God, Gangs & Grace!

Well, finally, finally....this is an article I have been waiting for!!

My mission placement exposed me to the whole new world of gangs and young people and how we in society can play a part in transforming and moving them towards the message of Jesus Christ!

This article and research below is part of an interview and information that a group of us put together 2 months ago while reviewing the shifting trends of youth ministry...

Please continue to pray for the youths of this generation in your community...it is vital that we win back this generation for the Lord!

Drawing on his own research, former gang member Dave Wiles unpacks the issue of gangs, focussing on the social factors faced by young gang members, and presenting a youth ministry response.

Dave's testimony:
"It was a cold night and I hugged the Prince of Wales-checked Crombie tightly as we looked for the next bunch of ‘innocents’ to harass. I was called Alex in those days, named after the infamous lead character from A Clockwork Orange by a friend who’d spotted the bloodstains left on my jacket from a recent fight. It didn’t matter who we ‘had it out’ with - ‘tramps’ were a favourite target, or those who frequented ‘gay bars’, or someone with a different skin colour to our own. We were just looking for ‘bovver’. It eventually came in the shape of a pub brawl, where glasses were the only weapons (pick axe handles were reserved for out-of-town sorties) - thank God we didn’t have access to guns so easily in the 60s!

My own brief involvement in gangs, during the late 60s and early 70s leaves me ashamed and often leads to sober reflection upon the grace of God that I was to experience towards the end of the 70s. I confess that the experience stood me in good stead in terms of street credibility when I turned to youth work as a way of serving God and unravelling my past. I seemed to have a natural connecting point with the youngsters on the estate where I worked; my exploits from the past had become suburban mythology and young people recognised the empathy I seemed to have with them. Encounters with adults who felt we should just ‘hang or flog’ gang members (or drug pushers for that matter) often led to embracing silences when I mentioned my own past as both a gang member and drug pusher!"

The world is never as simple as we might hope; it’s certainly not as simple as the populist press would have us think:
‘A laugh for the newsprint nightmare, A world that never was, Where the questions are all ‘why?’, And the answers are all ‘because.’ Ha Ha Ha....’ [1]

I have unqualified sympathy for those who are the victims of gang activity and would argue strongly for greater provision of victim support services, but would also want to suggest that the kind of fascist attitudes that some opinion formers propagate about young people who are involved in gangs is a disservice to understanding, or any hope of progress and change for those young people.

A more balanced position is argued by Steve Beebee (2003) who points out that:
‘Although the rise [of gangs] cannot be reasonably compared to the impression given by certain sections of the media, and while the use of firearms remains relatively rare, there is no doubt that gangs pose an increasing threat to young people, especially those living in inner city areas.’ [2]

The report goes on to outline some of the key problems relating to gangs and offers some youth work responses in terms of case studies. It also provides some helpful action points relating to youth work principles, the involvement of young people as well as messages to central and local government. Tom Wylie (Chief Executive of NYA) concludes the report by suggesting that while wanting to support the government’s agenda in responding to anti-social behaviour we need to prove the value of youth work’s contribution in responding to young people in gangs. The report ends by stating that the key thing is for youth workers to stand by the young people that we work with, even though we may only be able to make small changes, and that we should build and sustain work arising from community reaction to local events. This of course has to be the million-dollar question - how do you respond to this kind of issue in communities that will obviously be threatened, angry and even grieving, in the face of gang activity, especially violence?

My own research [3] among Christian youth workers offers some clues about the issues that young people face in gangs and how we might respond to them. The research is tentative as it was based on a limited sample of youth workers who were directly involved in work with gangs and others who were aware of youth work by Christians in this arena.

Issues faced by young people in gangs
I highly recommend Robert Beckford’s book, God and the Gangs, in which he articulates so well the tension between the individual responsibility of gang members in relation to their behaviour and the social or structural context in which such behaviour takes place, as well as the way in which black young people are particularly vulnerable:

‘There is no justifiable reason for condoning drug dealing and the use of weapons. However, it remains essential that we address the systematic failure which shows itself in structural breakdown within families, law, education and employment. Gun crime and gang violence is made in urban Britain... Many of the black youths involved in gun crime were born and raised during the Conservative reign of the 1980s... warehoused in substandard schools, ignored in under funded communities and sent to young offenders’ institutions and prisons in disproportionate numbers. We are reaping a grim harvest from the brutal assault on urban social amenities, family structures and employment possibilities...’ [4]

This sentiment is reflected in my own study in that many of the participants did not want to separate young people in gangs from other marginalised young people and they were as quick to offer insight into the need to address an unfair society as well as the behaviour of those involved in gangs. The specific themes and issues that were mentioned by participants as being significant social factors included:

Employment
Responses ranged from explanations that seemed social in nature: ‘Poor employment opportunities’, through to explanations that seemed more focused on personal responsibility: ‘They enjoy hanging around and ‘working’ with each other. They don’t like being told what to do and doing ‘menial’ jobs, which makes them unsuitable for work. In addition, their gang activities may have yielded a criminal conviction, making constructive activity even more difficult.’ Employment has to be an important issue and I would want to endorse the work of national projects like Worth Unlimited that enable young people to explore their own sense of identity and self worth as well as help with securing employment.

