Gang-prevention effort blossoms out of Albany Chamber's political leadership course
Feb. 13—ALBANY — The first class of an Albany Area Chamber of Commerce political leadership course graduated less than a month ago, but they're already making an impact in their community.
Most of the 13 members of the inaugural class appeared at a Dougherty County Commission meeting Monday to give their impressions of the course.
Of those, two have applied for and been named to county commission boards, and an additional two have formed a relationship aimed at helping prevent young people from joining street gangs.
The first fruits of the gang-prevention effort was a Billionaire's Masked Gala, sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany, that brought together adults from a number of professions and area high school students.
The initiative started with a friendship formed during the Albany Area Political Leadership Institute between Dontravious Simmons and Michael Tabarrok, two of the graduates in the nonpartisan leadership program aimed at equipping participants for leadership on local boards and in elected office.
"A lot of class members from the Political Leadership Institute were invited to the career-networking mixer," Simmons, the service director for the Albany Boys & Girls Club, said during an interview following their appearance before the commission. "There were over 80 kids there. It really had an impact for those kids."
Tabarrok, a prosecutor in the state Attorney General's Office who concentrates on gangs, said that the Boys & Girls Clubs are in a unique position to help steer children away from gangs. Gang members target kids as young as 9 in the community, and giving those young people options for building futures outside of gangs is a key element in combating that influence.
"One of the primary reasons kids join gangs is they're looking for a home, they're looking for a community, they're looking for acceptance," he said. "We need to find a way to say 'We care for you.' That's where the Boys & Girls Clubs come in.
"Gang prevention is not always trying to convict, it's trying to prevent the next generation from joining."
One of the keys to success for the political leadership program was that it sought out a diverse group of residents and even opened applications to people from surrounding counties, Bridges Sinyard, chair of the Chamber's Government Affairs Division, told commissioners. The first group of 13 included people from a cross-section of ages and geographical locations.
"We wanted to make sure we had participants from every (part) of our community," he said. "If everybody was from one group, then we would not have been successful. We had people from all over this community represented.
"What we do know is we do have 13 members in this community who can go out and explain how things work."
