Sec. 101. Community-based gang intervention agencies
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The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 ( 42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new title: The purpose of this title is to offer holistic and comprehensive support for the variety of community-based gang intervention activities that focus on and engage active and former gang members, their close associates, and gang members in and returning from confinement. Gang-involved youth and their families require specialized intensive and comprehensive services that address the unique issues encountered by youth when they become involved with gangs.
Community-based gang intervention involves proactive and reactive responses to gang activities on several levels, including— the regional level, to promote and coordinate peace truces and cease-fires between groups; the State and local level, including community and the juvenile halls, camps, Division of Juvenile Justice facilities, county jails, and State prisons; and the neighborhood and street level, including with active gang members individually. Subject to the availability of appropriations, the Administrator shall award grants to eligible entities to carry out the activities described in subsection (c).
For the purposes of this section, an eligible entity means a community-based gang intervention agency that is a nonprofit organization with a proven track record and expertise in providing community-based gang intervention activities through a community-based gang intervention model. Each entity awarded a grant under this section shall carry out the following activities: Conduct street mediation by working with gang members and persons with influence over such member to defuse and de-escalate potential and actual violence internally between gang members and between rival gangs.
Develop local and regional truces by creating cease-fires or nonaggression agreements between rival gangs and neighborhoods. Serve as conduits who facilitate constant dialogue and maintenance between gangs and neighborhoods. Provide services that respond to the high levels of anxiety experienced by gang members to decompress critical situations due to traumatic events. Provide 24-hour, 7-day-a-week crisis intervention services by responding to requests for violence prevention services made by gang members, the families of gang members, school officials, intervention workers, social service agencies, or law enforcement.
Provide targeted training and technical assistance to violence-plagued communities after a major gang-related incident. Facilitate the development of a community response plan, including training protocols, situational scene scenarios, and emergency response. Make a reasonable effort to prevent gang-related rumors from intensifying tension between gangs or igniting violent responses by gangs. Establish relationships with community stakeholders to inform and engage them in quality-of-life activities that enhance intervention activities.
Serve as intervention representatives in communities by attending local meetings involving nonprofit organizations, schools, faith-based organizations, and other entities. Develop conflict resolution skills and techniques to address and resolve community concerns related to gang activity in order to improve the quality of life within neighborhoods. Work with schools to respond to gang-related issues and crises both in and outside of school. Provide support services for youth and families affected by gang violence and other victims of gang violence (including any individual who is physically, emotionally, financially, or otherwise harmed by criminal activity, and those affected by harm done to or by a family member), which may include— advocating for public sector and private sector assistance and services; grief counseling; and referrals to treatment and rehabilitation for cognitive, mental, emotional, physical, or financial injury, loss, or suffering.
Provide comprehensive mental health services to youth and families affected by gang violence or involvement, including— integrated services comprised of individual, family, and group therapy modalities, and psychological education provided through youth and parent training programs; and gang-responsive services including skills training, assessing and servicing youth with developmental disabilities, behavioral modification, and services to address substance use and abuse, anger management, emotional regulation, traumatic stress, family violence, depression, suicide, anxiety, and educational problems.
Provide public and private sector career job training, development, and placement, including— job-finding and job-maintaining skills, including skills related to resume writing, interviewing, workplace decorum, interpersonal communication, and problem-solving; information about legal rights in the workplace; and financial literacy. Assist with substance use and abuse treatment, domestic violence victims, and voluntary tattoo removal of markings on the body related to gang involvement.
An entity awarded a grant under this section that provides victim assistance under paragraph
(13)of subsection
(c)shall not discriminate in the provision of such assistance to an individual based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic level, or past record. In this title: Notwithstanding the definition of community based in section 103, the term community means a unit of local government or an Indian Tribe. The term community-based gang intervention agency means a community-based organization, association, or other entity that— promotes public safety, with the specific objective of reducing and stopping gang-related and gang-motivated violence and crime; and has a history of, or experience or specific training in, effectively working with gang-involved youth and their families. The term community-based gang intervention model means a holistic and comprehensive approach to reducing gang violence that utilizes the two-prong approach of community-based intervention and an integrated approach of providing rehabilitative service delivery to gang-involved youth that— deploys specialists in community-based gang intervention who are trained to utilize the two-prong approach of community-based gang intervention and who intercede, interact, and participate with and in the community to quell rumors, prevent and mediate conflicts, and respond to crises related to gang activity and violence; delivers rehabilitative services to gang-involved individuals and families; and addresses the barriers that gang-involved youth and their families encounter and the societal factors that promote gang violence. The term evidence-based , when used with respect to a practice relating to gang activity prevention and intervention (including community-based gang intervention), means a practice (including a service, program, or strategy) that has statistically significant outcomes that include a reduction in gang-related violence and an increased number of youth in job development, recreation, arts-based activities, or faith-based activities. Such outcomes may be determined by— an experimental trial, in which participants are randomly assigned to participate in the practice that is the subject of the trial; or a quasi-experimental trial, in which the outcomes for participants are compared with outcomes for a control group that is made up of individuals who are similar to such participants. The term gang means a group of individuals— organized by geography, culture, or activity; that have a group name, and may have other identifying characteristics of the group such as colors and nicknames; and who engage in the use of violence to defend the members or territory of the group. The term promising , when used with respect to a practice relating to community-based gang intervention, means a practice that is not evidence-based, but— that has outcomes from an evaluation that demonstrate that such practice reduces gang-related violence and crime; or about which a study is being conducted to determine if such practice is evidence-based. The term youth means— an individual who is 18 years of age or younger; or in any State in which the maximum age at which the juvenile justice system of such State has jurisdiction over individuals exceeds 18 years of age, an individual who is such maximum age or younger. .
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Sec. 101
Community-based gang intervention agencies
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