Gang Education Workshop

As a charity My Generation has developed full and half day gang training workshops for a wide group of professionals who deal with young people such as teachers, police officers and anybody involved in community safety. Our gang education workshops are designed to be very location specific as we understand that the dynamics of gangs differ from area to area. By being highly location specific the professionals attending the workshops can learn about their gangs as well as gangs in general. Our workshops open a dialogue with these professionals, allowing them to benefit from our years of street experience; this places the knowledge they have of gangs in a different and more powerful context.

The training involves advice on preventing gang formation and a detailed look at what a gang is in their locality; we look at the universal understanding of a gang, their personal understanding of the concept and also what young people consider a gang to be – this is very important because of the fluid nature of gangs and their structure. We talk to them about the history and community in their area; this is key to their understanding the different types of gangs and more specifically, what types of gangs operate in their area. By way of case study we consider some of the most successful and unsuccessful gangs in history alongside some of the most effective gang protection methods. We also consider young people’s views of gangs and ask the professionals to understand what a gang is from their perspective. We also deliberate ideas such as the language of gangs, why young people join gangs, how to prevent them from doing so and how to develop coping mechanisms and strategies to support local young people. We talk about the effect the local and national media perceptions of gangs influence our own views and the views of the local community.

We possess a unique understanding of gangs from a community and street perspective that we have gained over many years of outreach work with whole communities and over 20 years of working with gang members. We offer two packages for professionals the first being a full-day training workshop, which could be run either over two days or on a single day and the second a more condensed half day workshop. If you would be interested in learning more about our gang education workshops then please do not hesitate to contact us.