On Course to Turn Young Lives Around
Youth Corps Seen as Anti-Gang Initiative
Thursday, March 9, 2006; Page T03
When Derrick Ojong talks about his life, he has no problem remembering the exact dates of its defining moments.
On Sept. 13, 1992, he fled war-torn Sierra Leone for the United States after his father, then an ambassador to Gambia, was ordered by armed men to leave.
  Instructor Mabel Calderon talks with Daniel Ramirez, left, and Peter Garcia, participants in the Montgomery County Conservation Corps. (Photos By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post) |
On Nov. 15, 2002, he enrolled in the Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School, a juvenile detention facility in Baltimore County, after landing in jail for assault and theft.
On Dec. 30, 2003, his 18th birthday, he received a letter from his mother telling him she had given up on him.
A year and a half later, on July 15, he walked out of Hickey and vowed never to return.
"When I got out, I was like, I don't want to live this life anymore," he said.
So on Nov. 6, Ojong, now 20, enrolled in Montgomery County's Conservation Corps, which teaches unemployed 17- to 25-year-olds how to find and keep jobs. For six months to a year, participants get job and life skills training while working on beautification projects such as clearing trails and removing graffiti, for which they earn $6.15 to $7.60 an hour.
The goal, county officials said, is to keep them from getting into trouble with the law and to make them employable. "Every young person is gifted and talented," said County Council member Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring). "The challenge is for adults to tap into those gifts and talents."
With that in mind, officials from the Conservation Corps have teamed up with the nonprofit Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers to take the program in another direction. Starting this year, the program will be part of the county's effort to stem the growing influence of gangs. Late last year, the Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers -- with offices in Silver Spring and Langley Park -- received $750,000 in federal funding to be part of the state's anti-gang initiative, and officials said they will use part of the money to pay for programs such as those run by the Conservation Corps.
Federal lawmakers have boosted funding for anti-gang programs in the past year as gangs such as the Bloods, Crips and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have expanded their reach throughout the country. Last year, Congress approved nearly $5 million for regional gang prevention efforts in Maryland and Virginia.
In Montgomery County, law enforcement authorities are tracking 29 gangs and 673 members, said police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.
Montgomery County officials say nonprofit organizations such as the Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers have a vital role to play in the fight against gangs. The organization was founded last year as an offshoot of the Latin American Youth Center, a 32-year-old nonprofit organization in the District. But the organization is not just targeting Latinos. Young people of all races and ethnic groups will be able to participate in its programs.
