Males Youth Gun Violence Recreational Prevention

Background

No Males Youth Gun Violence Recreational Prevention Program is a program to give youth males a recreational summer program that prevents youth from being acclimated to gun violence in America. Our goal is to make a commitment to help reduce gun violence in neighborhoods. The program will consist of indoor and outdoor sporting activities (basketball, baseball, and football) as well lecture sessions to discuss any problems that are or may be a concern.

Introduction

No Males Youth Gun Violence Recreational Prevention Program is a summer program to help keep young males off the streets dealing with gangs and gun and allow them to opportunity to keep them active in the community. According to Anthony A. Braga (2003), in urban areas, gun violence has taken a heavy toll in communities. He also stated that in 2000, over 10,000 Americans were killed with guns and a higher percentage of that number were homicides and suicides that involved teenagers and young adults. Here at N.M.Y.G.V.R. Prevention Program, we are trying to get the young males more involved in sporting activities helping them develop leadership skill and to help better prepare them to build themselves a future. Youth males in today’s generation often suffer from not having a real father figure in their homes and some even lack having real parenting in their lives as they spent their childhood in foster homes. By these young males not having any guidance, they become victims of the negative peer pressure that lead them down the wrong path. Majority of the young males get initiated into a gang lifestyle which they believe and consider to be the family that some of them always wanted and never had because of the protection the gang life proclaim to have. As they get accustomed to this lifestyle, majority of them gain possession of guns and become statistic to young gun violence. For those who young males who get up caught up in gun violence either end up in prison afterwards or getting killed. Our program will help educate these males and prepare them to pursue a career in life instead of watching their life go down the drain.

Program

N. M. Y. G. V. R. Prevention Program is a twelve week summer program for youth males between the ages 12-16 interested in making a difference in their lives. The program goal is to develop leadership, enthusiasm, discipline, and communication skills through sports program. The sporting events that our program will host is basketball, football, and baseball. Our program has tremendous volunteer mentors that have dedicated some time out their busy schedules to help lead these youth males into the right directions. Our volunteer mentors are coaches that have been in the shoes of these young males and were strong enough to overcome the negative peer pressure to alter their lives. Our program also have volunteer mentors with successful careers helping these males to give them great models to look up to. Our plan is to allow each youth member to choose a sport of their choice and them the proper work ethic to make them better at that sport and a better player. If these young males are interested in learning multiple sports, each male will be stationed in a sport for a certain amount of weeks depending on how many sports they choose. If one of the youth member choose to do two sports, he will spend six weeks in each sport of his choice. If the young males decide that they want to participate in all three sports, each of them will spend four weeks in each of the sporting activities. Each sport will consist of strength and conditioning, fundamental drills, and friendly competitive competitions. Before every sporting sessions, our mentors will meet with these young males every day for the first thirty minutes to educate our young males about life in general and give them the opportunity to discuss any issues they have and make sure that they understand they everyone working in the program is there to help them become someone besides a statistic. The program coordinators will post flyers around the neighborhoods, the local schools, and around city hall encouraging all young males to sign-up and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

Safety Issues and Risk Factors

The mentors at our program believe that this program can help slow down a lot of violence in the community, especially youth gun violence. Youth gun violence in America is a very serious issue for our young males. Young males involved in gun violence are usually scarred for life. When young males are dealing with gun violence, they feel as if the only way they can remain safe is to carry a gun for protection. If every young male is walking around with a gun for protection, that means that our young males are in high risk of receiving a felony for gun charges which will place them on probation if not jail time. Another safety issue that comes from youth male gun violence is putting their life in harm’s way. People living in their community are living in constant fear because they feel as if their life is being threatened due to gun violence. Also, in today’s society a major issue dealing with gun violence is the availability to obtain a gun. It’s easier for a young male to secure a gun due to street violence and lack of security. These issues can cause high risk factors for not only people in their community but for other young males involved with gun violence all over the world. According to Child Trends (2005), in 2014, the second and third leading causes of death is homicides and suicides coming from youth males with the age range from 15-19. Also males in this age range are approximately three time more likely than females to die from suicide and six times more than likely to die from homicides. Not only this, but males this age are eight times more than likely to die from firearm incidents. Everyone around gun violence is a high risk factor because unintentional injuries. Innocent bystanders are in the percentage of getting injured just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Conclusion

Firearm injuries for youth males in America has slowed down a little and the purpose of our program is to help that problem further reduce. N. M. Y. G. V. R Prevention Program is designed for the youth males to be more productive with their lives instead of living in risk of being in prison or even dead. Our mentors are passionate about reaching out to these young males and making a difference. Our mentors embrace the fact of being role models to these young males and giving them a positive look at life as they prepare for adulthood. Even though