http://www.gangsymposium.org

The 2008 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) National Youth Gang Symposium will take place on June 23−26, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia. This event will offer innovative and successful gang-related programs and strategies, as well as provide the latest information on youth gang activities and trends from top national experts.

The workshop and plenary sessions will be exciting, challenging, and filled with cutting-edge information that can be used immediately in your community.

Registration includes two and one-half days of learning experiences and two luncheons. Presymposium workshops are available; space is limited. Early-bird and group discounts are available. Register early. Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

This symposium is designed for anyone involved in addressing our nation’s youth gang and violence issues:

School personnel
School resource officers/G.R.E.A.T. officers
Local Boys & Girls Clubs staff
Community-based organizations staff
Youth-development professionals
Law enforcement
Court, probation, and corrections professionals
Prosecutors
Researchers
Government agencies and elected officials
Youth leaders
Faith-based organizations

The symposium will offer breakout sessions filled with information, strategies, and promising/best practices from multiple perspectives in the field dealing with youth gang issues. Whether you work in law enforcement, state or local government, community- or faith-based organizations, the justice system, or schools, there will be something for you. Breakout sessions are open to all conference participants; preregistration is not required. Space may be limited for some offerings.

Gang awareness with a national and regional focus
Gangs online
Brown/black gang conflicts
Gangster rap
Gangs in Indian Country
Female gangs
Nation gangs
(Midwest and East Coast)
Mara Salvatrucha
(East and West Coast)
Gangs in the Southeast
Gangs in the Southwest
Hispanic gangs
(East and West Coast)
Truancy programs to address gangs
School-based prevention and intervention programs
Team-based gang crisis response
School policies to address gangs
Evaluation and performance measures
Sustainability and funding
Case management
How to start prevention/intervention programs
Creating a community task force
Working with the media
Responding to emerging gang problems
Female-specific interventions
Gang intervention through targeted outreach
Dealing with grief, death, and dying issues
Community-based intervention strategies that work
Employment programs that work for gang-involved youth
Serving gang-involved families
Gang-focused restorative justice programming
Gangs in custody
Alternatives to incarceration
Partnering with the community
Diversion programs
Creative sentencing
Probation strategies for gang-involved youth
Targeted reentry
Gang prosecution
Gang-infested neighborhoods
G.R.E.A.T. and G.R.E.A.T. Families Programs
Gang prevention through targeted outreach
Street SMART
Invited Plenary Session Speakers
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Michael Mukasey was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1941 and graduated from Columbia College and Yale Law School, where he was on the Board of Editors of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to becoming Attorney General, he had a lengthy career as an attorney, including service as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1972 to 1976 in New York. From 1975 to 1976, he also served as chief of his district’s Official Corruption Unit. From 1976 to 1987, he was an associate, and then member, of the firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.

Mukasey was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and served until 2006, the last six years as chief judge. During that time, Judge Mukasey presided over hundreds of cases, including the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 codefendants charged with conspiring to blow up numerous sites in New York. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he was widely praised for the speed with which the federal courthouse, located just blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, returned to normal operation.

Judge Mukasey has received numerous awards over the years, including the Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence from the Federal Bar Council, the William Tendy Award from the Fiske Association, awards from the Seymour Association, the Respect for Law Alliance, and the Ari Halberstam Award from the Jewish Children’s Museum. He also received an honorary degree from the Brooklyn Law School.

Judge Mukasey was nominated to be Attorney General by President George W. Bush on September 17, 2007.

J. Robert Flores, Administrator, OJJDP
A longtime advocate for children, J. Robert Flores has led a distinguished career in juvenile and criminal justice. Currently the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a position he assumed in April 2002, Mr. Flores previously served in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on issues related to child exploitation and obscenity.

Mr. Flores is an experienced lawyer and former prosecutor with expertise in Internet crime, child abuse and exploitation, and juvenile justice issues. In his role as OJJDP Administrator, he has spearheaded efforts to increase and improve federal interagency cooperation, serving as Vice Chairman of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In keeping with the President’s management initiatives to make the federal government more efficient, Mr. Flores has initiated three pilot programs to address youth gangs, reduce child prostitution, and improve the juvenile justice system. Before his OJJDP appointment, Mr. Flores was the Vice President and Senior Counsel for the National Law Center for Children and Families. From 1989 to 1997, Mr. Flores was Senior Trial Attorney and Acting Deputy Chief in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, of the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1999, he was appointed to the Child Online Protection Act Commission by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert.

Mr. Flores earned his juris doctorate from Boston University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boston University School of Management.

Nicky Cruz
Nicky's earliest memories are of a hellish childhood in Puerto Rico. Abuse and neglect turned Nicky into an uncontrollable child ruled by hatred. His father finally sent him to live with his brother in New York City. However, Nicky took to the streets, where he found his first “real family experience” in the gang. In the past forty years, Nicky has spoken around the world and worked with thousands of inner-city gang members. He is the author of Run, Baby, Run.

