Community Outreach
STR8 UP Community Outreach provides support to help Members master their own destiny and liberate themselves from gangs, addictions and criminal street lifestyles.
About the program
Community Outreach aims to support individuals in redirecting their lives towards becoming loving parents, faithful partners, and responsible citizens. This is achieved through the following four pillars of success:
Outreach
Includes visits to correctional facilities, and outreach work in the community, Traditional Sharing Circles, one-on-one support, information on services and resources, advocacy, facilitating family contact and child care, as well as help with specific needs such as housing, transportation and health services
Personal Development
Life skills programs, personal counselling, addictions treatment, Indigenous Cultural and Spiritual activities are offered both in-house and in the community.
Professional Development
Members and participants develop their self-confidence and self-esteem through programming designed to improve job-readiness, training and employment skills.
Community Education
Presentations involving STR8 UP Members about gaining self-confidence, a sense of empowerment, and improved communication skills while also giving back to the community. These presentations share knowledge on why individuals join gangs and what is needed to help support individuals to exit those lifestyles.
This program is for people who:
Are looking for support to exit gang and criminal lifestyles and are ready to start their healing journey.
Want more info? Get in touch:
Call our Community Outreach Supervisor at (306) 291-2256 or send an email.
STR8 UP is committed to the intervention process. We suggest there are four major phases involved in an active gang members’ decision in leaving one’s gang and entering a journey of wellness and healing:
Phase 1
Decision making
The decision-making process of leaving a gang can take one day to many years. Often, serious thinking begins when the individual is incarcerated. Sobriety and time enable an individual to realize the negativity of gang membership and the control the gang has over its members. The violent death of a friend, the birth of a child, and the feeling of being sick and tired of living a dysfunctional lifestyle often triggers the decision to leave.
Phase 2
Transition
Once the decision to leave is final the Transition Phase begins. This is an extremely difficult time for the individual who is making the change. There may be negative consequences for leaving their gang or conflict with members of their own gang or with rival gangs.
Phase 3
Transformation
STR8UP members have now completed the most difficult aspect of their journey. In this phase, they have accepted new responsibilities as well as new relationships. Nevertheless, there are still major issues to overcome. The old habits, mainly those of addictions or dysfunctional behaviours and partners remain a major challenge.
Phase 4
Stabilization
STR8 UP members have by now acquired many new skills both for new lifestyles as well as for employment, or are achieving success in school, university while maintaining their sobriety. They have discovered sober people for friendship and companionship as well as reconnecting with healthy family members. It has not been and still is not easy.