MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR FORMER
GANG MEMBERS SERVED BY
AZTECS RISING: A GRANT PROPOSAL
By: Monica T. Gardiner
California State University, Long Beach
May 2013
INTRODUCTION
- Currently, there are an estimated 750,000 active gang members nationwide (Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention , 2010).
- Although gang life can be a temporary solution for vulnerable youth, gang life can forever
negatively impact the youth’s future (Los Angeles Police Department [LAPD], 2012).
- Gang membership creates an unsafe environment for the individual as well as those who
surround the individual (LAPD, 2012).
- Community members can experience a sense of hopelessness and helplessness as they see
gang members take over control of their neighborhoods (Kataoka et al., 2009).
- Most gang intervention programs have focused on preventing youth from joining gangs; only a
few programs have been established to provide remediation services for former gang members.
Two of the primary needs of former gang members are vocational services and mental health
services.
- The primary purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to create and fund a mental
health program that would provide mental health services to clients of Aztecs Rising, a nonprofit
gang rehabilitation center located in Los Angeles, California.
SOCIAL WORK RELEVANCE
Addressing the needs of oppressed and
marginalized groups is a fundamental principle of
the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
Code of Ethics (1999). The NASW Code of Ethics
addresses six core values, which are (a)
competence, (b) dignity, (c) integrity, (d) importance
of relationships, (e) service, and (f) social justice.
These values are relevant for social workers
attempting to address the needs of former gang
members who have been marginalized due to their
criminal past, making it difficult for them to find
legitimate employment and have a normal family life.
MULTICULTURAL RELEVANCE
Ethnic segregation is an important factor to consider due to the fact that memberships to some
gangs are based on ethnicity (OJJDP, 2010). Gang involvement is most common among
oppressed minority ethnic groups. In Los Angeles, the fastest growth of gang involvement is in the
Latino community.
METHODS
Target population: The program will serve individuals who identify themselves as former
gang members. In addition, the services will be extended to family members who
experienced trauma through gang life. Aztecs Rising is located in the east side districts of
the city of Los Angeles, which is primarily populated by Latinos and Latino gangs.
Identifying and Selecting a funding source: The grant writer began to investigate potential
funding sources for this project by using web-based search engines. For the purpose of this
project, the following online directories were used: the Grantsmanship Center
(http://www.tgci.com), the Center for Nonprofit Management (http://www.cnmsocal.org), the
Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership (http://www.lbnp.org), U.S. Grants (http://www.grants.gov),
and google. These directories led the grant writer to tthree possible funding options: the
California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation and Cedars-Sinai.
Funding Source: The grant writer selected The California Endowment for to fund this
project.
Sources used for the needs assessment: Needs assessment data was gathered from
books, published government reports, peer-reviewed articles, and websites. Additionally, the
grant writer met informally with key informants from Aztecs Rising.
METHODS CONTINUED
Projected budget range and categories: The total projected budget for this program is $ 231,
580, with an estimated $ 26,940 in in-kind donations.
Salaries and Wages
Program Director
$58,000
Employee-Related Benefits (@25%)
$14,500
Therapist $98,000
Employee-Related Benefits (@25%)
$24,000
Outreach and Data Specialist $31,200
Employee-Related Benefits (@25%)
$780
Intern Stipend
$1,000
Total Salaries and Wages
$227,480
Operations and Expenses
Office Expenses
$1,200
Data Collection Software
$2,000
Staff Development
$900
Total Operations and Expenses
$4,100
Total Budget
$231,580
Projected In-Kind Resources
Rent
$20,000
Utilities
$1,440
Computer Equipment
$5,500
Total In-Kind
$26,940
GRANT PROPOSAL
Program Summary and Description: The goal of the proposed program is to provide mental health
services for former gang members and their family members. The therapeutic framework provided to
the clients is going to be a brief treatment model. The clients will be meeting with a therapist once a
week for about 12 weeks. In addition to the individual therapy, the program will also provide a
support group for those who would like to participate. The support group will be an open group and
will run twice a month.
Population Served: This mental health program called Cemelli (Aztec term for serenity) is intended
for former gang members, clients at Aztecs Rising, 18 years of age and over, who self-identify
themselves as former gang members.
Sustainability: The Program Director will be in charge of allocating additional funding sources for the
years to come. Program feedback will be taken into consideration for program improvement.
Program Objectives:
Objective 1: To provide mental health services to former gang members and their family members.
Objective 2: To improve the psychological well-being of former gang members and their families.
Objective 3: To provide mental health education to the community through support groups.
GRANT PROPOSAL CONTINUED
Evaluation: The program success will be measured by several different methods. The
individual therapy component to Cemelli will be measured by the number of participants
served and by three different evaluation tools (PTSD Checklist-Civilian, Patient Health
Questionnaire, General Anxiety Disorder tool). Each therapist will be responsible for
turning in monthly statistics of the amount of participants served each month. The
outreach and data specialist will be in charge of collecting statistics every month. The
data collected will be password protected to ensure confidentiality. In addition, individual
therapy clients will be evaluated by three different mental health screenings.
LESSONS LEARNED/IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL
WORK
Lessons Learned :The
:
grant writer learned many lessons about the process of
completing a grant proposal. The grant writer was able to quickly learn that the
grant writing process is very time consuming. However, most importantly the grant
writer was able to identify that grant writing gives social worker’s the opportunity to
advocate and fund programs for the underserved.
Implications for Social Work : Many social workers obtain positions in nonprofit
organizations where grant writing is one of the requirements of the job. Further,
grant writing skills are an essential skill for social workers to be competent in
during economic downturns when raising funds becomes more difficult.
Additionally, the grant writer learned that grant writing and advocacy are tools that
can be used to fund innovative ideas to develop services for underserved
communities. Being able to fund programs that provide services to underserved
communities, the social worker is then able to be a change agent at many levels.
REFERENCES
Los Angeles Police Department. (2012). Gangs. Retrieved from http://www.
lapdonline.org/get_informed/content_basic_view/1396
Kataoka, S., Langley, A., Stein, B., Jaycox, L., Zhang, L., Sanchez, N., & Wong, M. (2009).
Violence exposure and PTSD: The role of English language fluency in Latino youth.
Journal of Child & Family Studies, 18, 334-341.
National Association of Social Workers. (1999). Code of ethics of the National Association of
Social Workers. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/
pubs/code/code.asp
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2010). History of street gangs in the
United States. Retrieved from www.nationalgangcenter.gov/
History-of-Street-Gangs.pdf