By Lisa Schick

Gang exit programs to be established in Prince Albert

Feb 18, 2011 | 3:40 PM

A young man stands in front of a crowd of young and old at the Alan Bird Memorial Centre on Friday morning and tells them about how he had been involved in a gang, began selling drugs, been shot and been charged with first degree murder – all before his 17th birthday.

His name is King Mafro, he is an ambassador for Breaking the Cycle out of Toronto, the project he credits with helping him get out of the gang lifestyle.

A group of organizations including the Canadian Training Institute, Justice Canada, PAGC Justice Unit and the Bernice Sayese Centre are trying to bring the program to Saskatchewan, and especially Prince Albert.

Howard Halkett, program director with the Bernice Sayese Centre, said when they heard about Breaking the Cycle at the National Aboriginal Justice Conference two years ago, they became very interested in what it could do in Saskatchewan.

“Because of their success rate and amount of youth they were helping, we wanted to bring it to Saskatchewan… We’re hoping to start the program here to address the issues not only in P.A. but in the surrounding communities,” said Halkett.

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Halkett, in his opening remarks for the workshop Friday morning, said members of the community have become scared to go out.

“Our elders are scared to go out at night, our youth are scared to go to school, and we want to be able to change some of this around.”

The workshop was headed by the director of the Breaking the Cycle project, Gary Newman.

Newman outlined the project for those in attendance, talking about how it helps participants find safety and security, helps them distance themselves from the gang lifestyle and above all helps them learn to dream again.

“Kids don’t know how to dream anymore… the schools got rid of it and the culture got rid of it,” said Newman in his presentation.

He said the program tries to teach the youth to start dreaming again so they can work toward something.

The last eight weeks of the program involves building core-values and separating personal values from cultural values. It is something that Newman is especially excited about for the Prince Albert program.

Newman said because the aboriginal culture is so strong – the language, music, art and culture are still there – the last step of the program will be really powerful.

“Because where we’re coming from with the program Breaking the Cycle in Toronto, we don’t have that cultural piece, and here because we’re directly hitting one type of youth from one type of cultural influence we’re gonna hit that even stronger. So that part, it excites me a lot,” said Newman.

The Breaking the Cycle project has had a big success rate.

“Sixty-eight per cent of the people that have been in our program are currently either employed, in school (or not gang-involved) at the moment,” said Newman.

The project works with gang-involved and high-risk youth, ages 15 to 30, both males and females, to get them out of that lifestyle and increase their employability skills through an intensive 28-week program.

The Canadian Training Institute will be meeting with the FSIN Justice Council to discuss the program in April. They hope to have the Saskatchewan-specific curriculum for the program developed by then.

lschick@panow.com