Andrew A. Valdez
Judge Andrew A. Valdez was appointed to the Third District Juvenile Court in June of 1993. He graduated from the University of Utah College of Law in 1977. Prior to his appointment, Judge Valdez was a commissioned captain in the U.S. Army J.A.G. Corp and trial counsel with the Legal Defenders Association Felony/Homicide Division. Judge Valdez has developed a court-based mentoring program, partnerships with community education schools, and opportunities for female juvenile offenders to work off restitution obligations. He is the author of No One Makes it Alone.

Cal Ripken, Jr.
Cal Ripken is baseball’s all-time Iron Man. He retired from baseball in October 2001, after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. His name appears in the record books repeatedly, most notably as one of only eight players in history to achieve 400 home runs and 3,000 hits.

Ripken’s name has become synonymous with strength, character, endurance, and integrity. His philosophy of working hard, playing with passion, and enjoying the game has made a tremendous impact on the sport and on fans everywhere. In 1999, Babe Ruth League, Inc. changed the name of its largest division (5- to 12-year-olds) from Bambino to Cal Ripken Baseball. Presently, more than 700,000 youths play Cal Ripken Baseball worldwide.

Ripken has always placed a strong focus on giving back to the community. In 2001, he and his family established the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, in memory of the family’s patriarch. The foundation helps teach life lessons through baseball to disadvantaged youth from all over the country and gives them a life-changing experience. The foundation has refurbished fields throughout Maryland, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Boys & Girls Clubs across the country, and helped thousands of kids enjoy baseball experiences that they would otherwise never encounter. Additionally, the foundation has teamed up with NikeGo, the nonprofit arm of Nike, to donate more than $1 million of baseball and softball equipment to school systems across the country.

Among his many on-field accolades are AL Rookie of the Year (’82), two-time AL Most Valuable Player (’83, ’91), two-time Gold Glove recipient (’91, ’92), two-time All-Star MVP (’91, ’01), a world-record 2,632 consecutive games, and 19 All-Star Game selections. In 2001, Cal was honored when fans named his 2,131st consecutive game Major League Baseball’s “Most Memorable Moment” in history through a program run by MLB.

Hector Alicea
Investigator, New York State Police, Albany, NY

John Anderson
Deputy District Attorney, Orange County District Attorney’s Office, Santa Ana, CA

Duane Bourdeaux
Executive Director, Colors of Success, Salt Lake City, UT

Valerie Boykin
Juvenile Justice Consultant, Washington, DC

Tim Bynum, Ph.D.
Michigan State University, Lansing, MI

Wayne Caffey
Detective, Gang Operations Support Division, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles, CA

Ernest Cuthbertson
Detective, Greensboro Police Department, Greensboro, SC

Stephen Duncan
Special Agent, Mexican Drug Trafficking Strike Force, Bureau of Investigations, California Department of Justice, San Diego, CA

Bruce Ferrell
Detective, Omaha Police Department (retired), Omaha, NE

Victor Gonzalez
Director of Prevention and Intervention Services, Houston Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, Houston, TX

Christopher Grant
Captain, Rapid City Police Department (retired), Rapid City, SD

Mary Hatheway
School-Based Intake Coordinator, Allegheny County Juvenile Probation Department, Pittsburgh, PA

Dave Hayeslip, Ph.D.
The Urban Institute, Bethesda, MD
Frank Hosch
Deputy Director, Juvenile Services Division, Ramsey County Community Corrections Department, St. Paul, MN

James C. “Buddy” Howell, Ph.D.
National Youth Gang Center, Pinehurst, NC
Pauline Jimenez
Houston Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, Houston, TX

Errika Fearbry Jones
Director, Gang-Free Schools, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pittsburgh, PA

Candice Kane, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer, Chicago Project for Violence Protection, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL

Malcolm W. Klein, Ph.D.
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Don Kodluboy, Ph.D.
School Psychology Consultant, St. Paul, MN

Karen MacDonald
Vice President, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Atlanta, GA

Cheryl L. Maxson, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine, CA
Paul Mohler
Juvenile Crime Intervention Section, Texas Attorney General’s Office, Austin, TX

Dana Peterson, Ph.D.
University at Albany, Albany, NY

David Reid
Director of Delinquency Prevention, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Atlanta, GA

Bob Robinson
St. Louis County Police Department, St. Louis, MO

Wayne Sakamoto
Murrieta School District, Riverside, CA

Al Valdez, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Social Sciences, International Studies Program, University of California, Irvine, CA

Jeff Wennar
Assistant State’s Attorney, Montgomery County, Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office

William Ybarra
Consultant, Safe Schools Center, Los Angeles County Office of Education, Los Angeles, CA