Ex-gang leader says Boys, Girls Clubs make difference

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Community leaders list giving children a safe place in their neighborhoods to go as a crime-fighting strategy, but that took on even more meaning when a former gang leader told News4Jax that he joined the gang as a teenager about the time the Boys and Girls Club near his boyhood home closed.

"Before I started the gang, we had the Boys and Girls Club, and I could go there," said a former gang leader News4Jax is calling T.C. to protect his identity and safety. "But now we don't have it; the community center is shut down. Now all these kids got no place to go."

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The Boys and Girls Club in Jacksonville's Brentwood neighborhood is open and the kids who go there have plenty to do. 

Young people at the club Wednesday said they could've easily gone down the wrong path without positive influences.

Matthew Holland is a linebacker at EWC.

"It was very important, because you stay out of of trouble. You just be so caught up in football," Holland said.

Suwayne Hilton, who is about to graduate from Edwards Waters College with a degree in criminal justice, said he easily could have been joined a gang because of "people showing me bad influence."

Dr. Shannon Perry, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida, said the program focuses on healthy lifestyle skills, leadership skills and character development.

Perry said the number of centers and funding have increased over the last 10 years. The Florida Department of Education, the city of Jacksonville and private donors fund the clubs.

The city's funding has increased from $1.2 million to $1.7 million over the last seven years. That has allowed the number of Boys and Girls Clubs to grow from 13 to 14 in the area.

City Councilman Warren Jones said funding for programs like these is important.

"Everybody realizes we can't arrest our way of of this problem; we can't police our way out of this problem. We have to have prevention and intervention programs coupled with police enforcement to drive the murder rate down," Jones said.

Meanwhile, T.C.'s message to anyone thinking about joining a gang is clear.

"A lot of people are just searching to be accepted. Their parents are working all the time and may not care about them, and you've got people on the streets who say they love you and they'll kill for you," T.C. said. "And you know, they will kill for you, so you thinking it's love, but it's not."

The Boys and Girls Clubs are dedicated to giving kids a place to be accepted.

For more information or to donate to the organization, go to www.bgcnf.org.