Press Reviews

• Human Givens Magazine

  Based on a five year old action research project developed by Leap Confronting Conflict, this is a fully photocopiable toolkit which aims to give practitioners the materials, support and inspiration needed to engage young people who are involved in gangs. It demonstrates how young people can be drawn into a creative and challenging process that explores the costs, gains and consequences of the choices they make in relation to gang membership. Using a tried and tested programme, the book sets out to present flexible activities and stragegies to run either two-hour or one-day workshops.

• Children Now

  Described as a toolkit for resolving group conflict, this book aims to help youth workers engage young people who are involved in gangs. Its authors have years of experience of working with young gangs and the book is based on extensive research by the youth project Leap Confronting Conflict. It includes advice on bringing rival gangs together and contains various games designed to engage young people and make them think about their involvement in gangs.

• Prison Service Journal

  This book will be particularly useful for professionals working with young people who are involved in street gangs, and for organisations considering their strategy to manage gangs. This book provides both a set of resources for a prevention or low-intensity intervention course, as well as proving a starting point for further development. It also has a wider achievement in clearly presenting the possibility of broadening gang strategy from suppression to include prevention and intervention.

• Dave Brotherton, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology John Jay College of Criminal Justice/City University of New York

  This publication is a welcome contribution to the hands-on conflict resolution literature dealing with youth and street gangs. It comes at a time when many local communities are wondering how to respond to young people participating in rapidly mutating street subcultures that have both violent and non-violent elements and which derive from both U.S. and British traditions… Based on years of practice and experience with street groups, the lessons collected in this book will be an indispensable guide to youth workers, community organizers, teachers and social workers in their search for effective, humanistic responses to gang-related tensions and anti-social behavior.

• Rubel Ahmed

  Working with Gangs and Young People is an excellent toolkit for practitioners, whether or not they are working with high-risk young people. It goes a long way towards empowering workers with the confidence needed to engage in group activities and discussions with young people. The activities will enable young people to understand what is going on in their lives and to positively take control of the decisions and issues that affect them.

• Child Right

  Working with Gangs and Young People is very useful handbook to getting young people to explore the concept of gangs and the criteria of membership. The book clearly sets out a training programme for those working with at risk young people, to help them explore the consequences of their actions.