This program has been developed to address the issue of crimes committed by the youth of today. Realizing that not all youth who associate in "cliques, groups, or crowds" are members of gangs, this program focuses on issues and some solutions MAG has to offer in order to prevent crime by youth and other misguided individuals in general.

    We have identified untreated (and/or self-medicated) depression and low self-esteem as some of the root causes of anger in inner city youth. Additional factors include the lack of proper and complete diet, poor education, and oppression. Further, we have identified in younger children the following: scare-tactic gang member recruitment, drug addiction (marijuana or paint sniffing), juvenile alcoholism, general distrust of adults from an early age, and extreme poverty, as key factors contributing to the high rates of crime and violence committed by today's inner city youth. This, my friends, is a lot to combat, but it can be done.

    Basically, these youth's outlook on the future is dismal, and they see little or nothing that they can effectively do to make any significant difference. The youth themselves identify a lack of education, lack of opportunity, and severe state of poverty and oppression that transforms into anger. Anger at parents, educators, society and authority figures. They are angry at the state of the world and feel powerless to do anything about it from a young age. By the time they become teens, this anger they feel has already been etched in stone for them -- anger at being born into a situation they see as a well-orchestrated "trap". Mothers Against Gangs is trying to change all of that, one child at a time.

    Rather than watch the youth hang out on the street corners, MAG's members go out into the streets and round up youth on a daily basis. MAG invites them to the Nidra King Center . Many come, reluctantly, at first, but nonetheless, they come. One of our volunteer moms will sit down with the youth, asking them questions about themselves and their families, about what they would change about the world and, more importantly, what they would change about themselves if they had the opportunities. Most express a desire to get their GED and go on to college, although generally saying they need help with studying on the GED material. This communication opens the doors up to a whole new world of possibilities for the youth. Most are skeptical at first, but our volunteers are moms who have kids of their own. They've learned how to listen and communicate with the kinds of kids that most people would be terrified to pass on a street corner. The kids recognize this willingness to help, and they do notice the difference in our MAG volunteers and how they are treated as people instead of thugs. After a while, this becomes the basis for the trust that will get the youth to actually want to be involved in the program. Most of our youth in this program will agree that they were reluctant to become involved before, because most people reject them, or are afraid of them.

    All they want is a fair chance, they say. In fact, most of the teens who are part of the programs express to staff and MAG members that they are "afraid" to be on the streets themselves -- there's too much happening out there -- it isn't safe out there -- and they just want to get an education and get a respectable job. MAG makes the first contact and the teens do the rest. They feel good that someone is taking an interest in "their lives" and in "their futures".

    MAG believes that we must intervene with positive actions, healing and helping not only through humanitarian services and resources designed to "truly" make a difference, but through changes in the laws as well. Parents and educators have lost much ground by way of laws protecting their rights to properly guide youth through the normal growing processes. We need those laws reinstated that allow us to maintain control over the actions of our youth. This is not to condone "child abuse", quite the contrary, it is to protect others from suffering abuse at the hands of "children".

    With stricter laws on the activities of children while they are young, when they grow older, they will already know how to have "respect for authority figures" at home, in school, etc.

    We want to be advocates for our youth in assisting them in finding their way through education and job opportunities; and cultural and entertainment activities. We need to integrate different techniques and strategies for building self-awareness, responsibility, and good decision-making skills in these youth, giving them motivation and incentive to put this new "awareness" and "sense of responsibility" into action.

    Now, how can you help? Learn to communicate with your child. If your teen is at-risk, there is a good chance he or she is experiencing some form of depression. Untreated depression in youth leads to violence. Teenagers who are depressed and do not receive treatment are walking time bombs. The first order of business is to try to get them plugged in to something they actually trust that will help with their depression. Many teenagers self-medicate in an effort to treat their own depression, yet they do not even realize that they are depressed. They smoke marijuana, sniff glue and paints, take all kinds of uppers and/or downers, and they drink on top of that.

    As a rule, teenagers do not usually trust any adults, and they feel that all adults are going to prejudge them or get on their case because they want to look or act different. Teens want to be different and they want to be the same. They want to belong to their group of peers. They may dress like the group they most closely identify with, they will listen to a certain type of music, or wear their hair a certain way. It is to express their uniqueness. Some teens stop bathing or caring about personal hygiene to be different (however, this can also be related to untreated depression). They don't want to come home because that's where they are met with nagging from their parents -- they'd rather spend time with their friends, who accept them the way they are). Why come home when they already know they are in trouble for ditching school or something, and every one is talking at them, blaming them, accusing them, yet no one is listening to them. Believe it or not, some kids actually have good cause for ditching. Particularly if they go to a school where gang recruitment is heavy. If you have good communication with your child, he or she will be able to tell you when something like that is going on.

