The Department of Justice’s Juvenile
Gang Prevention Campaign

The Challenge:

Gang violence has become a nationwide issue of paramount importance as youths, particularly Hispanic, are joining gangs at formidable rates.

• Annual data from law enforcement agencies in the National Youth Gang Survey indicate that between 45% and 49% of all documented gang members are Hispanic.

• According to the Harvard Immigration Project Study in 2001, gangs actively follow the immigrant trail, seeking and wooing teens just arrived from Latin American countries, who have often lost their sense of connection to their families and have no real grasp of how American society works or their potential role within it.

• Congress provides nearly $200 million for juvenile delinquency prevention programs at the local level, including $80 million for Boys & Girls Clubs, however, because the majority of Spanish-speaking parents are not aware of these programs, their children are not able to take advantage of them.

The Reasoning:
Because kids who join gangs are often looking to create a sense of identity and belonging, we chose to center our anti-gang message around culture. We did this for two reasons. First, providing a cultural outlet with which they can identify, gives teens the sense of identity and pride that protects against the allure of gangs. Second, it can help positively fill the emotional space that can be created when society takes away a youth’s substitute family, their gang. By focusing on positive aspects of culture, including music and art, we can help them develop a sense of pride, a sense of identity, and an awareness that there is more out there for them.

Elements of our 2Cooltura Multimedia Campaign:
Hispanic Communications Network produced and distributed through radio, television and print, an effective mass media message that inspires Hispanic parents and their youth to reject gangs, resist recruitment, and, when already involved, raise awareness of the resources available to help them exit gang culture. The campaign had two target audiences: youth and their parents. To reach young Hispanics, we have focused on internet, television, and custom publishing mediums. To reach their parents, we are utilizing radio, print, and internet.

• For the internet component of the campaign, we created www.2Cooltura.com, which contains gang prevention information for youth and their parents. The 2Cooltura campaign’s spokespeople, award winning alternative rock band La Secta Allstar, feature prominently on the website and greet visitors as they enter. The website’s usage of hip, young language and its rap and reggaeton inspired aesthetics appeals to kids. The accessible and interactive site includes music videos, trailers from movies with anti-gang messages, and anti-gang art and poetry. There is also a youth-friendly directory with links to organizations, events, services, and step-by-step information on how to exit a gang and gang culture. It also includes a blog space for kids to chat and have questions answered by their peers and video interviews with former gang members who talk about their experience.

To explore the website, please visit www.2Cooltura.com

• Television is another important element of 2Cooltura. HCN produced and distributed two television public service announcements with campaign spokespeople, La Secta Allstar, to encourage kids to take pride in themselves and their culture and stay out of gangs.

Click to see the first television sample

Click to see the second sample

• We produced and distributed four one minute radio capsules to direct Hispanic parents to the 2Cooltura website and to our national, bilingual hotline, which connects parents and kids with gang prevention resources in their community. Two of the one minute capsules feature campaign spokespeople La Secta Allstar.

Click to hear a sample capsule
Click to listen to a second program

• HCN distributed a newspaper column written by acclaimed author, Luis J. Rodriguez, to HCN’s 100+ affiliate newspapers. Rodriguez’s award-winning book about his successful disengagement from gangs, Always Running or La Vida Loca, is not only a bestseller, but also required reading for students attending Los Angeles High Schools.

For more information please visit

www.luisjrodriguez.com

• An important component of the 2Cooltura campaign is our toll-free bilingual information hotline. The internet, television, and print elements all promote the hotline phone number (800) 473-3003, in order to connect Hispanics young and old with anti-gang related resources in their community.

Promoting the Message:
In addition to the campaign’s elements, HCN utilized some alternative marketing techniques to promote the campaign and the website.

• HCN sent out a series of email alerts or e-vites about the campaign to coalition organizations, as well as to users who opted-in through the website or at events.

Please click the logo below to see evite

• We distributed post cards with the campaign’s logo to help spread the 2Cooltura message.

• As a part of the 2Cooltura website, HCN included an electronic press room with all of the campaign’s pertinent information and components to allow the press easy access to the campaign’s elements.

If you would like to support the campaign or help us distribute its message, feel free to contact Corinne Anderson at paco@hcnmedia.com.