Innovative program offers hope to at-risk Fresno youth By Kristin Searfoss The Presbyterian Layman Sept/Oct, 1997 Former gang member Pe Maokosy says he used to have two choices for his future: death or prison. But a non-profit Christian organization in Fresno, Calif., called Hope Now for Youth gave him new choices. Now Maokosy is a baptized Christian on the staff of Hope Now, counseling at-risk young men who want to turn from gang life to mainstream employment. “The one thing we do is transform gang members,” Hope Now Executive Director and Presbyterian minister Roger Minassian said in a phone interview with the Layman. Such a tight focus works. Because of Hope Now, 265 young men ages 16-21 are gainfully employed by 112 Fresno businesses. That’s 265 fewer gang members on Fresno streets, facing death or prison. To reach gang members, Hope Now for Youth employs minority college students who have come out of gang life to serve as role models and vocational placement counselors. The counselors contact at-risk young men primarily in parks, malls, and recreation centers. When a young man finds out about Hope Now through word of mouth or a parole officer, it is up to him to call the organization himself. “The ones who are serious will make the call,” Minassian explained. “I make appointments with the young men, and we go to lunch or the movies,” Maokosy said. “We talk, and focus on the things bothering them. “It’s better to be a good listener than to be a guy who gives advice,” he said. “I tell them, ‘I don’t care about your past, just about your future.’ ” Hope Now’s four counselors, all Christians and former gang members, become like caring, positive older brothers to young men involved in gangs. The counselors carry pagers and are on call 24 hours a day. “They are wiser, know both the gang and mainstream worlds, and are growing in their faith,” Minassian said. Hope Now’s target population is 40 percent Hispanic, 42 percent Asian, 9 percent black and 9 percent white. “We target young men for a reason,” Minassian said. “What’s missing in American cities is responsible, caring, loving husbands and fathers.” For youth serious about changing their lives, the counselors line up jobs with local businesses as diverse as a children’s hospital, construction and plumbing companies, restaurants, and hotels. Hope Now helps the ex-gang members prepare for holding down jobs by getting them identification, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, and free medical checkups. Hope Now’s success rate is 85 percent (if a young man holds an entry-level job for 30 days, he is considered a success). While some of Hope Now’s at-risk young men do backslide, a number have become Christians. Sometimes, family members get involved with Hope Now. Minassian told of one man who got a hospital job. His brother then found employment at a food service, his wife at the hospital, his brother’s wife also at the hospital, and a third brother at a dairy. “Now they are all off welfare,” he said. Out of the riots Based in Fresno area churches that provide free offices and utilities, Hope Now is an unusual organization. It grew out of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. “God put this question in my heart: ‘What kind of despair makes people burn their neighborhoods?’ ” said Minassian, who was a parish pastor until he founded Hope Now in 1993. Minassian saw some of that despair in the gang members he met in Fresno. Because 96 percent of the men come from broken homes or do not have fathers, they “join gangs as surrogate families that meet their needs for affection, caring, praise, and economic rewards for success and effort,” he said. “When you deal with the young men one on one, you find a hurting child inside an adult body.” Talking about his own experience with Hope Now, counselor Eddie Ochoa said, “I got a second chance. Hope Now encouraged me and made me feel I was worthwhile.” In addition to an emphasis on building the first healthy male relationship a gang member may have had, there is a strong economic component to Hope Now. “There are other programs that build relationships through recreation, but we also have an economic factor. A gang is a source of income for its members,” Minassian said. “You have to provide an economic alternative before members will leave the gang.” Hope Now’s bold Christian identity also makes it unusual. “Research shows that if you want to help the poor, faith-based programs make the most difference. The love of Christ pervading all this is the big difference,” Minassian said. “Each of us at Hope Now is motivated by the love of Christ to go out and do what we do. We are all impelled by our Christian commitment. “Counselors share their faith with the men, and before they take them to a job, they pray with them.” Working within the Judeo-Christian value system, former gang members are taught the importance of honesty, hard work, accountability, reliability, and the value of time. Hope Now’s future Minassian wants to see Hope Now and similar programs help re-claim the lives of Fresno’s 15,000 at-risk youth. Hope Now estimates that an annual investment of $12 million to hire 600 counselors would reach the Fresno youth. That investment would be worth it, Minassian said. Already, Fresno’s crime rate has gone down 16 percent, a change he attributes to Hope Now and other groups. Minassian hopes to start a multi-ethnic Christian fellowship for the young men and their families whose lives have been changed by Hope Now. He would also like to hold classes in parenting and marriage skills and line up Christian men from the Fresno area who will serve as mentors, providing nurture and encouragement. “It’s very exciting working with these guys. In six months, there are major changes,” he said. As for ex-gang members Maokosy and Ochoa, when Maokosy sees his old gang friends, “they get this look,” he said. They know he has changed. “When they see I have a job they know I’m doing something better with myself.” “My friends look up to me more now,” Ochoa said.

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