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A look at the growth of Homegirl Industries in LA…

Ex-gang members part of LAX eatery bid
Daily Breeze

Travelers seeking a taste of local culture may soon be treated with Mexican food, sandwiches and pastries served up by members of a nonprofit gang-intervention group hoping to open shop at Los Angeles International Airport.

Homegirl Cafe, a successful downtown Los Angeles staple since April 2005, is vying for one of the restaurant spots up for bid at LAX. If the bid is successful, the second Homegirl Cafe would provide jobs for former gang members and youths considered to be at risk.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Laser Center owner helps troubled youths amend their lives by removing gang tattoos..
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Many of them are gang-related, including the nine skulls that represent friends who have been killed in “shoot-outs” or died from drug overdoses. …

This from Atlanta, a case study in how gang violence spreads across cities

Suburban gang sprawl
Sunday Paper
… first prevention, then intervention, then as a last result of course, incarceration,” he says, explaining that his department has held a number of gang …

Gang Prevention Toolkit Now Available to City Leaders
Nation’s Cities Weekly
A new NLC toolkit on “Preventing Gang Violence and Building Communities Where Young People Thrive” is now available to municipal leaders and their community partners. To download the toolkit or order a copy, visit www.nlc.org/iyef

Gang girls get as tough as boys by turning to blades and bats
Scottish Daily Record
GIRL thugs are becoming as violent as boys by arming themselves with knives, bottles and bats, a report has revealed.

Female gang members have traditionally been seen as sex objects for their male counterparts, fighting other girls mainly by scratching and pulling hair.

But many are challenging boys for status by using weapons and said they earned respect by not sleeping around.

Archbishop warns over gangs at his first Christmas Mass
BBC News

Many young people are drawn into gangs in an attempt to bolster their weakened identity, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales will warn later.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols will speak in his first Christmas Midnight Mass as Archbishop of Westminster, of people’s longing for a sense of community.

Former LA gang members take their message to Alabama
Los Angeles Times
Former gang members from Los Angeles have made numerous trips to Alabama to try to steer young people away from the gang life. In parts of Prichard, Ala., children walk through broken glass and debris in bare feet. The roads, some unpaved, flood in the rain. Violence is pervasive. Young people call the community “Death Valley.”

Prisoner offers straight talk on gang violence…hope for a new …
Stanly News & Press
As a three-year old, George McLean witnessed his drunken father beat his hardworking mom to unconsciousness. There are also memories of his mother on her knees, her hands reaching out to the TV screen, joining the TV evangelist in prayer for help. He also remembers the heartbreak for his mom when she lost her job at the J.P Stevens towel plant in their hometown of Laurinburg – a moment that George now considers a destructive turning point in his life, a point when he found a new family within the gang lifestyle.

This from the UK

Times Online

Anti-gang scheme cuts violence by nearly 50%
Times Online
Mr Stevenson said they intended “to keep up the momentum”” after research carried out in the US suggested that gang violence soared again when intervention …

East End gangster warns kids about drugs and gangs danger
East London Advertiser
By Mike Brooke GANG members are to be invited to make a new start in life …
“Many kids in England are getting sucked into the gang culture and drug,” said Pridmore. “They think it sounds glamorous and cool.

“But it’s a violent and dangerous world that only leads to prison or a box six feet under. I’ve found that kids will listen to me because of what I’ve been through.”