There Are No Children Here, the true story of brothers Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, ages 11 and 9 at the start, brings home the horror of trying to make it in a violence-ridden public housing project. The boys live in a gang-plagued war zone on Chicago’s West Side, literally learning how to dodge bullets the way kids in the suburbs learn to chase baseballs. “If I grow up, I’d like to be a bus driver,” says Lafeyette at one point. That’s if, not when–spoken with the complete innocence of a child. The book’s title comes from a comment made by the brothers’ mother as she and author Alex Kotlowitz contemplate the challenges of living in such a hostile environment: “There are no children here,” she says. “They’ve seen too much to be children.” This book humanizes the problem of inner-city pathology, makes readers care about Lafeyette and Pharoah more than they may expect to, and offers a sliver of hope buried deep within a world of chaos.

CBS47 Special Report: Escape from Gang Life
CBS 47
Sam Rangel is on a mission… a mission to save Valley youth from the gang life. Rangel says, “If you hang with a gang member, you are a gang member. We need to get them young, at the elementary level, while they’re still impressionable.

Gang myths vs. realities
Bangor Daily News
The term “street gang” is often used interchangeably with “youth gang” as well as “criminal street gang,” The sequence of events that led to 19-year-old John “Bobby” Surles’ death last week was like a scene out of “Romeo and Juliet” or its modern equivalent, “West Side Story.”

Gang problem at Discovery, result of peer pressure
WAFF
By Margo Gray – bio | email MADISON, AL (WAFF) –

MADISON, AL (WAFF) – Even if it’s a “wanna-be” gang or a real gang, being involved with one can have dangerous consequences.

Many say the so-called gang at Discovery Middle School is just small snap-shot of a problem impacting children across the nation.

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.