Name: Oliver Eig
Social Justice Group: Child Soldiers
Date of Fieldwork: January 12, 2018
Name of Organization: GRASP
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Jason ? ?
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
My group and I interviewed Jason from GRASP. GRASP is an organization that stands for Gang Rescue and Support Project. It is located in Denver, Colorado. Since we are too far from that, we had to interview them via phone from our school. We asked him a variety of questions, and he answered them. It was shorter than expected, around seven minutes total
What I learned:
I learned that the average age of a kid in a gang is 14-15 years old. GRASP helps around 200-300 kids a year get back on their feet and become a productive member of society after being associated with a gang. They do this through healing circles, educational programs, and mentoring. The most common reasons kids get into gangs is because of a bad family dynamic, which they can make better by finding a family on the street, poverty, criminal activity, and following a generational family legacy of being in a gang. Most of the time when kids get out of their gang they don’t go back. They support the kids in any way they can, whether it be from their healing circles or their groups, or job opportunities at their organization. A healing circle is a program that they offer where kids come and they sit in a circle and talk about their blessings and their baggage for the week.They all have to share one thing. Baggage is a thing that is bothering you and Blessings is anything good that is happening in your life. We will speak with other people in the organization that know more. Some gangs do not like to let go of their members so it is a harder process to walk aware from those certain gangs. Sometimes there are threats to the organization or the former child members. They try to protect the kids they are helping through addressing the issue directly, whether it be law enforcement, or words. Once they are out of the organization they can still come to their circles, which is a way to keep themselves grounded and focused. They are trying to change the attitude towards change.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
I have learned from this fieldwork that I will have to follow through with the organization that I talked to in order to get more details and more information in general. He said a bunch of vague, but positive things that I had to make inferences upon. He said that he would directly address any threats towards the kids, so I thought that meant talking to them and getting the police involved. He also said that they are trying to change the attitude towards change, and did not really say more. I want to hear more specifics from their organization by talking to someone maybe a little bit more informed and official about what they are doing. I also learned how tough it is to try and set up and have a fieldwork with an organization that is located far away. But this has taught me a good mentality which is that one can only control what they have the ability too. We learned a lot about the organization, but less about the issue itself.