Educational achievement
This issue is linked to employment and it was noted that it was not necessarily applicable to all gang members; however, it is a common occurrence. The educational system that we have developed is not effective for so many young people and projects that provide ‘tailored’ education (e.g. The Vine in Walsall or Energise in Bedford) are critical. Projects and schemes which help young people to cope with their current educational experiences are also crucial. For example, the small group work programmes (e.g. RAMP - Re-engaging And Motivating Pupils) run by Local Authorities and others around the UK. These offer programmes to enable young people to explore their own behaviour, anger management, social skills and a whole host of themes that resource them in coping with their educational (and home) environment. Tragically these efforts are all too often under-funded, over-dependent on temporary funding or closed down because they are not valued enough.

Sexual health and drug use/misuse
This was a frequently-mentioned issue that young people in gangs face and a number of the projects that participants were involved in were offering guidance, advice and information. I have been particularly encouraged by the number of Christian projects that have moved beyond narrow moralistic debates about the provision of information and services in this area and are seeking to reduce harm rather than purely promote abstinence.

Identity and peer pressure
These were cited by participants as being of particular concern. Gang membership itself can be seen as evidence that identity and peer pressure are even more pertinent for the young people involved in gangs than other young people. This kind of psychological internal dynamic is illuminated by one respondent: ‘They become intolerant to how other people live, they can’t cope with weakness because as a unit they will always be strong and they will never see themselves as worth anything because their worth is in the gang.’

Gun crime and violence
This was predictably mentioned by a number of respondents not only in terms of the fear and concern that this creates in wider society but in terms of the fear it generates between gangs and among young people. For example, one person said, ‘There is a fear of other gangs; there becomes a fear of moving off the estates for fear of being shot. Inter and intra-gang rivalry can mean they get shot. Death is a big issue.’

Responding to young people in gangs
Youth workers have the ability to meet young people where they are both emotionally and socially, through a number of methodologies, and some workers are committed to building relationships over a long period of time. Many youth workers do not represent statutory bodies, and although they need to be aware of legal issues, can be perceived as a less threatening form of authority in the lives and experience of young people in gangs. Youth workers are often able to discuss issues with young people in a more relaxed and candid manner. Current practice and ideas shared by participants in my research suggest that the following roles, that youth workers might adopt, may be of significance in working with young people in gangs:

Diversionary
Engaging in activities that are legitimate and respond to the young persons need to ‘let off steam’, one worker wrote that youth work should: ‘Open up avenues of legitimate activity. Help them understand the harm they cause and the impact on others. Tackle underlying issues, which prevent them from moving forward and realising their potential.’

Alan Duncan (a Conservative MP) recently spent a week, courtesy of reality TV programme My Week in the Real World as a youth worker in Manchester. During this time he took a group of local youngsters, who exhibited some seriously ‘challenging behaviours’, to a residential ‘outdoor experience’ in North Wales. It was a fascinating programme for many reasons, but perhaps mostly because of the way a senior politician was so easily won over by the value of youth work (and particularly diversionary youth work) in so short a period! He ended the week vowing never to demean youth workers as wishy-washy liberals! I wish that governments were as quick to invest in diversionary work!

Preventative and educational work
Work with those young people who are thinking about gang membership in terms of raising awareness about the associated risks and dangers and seeking to reduce harm. One worker wrote: ‘... I have contact with some younger guys on the edge of some gangs in the area where I work and can provide an informative and educative role with those on the fringe of gang involvement.’

Youth workers (some who may have been involved in gang culture) can offer mentoring support as a significant adult; a more objective sounding board to discuss consequences and options. Of course this does raise questions about safety, risk and a number of procedural questions about how workers engage with gangs. However, it is important to note the potential that this kind of relationship has in informing, educating and supporting young people in gangs. The value of detached street work projects around the country should not be underestimated in their contribution to this kind of activity.

Relationship formation
The importance of forming non-judgemental relationships with young people in gangs was identified as critical. One respondent said that things like friendship, acceptance and love could redress the balance of life and create a better purpose for life for gang members. While not wanting to understate the grief and pain that gangs can cause to others, many of the workers wanted to emphasise the damaged sense of self worth that gang members can have about themselves and underlined the importance of responding to their need for an inner sense of worth. It is important not to underestimate the power of providing a ‘listening ear and a safe place to be’ as one worker expressed it. To young people who may have had traumatic relationships with adults as they have grown up and who now face the seemingly endless barrage of hostile adults who seek to control their behaviour, a trusting relationship with a youth worker might be a real point of development and positive change.

Mediation
The importance of mediation in the youth worker role was recognised, particularly as gangs can be misunderstood and are subjected to a number of stereotypical attitudes. A youth worker may be well placed to enable understanding between differing groups in a community or wider society. Mediation may occur between adults and young people, professionals and community groups or indeed between differing groups of young people. As one worker put it: ‘A youth worker can act as a mediator to help bring opposing gangs together to share common stories. By building relationships with both parties there may be opportunities to discuss openly how gang culture affects those involved.’

In conclusion, I would like to challenge those of us engaged in Christian youth ministry to rethink our calling to young people in gangs as well as those who are on the other edges of our society. I want to argue for action which responds to causes (what some, like Robert Beckford, would call ‘prophetic action’) as well as symptoms in relation to the issues raised by ‘gang’ activity. After all, Jesus didn’t call us to be peace lovers, but peace makers.