VENTURA : Club Gets $2,500 for Outreach Project

The Boys and Girls Club of Ventura has received a federal grant to develop a program to steer gang members and their friends away from gang life, club officials announced Monday.

The $2,500 grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will be used to recruit 50 youths considered at risk of gang involvement, said Jane Goldschmidt, the club’s executive director.

“We’re not trying to isolate the kids and tell them they’re bad because they belong to a gang,” Goldschmidt said. “We’ll be trying to mainstream them by creating a positive alternative to the gang lifestyle.”

The Boys and Girls Club will work with police and school officials to identify youths eligible for the outreach program, Goldschmidt said.

“We have staff who also know who’s who out there,” she said.

Planning for the pilot program is continuing, but Goldschmidt said it will contain a comprehensive sports schedule and career guidance, including talks by various professionals about their work and tutoring on how to apply for jobs.

Organizers plan to talk with the at-risk youths about what they would like in the program.

“It doesn’t mean they have to leave the gang altogether,” Goldschmidt said, “but it means the integration of kids who are involved in gangs or on the fringes, to explore the positive options of other activities.”

The program is being developed with the understanding that gangs “fulfill young people’s needs for belonging, competence, usefulness and influences,” Goldschmidt said.

A training session for community leaders will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on April 18 at the Robert Addison Youth Center, 1440 N. Olive St. For more information, call the club at 641-4485.