgrounds and gang affiliations. Altogether more than 1,000 individuals and their families received services in the 4-year funded period. More than 200 target youth returned to high school, 88 of which earned GED’s.
Gang crime, including violence, decreased significantly from 2008 to 2012 in the Project 110% focus area in comparison with the city as a whole. Gang-related crimes were reduced sharply, by 43% both in the target area and city-wide, including murders, which decreased from 14 in 2008 to just 2 in 2011 in the target area. In the Project 110% focus area, the percentage of gang-related crimes decreased from 9% to 5% during 2008-2012. The project also demonstrated favorable cost-benefits. For every $1 spent on Project 110%, there was a $135 reduction in the cost of gang-related crime in the focus area, and a $325 impact per $1 spent in Raleigh as a whole.
Risk Factors
Individual
Antisocial/delinquent beliefs
Conduct disorders (authority conflict/rebellious/stubborn/disruptive/antisocial)
Drug dealing
Early dating/sexual activity/fatherhood
Exposure to firearm violence
Few social ties (involved in social activities, popularity)
General delinquency involvement
High alcohol/drug use
High drug dealing
Hyperactivity/impulsivity
Illegal gun ownership/carrying
Lack of guilt and empathy
Life stressors
Makes excuses for delinquent behavior (neutralization)
Mental health problems
Physical violence/aggression
Violence at age 13
Violent victimization
Family
Antisocial parents
Broken home/changes in caretaker
Child maltreatment (abuse or neglect)
Delinquent siblings
Family history of problem behavior/criminal involvement
Family poverty/low family socioeconomic status
Family violence (child maltreatment, partner violence, conflict)
Having a teenage mother
High parental stress/maternal depression
Lack of orderly and structured activities within the family
Living in a small house
Low parental attachment to child/adolescent
Low parental education
Parental use of physical punishment/harsh and/or erratic discipline practices
Per capita family income
Poor parental supervision (control, monitoring, and child management)
Poor parent-child relations or communication
School
Bullying
Frequent school transitions
Frequent truancy/absences/suspensions; expelled from school; dropping out of school
Low academic aspirations
Low math achievement test scores (males)
Low parent college expectations for child
Low school attachment/bonding/motivation/commitment to school
Poor school attitude/performance; academic failure
Poor student-teacher relations
Poorly organized and functioning schools/inadequate school climate/negative labeling by teachers
Community
Availability and use of drugs in the neighborhood
Availability of firearms
Community disorganization
Economic deprivation/poverty/residence in a disadvantaged neighborhood
Exposure to violence and racial prejudice
Feeling unsafe in the neighborhood
High-crime neighborhood
Low neighborhood attachment
Neighborhood physical disorder
Neighborhood youth in trouble
Peer
Association with antisocial/aggressive/delinquent peers; high peer delinquency
Association with gang-involved peers/relatives
Gang membership
Peer alcohol/drug use
Endorsements
National Gang Center: Promising program
Special commendation: United States Attorney's Office, North Carolina Eastern District, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice
Contact
Mr. David Barciz
Former C.A.G.I. Coordinator, Project 110%
Wake County Gang Task Force
5520C Kaplan Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606
Phone: (919) 809-6913
E-mail: [email protected]
References
Barciz, D. (2014). An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Suppression: A Collaborative Framework for Comprehensive Gang Reduction. US/Canada: Lulu Press, Inc.