The ICPC had the pleasure of organizing the launch of a series of workshops and activities offered by the Réseau d’échange et de soutien aux actions locales (Network for exchange and local action support, RÉSAL) as part of the development of its community of practice. Supported by the city of Montreal, this process aims to provide a bigger space for the sharing knowledge and experience around different forms of violence committed and suffered by youth aged 12 to 25. It is specially targeted at community workers in the North-East of the island of Montreal to equip them to deal with various problems met in their daily activities.
For the first theme of the fall on violence prevention in street gangs, the local stakeholders were able to attend a day-long workshop given by René-André Brisebois, instructor and lecturer at the University of Montreal for the last decade, and Professional Coordinator of the Institut universitaire jeunes en difficulté (IUJD)’s Center of Expertise.
Aiming to deconstruct common prejudices around street gangs and criminalized youth networks, the workshop highlighted some key aspects:
- The ethnicized dimension of the term “street gang” and the complex reality of this phenomenon;
- The social and personal characteristics pf gang members, as well as the affiliation and disaffiliation trajectories of youth within these groups;
- The most effective approaches, preventive actions, and interventions for preventing the joining of gangs and for reducing related crimes.
Overall, around 15 participants were present at the workshop given at the BAnQ Grande bibliothèque and all sanitary recommendations were followed. This first workshop will be followed by clinical supervision activities this fall to delve deeper into the issues raised from the fieldworkers’ experience.
More information about other training sessions offered:
Street work and youth intervention
These training sessions were carried out with the financial support of the City of Montreal.