Awareness meeting promotes at-risk youth programs

LYNN – Jason Nop talked about his time as a member of the Bloods gang. Justin Williams said he was a Crip. And Francisco Paulino said he didn’t want to go back to jail.All shared a common goal; and it wasn’t to get the best deal from an investigating detective. It was to advocate for youth-outreach and anti-violence programs.”By the grace of God I got arrested and went to jail where Straight Ahead Ministries met me, and it feels like God brought this whole city around me,” Paulino said. “The Shannon (Anti-Gang Grant) creates that opportunity for the city to come together.”The three young men and others recounted their stories during an awareness meeting hosted by Lynn Police and Family and Children’s Services of Greater Lynn last week at the Lynn Police Station. The meeting discussed two programs by the Lynn Community Safety Initiative (LCSI), which is a group of social-service, education, arts, outreach and other programs in Greater Lynn that “provide a continuum of care for youth who are gang-involved or at high risk for gang activity or violence,” said Maroli Licardie, the executive director of Family and Children’s Services of Greater Lynn.But many of these organizations and their programs depend heavily on state money.Money from legislation including The Shannon Anti-Gang Violence Act, the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative, and the state Department of Public Health (DPH) Primary Prevention Violence Programs give money to the Lynn Police Department, Straight Ahead Ministries, The Essex County Community Organization (ECCO) and others. These organizations also have partners with local schools, including North Shore Community College, local employers and other entities.In all, the funding requested this year – $8 million for the Shannon grants; $9.5 million for the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative; and $2 or $2.7 million for the DPH programs – serves many people in Greater Lynn.The stories from many of the program participants and staff (Straight Ahead caseworker Kyleen Burke joked they were one of the employers who are glad to see an applicant with a criminal record) highlighted this money’s impact and importance.But the advocates also acknowledged the money was needed because of recent violence in the city.”It’s not a time for us to lay back,” Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said in opening the meeting. Coppinger said the department and the streets have lately been “active, for lack of a better term,” with an uptick in gang violence and an uptick in violence on the streets.He noted that later that morning, a 15-year-old Lynn boy would be arraigned on a murder charge for allegedly participating in an armed robbery that left one of the perpetrators dead.Coppinger said some of this violence could be because people imprisoned after a major anti-gang initiative two years earlier are beginning to be released and returning to the city.Coppinger also said there are simply more guns on the streets – not just in Lynn but across the country.”It’s not good, not huge; but it’s a big enough of a spike that we’re concerned,” Coppinger said.He said the federal Gang Task Force was not leaving the city, and he had met with Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and City Council Public Safety and Public Health Committee Chairman Buzzy Barton to discuss the recent violence.The department has also added three officers to the gang unit and one officer to the drug task force (as it does every spring and which was planned before the recent violence) and Coppinger said he hopes this increased presence will calm some of the recent violence.But Coppinger said – and Lynn Schools Superintendent Catherine Latham concurred – that the gang presence in the schools is minimal.And community activists agreed this was no time to sit back.”The funds are needed,” Esther Summersett, assistant director of Straight Ahead Ministries, said. “Our children need this.”