Childhood & Community Education

Youth Gang Intervention (Earn Respect)

Implemented from 2006-2008, INMED’s Earn Respect Intervention Program was the only gang intervention program for youth in the city of Compton at that time. The goal of the Earn Respect program was to break the cycle of intergenerational violence and incarceration by providing gang-affiliated youth with comprehensive support services that give them a positive alternative to gang involvement.

The Earn Respect program focused on Latino and African American males ages 15-17 living or attending school in Compton, but also offered also offers education, support, referral and ancillary services to family members and others associated with the gang-affiliated youth, as well as targeted educational services to other youth and adults in the community. Major program components included:

Intensive Case Management to help youth define and achieve individualized goals such as completing their GED or vocational training course, maintaining a stable job, or remaining drug free.
Individual and Group Counseling to address issues and problems that compromise youths’ ability to cope with everyday life in a violent, poverty-stricken community and in broken families, including depression, substance abuse, domestic violence, anger management, and neglect or abandonment trauma.
Job Training and Placement in collaboration with local employment centers.
Tattoo Removal, through community partners, to eliminate the visible signs and stigma of gang affiliation, providing youth with greater opportunities for securing stable employment and “starting over” apart from a gang.
Transportation Assistance to assist youth in attending classes, job interviews and court appearances.
Parent Education and Support.
Life Skills Training.
Information, Referral and Liaison Services to other appropriate social, medical, educational, vocational or crisis resources in the community, including substance abuse recovery facilities, 12-step programs, and mental health counseling.

Earning Respect and Rewriting Their Futures:
How former gang-affiliated youth changed their lives through the Earn Respect program

“The first time I came [to the Earn Respect program], I was confused and having problems at home. Didn’t have a relationship with my dad, my brother was a crack addict. I didn’t know where to go for advice. I have a job now and my brother does too. There is a new energy in my house. Now we are doing all right, I am doing good.”

“I have been in the program for eight months now. When I started I was in a deep hole, my grandma had just died, I had been incarcerated and had just gotten out, I was homeless. Now I can talk about it [my problems]. I have a lot of people who care about me. It is good to have a lot of people care about you.”

“I was having problems at home. My little brother was causing problems for my parents. He was getting suspended for fighting; he was getting tickets and having trouble in the streets so we moved him to a different school. My parents separated, his Parole Officer didn’t know which parent was the problem. He didn’t used to listen to my parents. I got advice from the [Earn Respect] group. I talk to him and now he is different.”

“I learned you need to be yourself, be a good person. I try to stay on track, I hope to graduate. It teaches you to be somebody different then yourself, that you don’t have to put up a front. Here I feel comfortable, I trust them. Being here is a relief.”

“When I very first started participating I was a bad student. I wasn’t used to school,
I did not like school, I wasn’t into stuff. I talked about it, got over my problems. Now I want to finish school, and get a job. I want to live life. Here you get to talk about how you feel, you don’t do that in the street. I feel the same in my house, here you talk about your house and realize what is good and bad, you realize who you are and that it is good to keep on dreaming. You don’t have to follow other people.”