street gangs
Gangs are like surrogate families for uprooted youth. Many gangs today are made up exclusively of girls, although not nearly as many as gangs of boys.
Street gangs are full of children who did not have a safe transition from adolescence to adulthood. Most gang members grew up in homes that do not deserve the name “home”, with abusive or absent parents. Many gang members lacked healthy relationships at home and the encouragement to become competent adults.
In addition to coming from dysfunctional families, street gang members become disillusioned with society. Their homes have not only destroyed much of their self-esteem, but the structures of society do not benefit them either.
In many nations, young people from the lower class and from racial and ethnic minorities risk being marginalized in almost all spheres of society and have to fight to improve their education, training and employment opportunities. Frustrated by restricted opportunities, these youths join gangs to cope with their deep socioeconomic hardships. Violent juvenile delinquency is a classic expression of a feeling of worthlessness and a futile future.
In today’s world, the public is reacting to violent juvenile delinquency by demanding action. There is a life principle based on the Scriptures that says that “prevention is better than cure.” All efforts to combat youth crime and violence must begin with the family because it is easier to raise boys and girls than to repair men and women.
Empowering families and caregivers
The three key components of a healthy parent-child relationship are companionship, acceptance, and ownership. Companionship means spending quality time with children, acceptance means accepting children as they are and loving them unconditionally, and identification means empathizing with children’s problems and being understanding. When these needs are not met, children fill that void with something else.
The general concern is to enable vulnerable families to build and maintain healthy families and relationships.
The structure of the “traditional” family has undergone significant changes over the years. Families today adopt many different structures: nuclear marriage, single parents, joint custody, single parents, stepfamilies, grandparent-led families, cohabitation, and foster families and group homes. Effective empowerment strategies must address the different types of families that exist in today’s society.
Family empowerment could be achieved by giving parents the family life and parenting skills to meet the demands of parenthood; encourage parents to seek help, advice, or support from family, friends, and community resources; enhance dialogue between teens and parents and model character and responsible parenting skills for both teen and young adult parents.
The idea of giving a hungry man a fish or a fishing rod could be applied to working with families. By providing families with support in identifying and accessing resources, they will gain the skills and confidence to secure resources over time.
Empowered families provide security, love, shelter, stability, self-esteem, and fulfillment and are the foundation for a safe, vibrant, and healthy community.