By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Livingstone College has received a three-year, $313,000 grant to develop an anti-gang youth initiative for the neighborhood around its campus.
Dr. Herman Felton, vice president for institutional advancement at Livingstone, announced last week that the college had received notification of the Edward Byrne Memorial Discretionary Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Felton said it would be used to develop an after-school computer lab for youth, organize an annual cultural event, hire an additional gang prevention specialist, provide gang-prevention training for parents and youth and sponsor gang-prevention seminars.
Felton said he initially had no idea a city as small as Salisbury could have problems with gangs. Now, “we believe there’s a vicious cycle prevalent” in the West End community, he said.
“We definitely want to recapture the West End and make it a beacon of light,” he told the Salisbury City Council last week.
The college will work closely with the city and Salisbury Police Department on its youth initiative.
Mayor Susan Kluttz said gang prevention requires partnerships among many people.
“So many organizations have stepped up,” she said, since the city’s two gang summits in 2007 gained the input of hundreds of citizens and led to an eight-point action agenda.
Kluttz said she would like to see the Police Department’s gang specialists involved with the college’s efforts.
“We have to give our young people an alternative way of life,” she said.