On Course to Turn Young Lives Around
Youth Corps Seen as Anti-Gang Initiative

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 9, 2006

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.

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.

"They have almost overnight become a critical part of our nonprofit infrastructure," Perez said. "It's a trend that we see in terms of partnerships with places that do great work in the District. Part of the process of addressing the needs of the changing face of Montgomery County is looking around to our neighbors and identifying potential partnerships."

Officials from the Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers said the boost in funding will go toward counseling, job placement, computer training and general equivalency diploma instruction for disadvantaged teenagers and young adults. There is also an arts component: Plans are in the works for a digital storytelling class during which the students will make movies about their lives.

But the primary focus will be on making them independent, employable people. Officials from the organization will help the youths write résumés and practice interviewing skills, and take them on field trips to job sites.

"One of the challenges with these kids is once you develop the infrastructure, how do you place them in a job and have them succeed in that job?" said Gabriel Albornoz, the Multicultural Youth Centers' deputy director. "There's a number of job opportunities out there, and a number of fields they can go into."

Ojong, who graduated from high school, said he hopes to go to college and eventually become a dance instructor. His home for now is a nonprofit independent living facility in Gaithersburg. "I'm trying to get myself together and be positive," he said.

Last Thursday, he and 10 other students listened as Jerel Harvey, a research analyst for the Rockville-based consulting firm Institutional Shareholder Services, gave them tips on becoming financially independent. The students wore dark pants and blue button-down shirts. Some had dirty work gloves attached to their belts. Others, cell phones. A sign on a wall read, "Are You Employable?"

"Does anyone know what a stock is?" Harvey asked.

"You put money in. If the business rises, you get more money," said Daniel Conyers, 17, a Germantown resident who dropped out of high school.

"Sometimes you can make a profit. Sometimes you can make a loss. An investment is a risk," Harvey said.

Harvey told the students that they should invest in stocks or real estate. But he also told them to save their money and pay down their debts.

"People usually say they think investing is for the wealthy," Harvey said.

"That's not true. Anyone can invest," Ojong said.

Harvey agreed. "Start early," he said.

Peter Garcia, 17, said he hopes to take Harvey's advice some day.

This was Garcia not too long ago: He dropped out of school by the ninth grade. He was hanging out with a "crew" -- "my homeboys from D.C.," he said. He ran away from home with his girlfriend. He was working in a Prince George's County mall, earning $6 an hour. He landed in jail for an incident involving the damaging of property.

Then his girlfriend got pregnant, and he decided he wouldn't make a good father the way he was living. She miscarried, but the experience changed Garcia. Now he's working toward a GED.

"I was basically tired," he said. "I really wasn't going anywhere . . . I wanted to please my parents and girlfriend. I saw a lot of people cared about me. I looked into the future."