SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – Georgia State Representative Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, met with stakeholders in Chatham County for what he called a buy-in meeting to join them in their fight on the Chatham County Gang Prevention and Intervention Commission.
This comes four years after the passage of House Bill 750 when the CCGPIC was tasked with submitting an annual report that recommends coordinated efforts between educational institutions and community organizations to prevent and address youth gang involvement in Chatham County.
According to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General, there are more than 127,700 known gang members and active associates representing roughly more than 1,970 violent gangs in the state.
“We got to challenge other municipalities to get involved. It’s not going to be done with ‘government,’ it’s going to be done with everyday people who want to get involved,” said Gilliard on Friday before the commission meeting.
The programs announced on Friday for kids starting as young as six years old include:
- Partnering with the YMCA Coastal Empire for “Friday Night Lyve Midnight Basketball”
- Teens from 12-18 years old
- Friday, May 30 – Friday, August 1 (no session on July 4) from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.
- Onsite registration from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.
- Habersham YMCA
- Saturday Morning Academy
- Kids from 6-12 years old
- Four locations across Chatham County
- 1st location at Empowerment Center
- 2nd, 3rd, and 4th location still needed
- Continuing their “Show Us Your Guns” program
- Partnering with the Chatham County District Attorney’s Office, the Empowerment Center, and CCGPIC
- 13-16 years old is the most impressionable age group
- Summer Job Empowerment Program
- Goal of 300 high school juniors and seniors and college students total this summer
- Asking companies or businesses to employ them to encourage continual employment when the program ends
Gilliard said they have a brand template coming to a website but people can call 912-436-5325 to get involved. The website is set to go online next week.
“Parents, or single parents, have a big issue with just food. So at the Saturday Morning Academies, we’ll provide activities and mentor matchups, and young people will get to know their community through field trips,” he said.
Gun safety is a key factor in all of this and Gilliard said there is a program called “Gun Sense” as well that teaches a true right of passage about gun ownership.
“If I was growing up and somebody told me about grandpa’s gun, they’re going to say, ‘One day you can get that gun when you’re responsible but let me show you how to clean it, let me show you about safety, and then when you get of age, here’s your rights of passage as a young man,’” he said.
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To continue growth after this announcement, Gilliard said a way to do that is by getting influencers and celebrities, like radio DJs, involved to stimulate change.
He said if they all don’t meet kids where they are right now to go down a positive route – they all have abandoned them.
“We can tell at the age of 8 how many prisons and jails to build by the IQ of that young person because of the model and the trace that we see. Now we got to change that narrative and give them a chance to have some hope.”
Media was not allowed inside Friday’s stakeholder meeting, but Gilliard said the people in the room were in a “buy-in” meeting. That there are people in the community who can make a change in a child’s life – but they need to happen sooner rather than later.
“How do we get a buy-in from the school system, employers, churches, businesses, organizations, fraternities, sororities, and individuals who want to be involved. We’ve got to cut the silos. There are too many people doing this and doing that, but we got to do it together. We’re stronger together.”
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