Countywide : Anti-Gang Coalition Seeking Community Assistance, Input

Leaders of government and community organizations Tuesday called for more intense participation throughout the county to help implement a plan aimed at curbing gang violence.

“I truly believe the gangs . . . need to know the community is going to do something about the problem,” Margot Carlson, executive director of Irvine-based Community Service Programs Inc., said at a news conference in Santa Ana.

Joining Carlson at the news conference were Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters, Orange County Chief Probation Officer Michael Schumacher, Dr. Nina Winn of the Orange County Department of Education and Marilyn MacDougall of Project NO Gangs.

Participants said the composition of the panel underscores an attempt to join the once-fragmented efforts of various agencies under the auspices of the year-old Orange County Gang Prevention Alliance. An action plan was drafted, they said, in response to information gathered last November at a Gang Prevention Summit.

The plan lists several goals: encourage communities to determine the effectiveness of existing gang prevention and intervention programs; develop a program to involve youth as advisers in helping organizations and agencies assess anti-gang violence programs; and monitor pilot programs to update resource lists.

“Action steps” that the plan proposes for the next 12 months include surveying community-based organizations to identify needs for information and training; preparing a quarterly newsletter to provide information on countywide anti-gang activities and resources; and developing at least one community action team in each of the five supervisorial districts in the county.