AURORA | The grip of a gang can sometimes be so powerful that the only way to break free is to virtually vanish.
Aurora resident Marcos, who refuses to use his real name for fear of retaliation, says he takes comfort in the shadows.
With the help of Aurora’s Gang Reduction Impact Program, also known as A-GRIP, the 17-year-old has successfully freed himself from an Aurora gang. He keeps a low profile, refuses to be photographed, and won’t divulge much information about his former gang-member existence.
This time last year, Marcos, then 16, quit school and ran around town with a group of people he thought he trusted.
“I had to find out the hard way who really were my friends, and none of them turned out to be,” he said.
In June 2012, his caseworker introduced him to the city-run program A-GRIP. He saw a way out. “I decided I was going to change my life around, and do what I had to do to be able to succeed in life,” he said.
Now, Marcos is studying business and computer technology in his first semester at Pickens Technical College in Aurora. His dream is to someday own a fine-dining restaurant. He is immersing himself in his studies, playing basketball, and has a support group through A-GRIP that keeps him focused.
Marcos says he’s moved on, leaving behind a gritty gang life that was devoid of glamor.
“Gangs lead you to three places,” he said. “Six feet under, the hospital, or prison.”
The A-GRIP program, run by the Aurora Police Department and the city’s Original Aurora Renewal division, was launched in 2010 with a $500,000 grant from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice. City officials are now looking for sustainable funding to continue the program, which is currently running on about $150,000 in grant money annually.
The motivation for creating A-GRIP stemmed from city officials’ realization that gang members looking for a way out had several scattered resources, but no concrete path or support group to safely escape the grip of a gang.
In June 2010, the city brought 65 people from 50 agencies around the state to look at ways to curb membership in gangs. Between June 2010 and February 2011, the city worked to shed light on the prevalence of gangs in Aurora. Through their research, they found startling statistics. According to the city, there are 175 identified gangs in Aurora with more than 1,270 gang members. In A-GRIP’s target area, which includes a large swath of north Aurora with about 79,000 people, there are 92 identified gangs with about 500 known gang members.
In 2010, 70 percent of the violent gang-related crimes within the city occurred in that area. Those crimes include aggravated assault, robbery, sexual assault and murder.
By January 2012, armed with the grant, the A-GRIP program hired staff whose mission was to prevent at-risk teens from becoming embroiled in gangs.
“We knew we couldn’t arrest our way out of this problem,” said Dawn Barrett, division manager for OAR. “If we do that, we rely solely on suppression efforts, and we’ll continue to see an increase in second-, third- and fourth-generation gang members. The solution is getting out of it early.”
To be part of the A-GRIP program, a gang member has to genuinely want to leave gang life. With the help of Aurora Mental Health, probation officers, mentors, Denver-based gang reduction programs and caseworkers, A-GRIP helps create a path for gang members to break away. The program usually lasts about 12 weeks.
But peer pressure, threats and the idea of being loyal to gang members can be hindrances to teens looking to get out of gangs.
Ron Blan, street outreach worker for A-GRIP, knows firsthand that leaving a gang is easier said than done. The 40-year-old Denver resident, who founded an Adams County program in 2008 to encourage youth to leave street gangs, has tattoos and scars that hark back to a different life.
Blan was born into a family of hard-core gang members. Not willing to give details about the kind of life he lived as a gangster, Blan said he was entwined in the group of lawbreakers until age 33. During the past seven years, he has changed his name, completely cut ties with more than 80 of his family members, and has become a licensed minister. He’s now married and has two sons. For anyone looking to get out of a gang, his advice is to ask the same questions he asked himself nearly a decade ago. “Look at your situation, and the environment around you,” he said. “How many of those home boys are really there for you? How many visit you when you’re in jail and commiserate with you when you need it?”
Blan, who completed several Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas county training programs to be able to work with the A-GRIP program, encourages teens who want to get out of gangs to do it gradually. He advises them to reduce the time spent with the gang. Lie if they have to about having to go to church or take drug tests, he says. Replace gang activities with other things, identify an alternative support system, and always believe that getting out of the gang is an option. Eventually, other gangsters will move on, and those wanting out can, too.
Sometimes, the only safe way for a teen to cut ties with a gang is to physically move away.
“A lot of these kids usually grow up in the same block of the same neighborhood, and sometimes we have to relocate them,” Blan said. “It’s about how far they’re willing to go to stay out.”
Over the past year, Blan has helped contact 120 people in the program’s target area and works with gang members between the ages of 14 and 24 — although he has made exceptions for teens as young as 13. To date, about 50 A-GRIP presentations have been made to more than 1,500 people, and about 15 former gang members, including Marcos, are currently working to recreate their lives.
“People in this city have wanted something like this for so long,” said Aurora police Detective Larry Martinez, who works with A-GRIP part-time. “I’ve been with parents who are literally in tears not knowing what to do. Now … they have alternatives, and they love it.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
What is the role of the schools and the students relationship to gang membership? It seems to this writer that early interdiction would be in order. I bet a lot of retired school teachers could be involved for little or no money in salaries expected.