The Survey Says
By Albert B Kelly
Today we live in an age of unprecedented access to
information. You might think this would keep us better informed and engaged on
a variety of issues, but I’m not so sure it doesn’t end up being information
overload. What I mean to say is that we are bombarded with information nonstop
from the minute we wake up until we pass out at the end of the day. Yet good
data is worth its weight in gold and when its local data that we can actually
use, it really doesn’t get much better than that.
Such was the case with the survey data collected as part of
the Cumberland County Thrive initiative- better known as CC Thrive. In case you
missed it, CC Thrive, headed up by County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae, is a
$750k initiative funded by the Federal Safe and Thriving Communities Program to
develop strategies at the local level to deal with gun violence among youth,
including gang activity, while addressing contributing factors. The first step is
data and the survey had much to say.
For starters, half of the adults surveyed said that illegal
drugs are present in their neighborhoods and slightly less than half believe
addiction is a moderate to serious problem. Roughly 29% of the adults said that
gangs were present in their neighborhoods and yet for all of that, 75% of
adults said they feel safe or very safe in their immediate neighborhoods.
When it comes to our youth, they lend a different
perspective than us adults. For example, a little more than 40% of youth in
Millville and Bridgeton felt that gang violence was a moderate to serious
thing, while Vineland’s youth see it as a minor thing. Conversely, 78% of
Vineland and Bridgeton youth said they’ve been asked to join a gang and for
Millville, the number was 65%. However, like the adults, 71% of youth said they
felt safe in their own neighborhood.
So maybe “neighborhood” is one place to plant a flag in the
ground at the street level with a focus on neighborhood-based programs and
initiatives for our youth. I say that because our youth said that they are
aware of recreational activities, but they often don’t participate because they
don’t have transportation and they don’t want to go alone. This will mean
bringing activities into their neighborhoods where they feel safe or providing
neighborhood-based transportation out to programs and venues.
Adults said that the top 4 things that should be done to
combat gangs and gang violence include more youth activities, improvements to
the physical environment, more police protection, and more mentoring. On the
flip side, our youth say that the top reasons their peers join gangs include
family members or friends already in a gang, a chance to make money, and a
sense of belonging and acceptance. Some youth also included getting respect as
a reason for joining a gang.
When I hold adult perceptions up next to youth perceptions,
perhaps the one place where these perceptions meet and overlap is at the
intersection of youth activities/mentoring and belonging/acceptance/respect. If
we factor in making a little money, it begins to sound like something gainful
employment might help mitigate and while I could be wrong, I think it’s worth
exploring.
I say that, because many of us adults get our sense of
value, identity, purpose, and belonging from the work that we do. Take that
away and you’ve got everything from depression to health problems and
everything in between. The loss of identity, purpose, and value that comes from
work may be why suicide rates over the last decade are highest among men- the
group that’s been hit the hardest by layoffs, downsizing, and unemployment in
the years after the financial crisis.
It’s not all that different for youth in that they are
forming their identities and they need to find their purpose- they need to
belong and have a sense of their value. The challenge is providing enough jobs or
training opportunities. How can we connect our young people to something bigger
and more meaningful?
These are the questions before us. In the months ahead, I
will be working with numerous partners to develop possible solutions including
creative use of Opportunity Zone Program funds as well as EDA’s new Innovation
Challenge grant to do something of substance- something more than just
busy-work. It won’t be an easy fix, but the survey says it’s a good place to
start.