Scott Larson is the president and founder of Straight Ahead Ministries, an international faith-based organization working with juvenile offenders in more than 400 juvenile detention centers in 15 states and three countries. Scott has authored or co-authored 11 books on working effectively with troubled youth and has been a speaker to youth, parents, teachers, social workers and youth workers since 1983. He is a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Center for Urban Ministerial Education and Gordon College.
Is the Circle of Courage a Gang?
By: Scott Larson
Straight Ahead Ministries
Well, not exactly… But they may be more closely aligned than you might first guess.
In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield describes the two primary ways we attempt to define ourselves in culture. The first is very individualistic, and most prevalent of our Western, European culture. It’s in comparing ourselves to others that we come to define ourselves. This of course leads to competition and a host of prejudices.
The second way is more typical of tribal cultures – where one’s identity is found by his or her association to a group. This is the model from which the Native American Circle of Courage is derived. In general, it is a more relational, holistic approach. And one that gangs tap into.
We have found in our work with gang-related youth, that we can either try to break up gangs, or we can tap into the underlying positive power that they are build upon. Martin Gold says, that at their core, gangs are inherently pro-social. They go awry when they are focused on a negative goal – such as committing crimes for money, or fighting with other gangs over territory.
When we set up our program in Lynn, Massachusetts – a community of only 95,000 people, but one that boasted the third highest crime rate in our state and had an estimated 2,500 active gang members – the problems seemed insurmountable… Until we began tapping into the positives that existed in the toughest gangs in the city.
After working with the leaders of the gangs for some time, we actually started bringing some of them on our staff, who had exhibited positive change. And we didn’t ask them to leave their gang affiliations first. Only that they be committed to making their whole community better.
For the past three years we have convened leaders of the five major gangs in the city to negotiate with city officials for jobs, for cleaning up parks, for basketball tournaments, and even for summer truces of non-violence. Over the past five years the re-arrest rate for juvenile offenders in Lynn has fallen from 85% down to 15%.
When we are able to create a Circle of Courage culture that competes with the ones kids have created, like gangs, kids will leave the negative ones to join us. In the meantime though, tapping into their own cultures of belonging, mastery, independence and generosity and re-focusing them on something big and constructive to yes to, rather than simply trying to get them to say no to the smaller negative things, can produce a world of positive change for any community.
*Pictured above: Lynn gang members with Mayor cleaning up a park
