Preventing young Aboriginal people from entering gang life is the topic of discussion at a Saskatoon conference this week.
The two-day “10,000 Healing Steps: Resilience and Community” conference, hosted by STR8-UP, wraps up today.
Dr. Mark Totten, who teaches at the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, says part of the problem is social services and law enforcement agencies tend not to share information that could go a long way in helping prevent troubled youth from entering gang life.
“If kids that are acting out a lot, they’re getting kicked out of school at a young age, they’re very aggressive and violent. Without the proper care, they’re going to become the gang members of tomorrow,” he says. “The problem is we don’t talk, we don’t talk across sectors, across professions.”
Totten, who was one of the keynote speakers on Wednesday, says these agencies need to spend less time worrying about confidentiality and more time focusing on what will best help these troubled youth.
He adds young Indigenous people may be lured into a gang by the promises of money, protection and a sense of family but in reality none of these things hold true.
“A lot of the allure is a mere illusion. A lot of people think they are going to make a lot of money in a gang, a lot of people think they’re going to make friends, have a family, have protection and it’s not true. Most Aboriginal gang members, their first year or two in a gang, they’ll make minimum wage.”
Totten is the author of the book Nasty, Brutish and Short: The Lives of Gang Members in Canada.