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Longmont Youth Center's GRIP initiative continues to do good as city's gang problem subsides

Daily Times-Call - 3/20/2019

March 20-- Mar. 20--Aranely Dominguez, now a Niwot High School senior, remembers being introduced to Louie Lopez with Longmont's Gang Response and Intervention Program, or GRIP, as a fifth-grader at Indian Peaks Elementary.

The advice Lopez offered Dominguez and her peers in grade school would be crucial to her success in high school -- next year she is set to become the first generation of her family to attend college, with plans to study speech pathology at Metro State University in Denver.

"What Louie talked about during that program was how friends can lead you to a wrong path ... by giving you that love that you need because you're feeling down, but it's not really love. It's a temporary love and they'll use it to their benefit," Dominguez said. "He talked about his experience with that."

At that time, Dominguez noticed kids older than her, including siblings of her friends, making questionable choices with drug use and lifestyles associated with gang activity. When she entered high school, she said she watched a lot of her classmates make similar decisions -- most notably, starting to use marijuana -- that led to consequences in their lives.

"I saw how my mom's friends struggled with their children going through that path. I didn't want to do that. I knew that wasn't the right way," she said.

Evolution as city grew out of gangs

By staying involved with the city's GRIP initiative -- which is nearing 15 years old -- through high school, Dominguez and her peers grew alongside the program.

Since GRIP's inception was motivated by a growing number of known gang members and gang activity in Longmont in the mid-2000s -- culminating with the 2006 murder of 17-year-old Martin Garcia by a rival gang member -- the program's scope has expanded as the city's gang problem has largely subsided.

Longmont police in 2016 reported a steep drop in known gang members from about 450 in 2007 to just 66 three years ago, an achievement that was attributed to the police department's collaboration between its Gang and Crime Suppression Unit and GRIP.

Promoting healthy lifestyles in elementary schools to third- and fifth-graders, encouraging students to say no to peer pressure and giving them the tools and confidence they need to avoid gang association, even when their family members are part of that world, are still staples of GRIP.

But program leaders Jennifer Diaz-Leon and Karen Moreno, along with Lopez, in recent years also have facilitated the development of youth leadership councils in area high schools -- even extending outside Longmont city limits to Niwot and Frederick high schools -- and created the Aspire program as an offshoot of GRIP to help more students pursue post-secondary education.

"In (four) high schools, we have the Latinx leadership group, 'Ollin.' That's an Aztec symbol, which means movement," Diaz-Leon said. "We wanted to create something our high school students saw as another place to belong."

First-generation college student help

And Aspire, now in its second year, aims to get students who would be the first generation of their family to attend college over the hurdles of doing so, and has allowed youth such as Dominguez to remain a part of the GRIP family through high school.

As first-generation college graduates themselves, Moreno and Diaz-Leon had a good idea of where to begin.

"We recognize being first-generation students, you have more questions than a student whose family members have already gone to college," Diaz-Leon said. "It's a tailored experience (for those) who have no idea what it entails. There are a lot of steps, and if you miss a step, you might miss out on opportunities."

Dominguez said Aspire encourages students to start by making a timeline of their lives, and then start drafting portions of narratives based on each significant event, which can be modified slightly and plugged in as bits and pieces of college admission and scholarship application essays.

"I wouldn't be going to Metro State if it wasn't for the help of Jenny and Karen, who really motivate each one of us who come to Aspire. ... I want to make that step of going to college and become a role model for my (15-year-old) brother," Dominguez said.

City funding allows flexibility

But GRIP remains the city-funded foundation for encouraging Longmont youth to overcome temptations and family, social or mental health issues, and follow the footsteps of Dominguez and other college-bound students.

"As we are moving away from youth not being so involved with gangs, we started working on anger management, and how we can work with kids in whatever places they are needing," Lopez said. "We started to focus more on empowerment. How do you get more involved with school, and not just be a part of the wrestling team, but how can you get involved with student council? ... And building brotherhoods, sisterhoods around being human."

Because the program is backed by city taxpayer funding -- Longmont'sCommunity Services Department this year allocated $248,000 to GRIP and violence reduction initiatives, the city's 2019 operating budget shows -- it is allowed to be more flexible in what it addresses year to year versus nonprofit efforts backed exclusively by grants, according to David Pyrooz, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant sociology professor researching gangs and criminal networks.

While the city's Community Services Department does apply for grants, gang-reduction organizations that are constantly competing for funding that comes with expiration dates also have to show their efforts are effective, which can require consistency with programming, in some cases making it harder to adapt to new trends that need addressing, Pyrooz said.

"The fact that there is city funding for (GRIP) takes some of the pressure off of them, I think," Pyrooz said. "These (grant-funded) programs are under intense pressure to demonstrate they're working. They're under intense pressure to stay in existence. ... Instead of the federal agencies or state agencies saying, 'We want you demonstrate the efficacy of your program,' (GRIP) is the city, so the city gets to tailor it to what your interests are. If the primary problem is graffiti or something the federal government doesn't consider serious, the city can still tailor it to tackle that."

Tapping into talent

Removing graffiti, especially when left by potential or known gang members, is a key a gang-rivalry prevention strategy and a point of collaboration between the police department and GRIPleaders and youth who notice markings around the city, said Sgt. Jason Pitts with the police department's Gang and Crime Suppression Unit.

But discovering unknown talents, sometimes through the use of the Longmont Youth Center-based GRIP Original Recording Studio, also is still a crucial aspect of the program.

"When you go through middle school and high school, you're going to be exposed to gangs at some time in your life. Kids that don't feel like they belong, or don't have family, that's where they go," Pitts said. "A lot of kids don't know that they are gifted musically or athletically or with poetry until they tap into it. Some people don't know those things exist. GRIP is a way to expose them to some of those opportunities."

Sam Lounsberry: 303-473-1322, slounsberry@prairiemountainmedia.com and twitter.com/samlounz.

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