It won’t be an easy ride, but for a select few who are ready, a new program will give adults looking for a way out of gang life the tools they’ll need to find meaningful employment, build strong family and community connections and shake their gangster identity for good.
The $1M End Gang Life Gang Exit Pilot Program (Gang Exit Pilot) scraps the one-size-fit- all approach and helps participants leave gang life by creating personalized exit plans that address the circumstances that led to gang involvement, through counselling, mental health and substance abuse services.
Each exit plan will also support access to employment, recognizing that a good job and opportunity to contribute to your community is a necessary and important path to a new life.
To help support the Gang Exit Pilot, $500K has been designated to expand the BladeRunners Program delivered through ACCESS and the Skilled Trades Employment Program (STEP) delivered through the BC Construction Association.
These skills and trades training programs will help exiting gang members and recently released inmates gain the skills they need for jobs. The expansion of these programs will also assist youth transitioning out of care, Aboriginal people and people with disabilities.
The remaining $500K for the two-year Gang Exit Pilot will fund a range of services to support participants, as well as support the daily operations and evaluation of the program led by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia (CFSEU-BC) in partnership with the City of Surrey and other community partners.
Those interested in the program must demonstrate a strong motivation and serious commitment to exiting gang life and must pass an intake assessment through a dedicated project co-ordinator and outreach worker.
If accepted, another key element of each participants' exit plan will focus on outreach to peers, family members and the broader community to build a support network to keep participants on track and keep them from going back.
The Gang Exit Pilot was developed in partnership with the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, CFSEU-BC, the City of Surrey, Surrey RCMP and the Surrey School District.
This project complements work underway in the recently expanded $23M provincial Guns and Gangs Strategy.
The $500K investment to expand the BladeRunners and STEP programs is funded by the 2016-17 Employment Services and Supports (ESS) Rapid Response Fund, under the Canada-BC Job Fund.
The goal of ESS is to help unemployed British Columbians who face barriers to employment and who are ineligible for employment insurance to enter or return to the workforce.
