Title: Working with Street Gangs in New England and Building Health Equity

Date: Thursday, March 21, 2013  

Time: 9am -4pm (Registration  & Continental Breakfast starts at 8:30 am)

Location: Cromwell Crowne Plaza, 100 Berlin Rd., Cromwell, CT

Presented by: New England ATTC (Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network), Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Box G-S121 Providence, Rhode Island 02912.(https://www.attchub.org/regcenters/index_newengland.asp).

In collaboration with: Multicultural Leadership Institute, Inc. of CT (www.mli-inc.org).

Intended Audience: This training is intended for staff, administrators, and/or volunteers of Community or Faith-Based Organizations, Addiction Treatment Providers, Criminal Justice personnel, Recovery Support Services, Health and Human Services, and other organizations interested in learning more about Street Gangs.

Description:  This full day will focus on working with Street Gangs in the Northeastern part of the United States. Participants will hear from representatives of Community-Based Organizations, Criminal Justice, and Ex-Gang members.  Facilitators and presenters will explore the latest research on the informal social control factors that contribute to the trajectory of U.S. adolescents and young adults becoming gang members, maintaining their gang affiliation and ceasing their membership.

The sessions will also address the vulnerability of local communities to street gangs and will discuss the variations, functions, risk and protective factors, and consequences. Additionally, we will address what function the gang serves in satisfying the psychological and social needs of their members.  In order to continue to build health equity the training will address the complex relationship between street gangs, criminal justice, drugs, addiction, violence, health problems, family issues, and access to culturally competent services.

Outcome Objectives (participants will):

A.    Have a greater understanding of the complexity of street gangs, how they interact with community, and their impacts;

B.     Increase knowledge of risk/protective factors, criminal justice, drugs, addiction, violence, health, and family issues;

C.     Increase skills and strategies for engaging street gangs and creating meaningful access to health and human services (Building Health Equity); and

D.    Identify and increase opportunities for collaborations with organizations that work with street gangs (community and faith based, health and human services, criminal justice, etc.).

Continuing Education Units: CEU’s will be awarded to individuals attending the entire day. NAADAC and IC&RC CEU's will be offered.

Costs/Meals: There is a $25 per person fee which includes registration, a continental breakfast and box lunch, and CEUs.

Trainers:

Luis Diaz has been a substance abuse and mental health counselor, lectures at a college and conducts outreach in a county jail as well as a state prison. Together with a local Chaplin, Mr. Diaz developed a program designed to educate the community on drugs, gangs and prison life. Mr. Diaz has been studying and working with active gangs for over six years and has been interviewed on local television stations, been quoted in various newspapers and received numerous awards for his work.  Mr. Diaz will be featured in a forth coming documentary about gangs and his work to engage and intervene in meaningful ways.

Haner Hernández, Ph.D., CADCII, LADCI has worked for over 20 years in the human service field developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally and linguistically competent youth and adult health prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support programs as well as many years of experience in delivering addiction counseling and clinical supervision to professionals in the field. He is a professional trainer and facilitator and provides individualized technical assistance and support to organizations that provide addiction and recovery services to the Latino population.  Haner is a person in long-term recovery and is committed to eliminating health disparities.