Jeffrey L. Sedgwick, Acting Assistant Attorney General
Office of Justice Programs
Boys and Girls Clubs 102nd Annual National Conference
San Francisco, CA
May 8, 2008
Thank you. I’m happy to be here today. The Office of Justice Programs and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America have shared an excellent partnership over the years.
Since 1995, we have worked together to make our communities safer by giving young people alternative ways to spend their after-school and weekend hours.
I also need to give my predecessor, Regina Schofield, credit for her efforts to encourage the Boys and Girls Clubs to use some of the funding we provide to reach young people in low income housing and on Tribal lands.
In Fiscal Year 2007, we awarded $60 million to the Boys and Girls Clubs for their programs. Of this amount, $20 million was dedicated to opening 83 clubs in public housing sites and 17 clubs on Tribal land. The remaining $40 million was provided to clubs across the country to support their various programs.
Later today I’ll visit the Willie Mays Boys and Girls Club at Hunters Point. I look forward to seeing how the Club has transformed the community in response to the escalating violence in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood. The Willie Mays Boys and Girls Club reaches hundreds of young people daily with programs in areas including the arts, education, and sports and fitness.
In preparing for this trip, I was told about a 15 year old young man named Wayne—I’ve changed his name to protect his privacy--and the positive impact the club is making in his life.
Like all kids in Hunters Point, he faces choices everyday about whether he will stay on the right path or fall prey to the temptations of the streets. But Wayne chooses to come to the Club. He chooses to get the guidance he needs. He chooses to surround himself with positive role models.
I’m told that Wayne takes advantage of homework help, the Achievement Matters academic program, skill-building activities, and also plays all kinds of sports. The Club has given him unique experiences, too—including the chance to participate in last summer’s All-Star Game festivities in San Francisco.
And, this summer—during a time when gang violence escalates and unstructured time leaves too many kids turning to the streets, Wayne will be busy gaining valuable work experience. He’ll be working for Project Discover, helping younger kids and developing a work ethic that will be vital, especially as he works towards his goal of becoming a lawyer.
Wayne, and all the other young people at clubs across the country, are making positive choices in their lives and you are to be commended for the encouragement and support you are offering Wayne and other young people who come to the clubs. Keep up the good work!
In late 2006, I was part of another kind of tour—one arranged by then Attorney General Albert Gonzales to evaluate why crime was rising in some cities, but not uniformly across the country. As you would expect, we heard that each of the 18 cities that we visited had its own unique set of issues. At the same time, we identified three underlying themes:
- Juvenile violence was becoming more serious, with a younger population of offenders committing more violent acts.
- Gang members as young as 12 and 13 were carrying firearms and using them precipitately and indiscriminately.
- Re-entering felons were exerting harmful influence on young people through a kind of informal criminal mentoring system.
These unfortunate findings underscore the importance of Boys and Girls Clubs.
If we hope to suppress gangs, prevent juvenile delinquency and violence, then we must work to mentor and support our young people through Boys and Girls Clubs and other programs that offer alternatives to crime and violence.
For example, in June, in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs and the National Youth Gang Center, we will hold the National Youth Gang Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. The symposium will feature workshops designed to enhance efforts by law enforcement, school personnel, faith-based and community organizations, policymakers, youth serving agencies, and others who are working together to combat youth gang problems.
Through our Law Enforcement and Youth Partnerships for Crime Prevention effort, we work with the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Cal Ripken Foundation, the National Association of Police Athletic Leagues, and others to collaborate with and support the partnerships between these groups and local law enforcement to prevent crime.
We also encourage local law enforcement to participate in the Gang Resistance Education and Training, or G.R.E.A.T. for short, program.
G.R.E.A.T. uses law enforcement officers as instructors, and provides a curriculum that those officers can use to teach kids how to avoid violence and delinquency.
It’s one of the innovative ways in which we’re bringing together prevention and enforcement strategies.
We are holding our G.R.E.A.T. National Training Conference in July in St. Louis, Missouri, and more details about it are available on our website: www.ojp.gov.
Project Safe Neighborhoods, which is implemented through the 93 United States Attorneys’ offices across the country, is a cornerstone of the Administration’s crime-fighting efforts, and a major focus is on fighting gang violence. Last year, we awarded more than $31 million to support gang enforcement and prevention efforts under PSN. That was in addition to more than $18 million in PSN funds to reduce the criminal misuse of firearms.
The common element in the programs I have just mentioned is “partnerships.” We all have to work together to make our communities safer.
I’d like to say a quick word about the President’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2009, which includes more than $1 billion in discretionary grant assistance for state, local, and tribal governments. This funding will be used to continue to support the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership Initiative begun last year, and will provide states, localities, and tribes considerable flexibility in addressing the most pressing problems facing their communities.
In addition, the President’s proposal includes $185 million in discretionary funding to address child safety and juvenile justice issues through competitive, merit-based programs.
I’ve been the Acting Assistant Attorney General since January; however, the Boys and Girls Clubs have been in existence for 102 years!
I have a lot to learn from you!
During this time, you and your predecessors have been responding to and serving the country’s young people.
While none of us has the single answer about how to address the many issues that concern us, together we have and can continue to make a difference in the lives of young people.
I’d like to thank you for asking me to join you today. I look to continuing to work with you to improve the lives of young people around the country.
Thank you.