    If you have reason to believe your child is depressed, don't play hardball with them. That will only alienate them more. They are depressed for a reason and if you want to help your child, listen to them to find out what is bothering them. At MAG, we know, this is very difficult to do because it seems that everything they do is a blatant act of rebellion. This is true, however, there is a reason for this blatant rebellion and that's what needs to be discovered and treated. Once you find out the cause, you can work together with the teenager to fix the problem. Parents, do not think for one minute that everything is the child's entire fault -- it isn't. Children become angry and upset at things they have no control over and they will often, as teens, act out this anger in a self-destructive manner. If left untreated for too long, they will act out this anger in destruction of other things and other people. Your teen's first and best resource is you. When you can get the communication to the point where you can listen to your child and your child can listen to you, then you'll have a child who is open to getting outside help, if you are part of the problem, then you also need to be part of the solution. It won't work any other way. Find someone your child can trust. Don't force it on your teen that won't work either. You'll have to do this together in order to succeed. Don't let your child feel you have thrown in the towel. Never give up! And always, even when chastising your child, do it with love. Demonstrative love and acceptance will gain you strides you never thought possible.

    Once your child has agreed to treatment, you can relax a little bit. Try doing some family stuff on a regular basis. Do something your child likes or is interested in. Try to keep him or her busy with activities. Laugh a little. Laugh a lot with your child. Laughter does wonders in healing depression and anger. Don't push too hard on the school thing until the treatment program with the therapist has been started and is working. A depressed person isn't going to be thinking clearly enough to do anything well, and may have spells of forgetfulness. If the child has been doing drugs, the treatment program will have to be working and the drugs out of the child's system before the child will be able to function at full capacity again. Encourage your child, but don't make a federal case out of the grades right now. Be patient. Your child's life is at stake. Obtain and maintain your child's trust. It's the only way you're going to find out what he or she is thinking, feeling and, more importantly, doing.

    After the treatment of depression is working, and you're getting counseling with your child, you can start to rebuild what was lost. As parent's we all know that we must instill in our children the proper values, motivation and desire to become educated, law-abiding citizens. In the MAG program, we have discovered that many inner city youth distrust their parents, educators, law enforcement, and anyone who looks at them accusingly, with fear in their eyes, or with suspicion. They have been accused of doing things they weren't even thinking of doing, and have been denied educational opportunities within a school system that is supposed to offer "equal learning opportunity, but doesn't." They have been denied jobs, and have been stopped, harassed, and beaten up by police officers just for walking in a group of kids who "look like they were up to no good. They have been accused, tried and convicted by their clothing, hairstyles, etc., and the community has labeled them "outcasts". The average person crosses the street when they see them coming just because they're teens. They've been told at school that all they need to graduate is a "D" so they should not worry about it, and yet when they reach their senior year, they're told they won't graduate with their class, and they have to go to school 2, 3 or 4 extra years because they don't have enough credits. They've asked for help in school and been passed over repeatedly so they stopped asking for help. They feel unworthy and unaccepted by anyone except their friends, who feel the same as they do. The friends become their new family, and the main order of business when they are together is to self-medicate their depression. A depression that none of them recognizes in themselves or each other.

    What do these kids really want? They want to have the same opportunities for success as everyone else, no matter the race, creed or color. They want their Constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. Wake up America, many urban youth do not have the same opportunities in education or employment as do the youth who live in suburban and rural areas. The public school system is failing our children all over the country, but specifically in the urban areas.

    The members of MAG feel that we need to fight for the right of all children to be children for as long as possible. This includes raising the legal age of adulthood, as well as raising the legal age that one no longer is required by law to attend school. There's something wrong with an educational system that fails so many students through lack of providing a decent, "basic" education. A student's basic education should always include good skills in reading, writing, and in arithmetic.

    If we somehow ensure that each student actually does have access to equal opportunity for a quality education, then perhaps we will find that these kids have a future that holds something more than quitting school, hanging out in the 'hood', and making money at selling drugs, etc.

    We're not saying that we should save the guilty ones, but we do say that we can protect the innocent before they have the chance to become guilty.