Ephrata starts anti-gang program

EPHRATA - Ephrata students, from kindergarten through fourth grade, will have a new anti-gang after-school program next year.

The city's parks and recreation department developed a pilot program to start in Fall 2011, called BOLD. The acronym stands for building opportunities for leadership development.

BOLD program supervisor Jesse Throgmorton said Ephrata City Council asked the department early last year to develop a program that would help alleviate some of the gang issues in the community.

After some research, he said, the department suggested a preventive after-school program because of its proven track record of keeping kids away from unsupervised activity.

"The City of Phoenix expanded its late night activities program in the late 1990s and they received a 52 percent drop in crime," he said. "We give the kids supervised activities so that they don't go and hang out in an unsupervised area."

City council approved and budgeted $25,000 for the program, which can handle 40 kids. The department hopes to have one leader for every 10 children.

They will hire four part-time city employees for the program.

Organizers have not decided which Ephrata elementary school will be the hosting site.

Throgmorton said the after school program includes extra circular activities in addition to programs with the fire and police department until about 6 p.m. on school nights.

"There will be a fire stopper program and police will be stopping in talk to the kids about gangs," he said. "The point is that a relationship is built between the kid and officer so that if they need to talk to them in the future about something, the kids won't run away and they aren't afraid of a police officer."

Ephrata police Cpl. Joseph Downey said a successful gang prevention program requires more than just one department.

"The community needs to be involved. A community program like BOLD will be viewed more favorable within the community," said Downey, who focuses on gang issues for the police department.

He explained the program can go especially far with children who are raised with the notion that gang activity is the "normal thing to do."

"You have a gang couple who raise their kids believing gang activity is the way of life. The kids will have been raised to believe what they are doing are normal. There was a perception of what a gang member is, it's not so blatant these days," he said.

Downey said the most obvious sign of gang activity in the area is graffiti. 

"Graffiti can lead to other bigger issues, where one gang is tagging over the others' sign, known as retaliatory graffiti," he said.

Downey noted the importance of having a preventative program like BOLD versus a reactionary anti-gang program.

"Ephrata has a gang problem. Several cities in the county have  worse gang problems. But part of the problem occurs when you can't recognize or react to (gang activities) fast enough," he said.

The BOLD program will build a trusting relationship between the child and the officer early on, he said.

Program organizers hope to offer the after school program to K-12 students in the future.

"We have a six year plan for the program. We hope to expand the program all the way to twelfth grade by 2014," said Throgmorton. "As the kids get older, we hope to have more late night activities like concerts on Friday  nights or something."