Council for Unity: A Vehicle for Profound Change
Times Beacon Record June 1, 2011
On a rainy Friday morning in mid-May, I accepted an invitation from the Suffolk County sheriff to meet in his office with other community activists. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss what his administration has been attempting to do with the inmates in our overcrowded Riverhead prison. . . (more)
Students work together to keep RHS a peaceful learning environment for all of the school’s students
Riverhead School News 2011
With diversity often comes division. Riverhead High School has worked hard this year to erase lines of demarcation and division among its student body and to strive for unity. A new organization called the Council for Unity is one outgrowth of this effort to achieve student unity. . . (more)
ABC News coverage of the Gang Conference
ABCS April 6, 2011. . . (more)
New Bright Ideas Recognizes Innovative Government
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University September 29, 2010
Selects 173 Noteworthy Government Programs and Practices Cambridge, Mass., – September 29, 2010. Today the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, announced 173 government programs selected for its newly-created Bright Ideas program. In its inaugural year, Bright Ideas is designed to recognize and share creative government initiatives around the country with interested public sector, nonprofit, and academic communities.
The Suffolk County Correctional Facility’s Council for Unity (CFU) Program was selected as one of the Bright Ideas for 2010. The Riverhead facility was the first county correctional facilities in the nation to embrace CFU as a strategy to reduce gang violence and membership within the jail, and in our communities upon release. . . .. (more)
The Un-Banging of Middle America
Miller-McCune: September-October 2009
To chase street gangs out of suburbia, adults will have to make a dramatic change: They’ll have to start paying attention to the culture their children live in. . . . (more)
Rising Violence in the NYC Schools
New York Post, April 22, 2008
Every spring, we see a rise in school-safety incidents - but this year seems different. In the past month, there have been at least 15 reported incidents of violence or threats of violence in city public schools - and at all levels (elementary, intermediate and high school). And these are just the reported incidents. No one knows how many go unreported, as schools try to avoid getting a bad reputation . . . (more)
Group Helps Gang Members Leave Crime
Associated Press, March 24, 2008
DaJuan Hawkins spent four months in jail for assault and thought he was a “nothing” destined for a life of street crime. Today, the 17-year-old high school senior is heading for college and …(more)
Echo of Inner City Youth Reflected in Poetry Book
AFRO TIMES, February 9, 2008
For youngsters, expressing one’s self through poetry is not limited to those attending upscale suburban or private schools. A local anti-violence and anti-gang program, the Council for Unity has published “THIS IS ME” a 58 page anthology showcasing the work of 62 youngsters ages 8 to 18… (more)
New Beginning for Gang Members
Traveler Watchman (The Independent), September 5, 2007
They've spent their lives bustin' guns, robbing banks, and beating their enemies bloody. They have been charged with an array of horrific crimes ranging from murder to career drug dealing. By their own accounts, they have grown up on poverty stricken streets, been schooled in shattering lives, inflicting beatings and bringing despair upon the families of those they've brutally killed... (more)
Keeping gangs out of school
7online.com, April 4, 2007
One group is actually using former gang members to convince kids to steer clear of gangs. Education reporter Art McFarland has details. "I will work to improve my school," students said, reciting a pledge. The pledge is for a meeting of the Council For Unity at Bronx Health Sciences High School. The council is active in dozens of schools, there and elsewhere. It uses former gang members to help keep gang activities out of schools... (more)
Council for Unity expands its reach
Our Schools Riverhead School District (Newsletter Vol. 23/No.3) Jan. 2007
Three and a half years ago, Riverhead High School, with a population of about 1500 students and a diverse student body, was becoming even more diverse and at times more divided. An “incident” between two neighborhood groups and a growing concern about gangs moving east on Long Island, led the principal and the school violence prevention director, Theresa Drozd, to look for a program that could help kids get along and prevent them from turning to a gang culture... (more)
Fighting gangs from inside out
Newsday, November 28, 2006
Correctional facility becomes first in state to operate anti-gang program, which offers job training, remedial education, sense of family ... (more)
Unity in Albany?
Metroland Online (Vol. 29 No. 44) November 23, 2006
Gang-prevention group wants the city to put politics aside and bring the community together to stop the cycle of violence in schools Sean “Dino” Johnson, an ex-felon and onetime resident of Sing Sing Prison, rapped his knuckles three times against a wooden podium in the auditorium of Albany’s Harriet Gibbons High School last Thursday night (Nov. 16) ... (more)
Indifference shows on streets
timesunion.com, October 19, 2006
As police swept Albany of 30 alleged gangstas last Friday, a tour of a different sort was also under way. Former gangstas -- Latin Kings, Crips and Bloods from New York City -- were taking a drive through Arbor Hill, West Hill and the South End. They were here to promote the Council for Unity, a national anti-gang program with more than 60 chapters... (more)
Council for Unity idea catches on
Times Review Newspaper (North Fork, L.I.), September 27, 2006
Riverhead's Council for Unity program continues to be a role model that other communities and groups are following... (more)
Peer group offers solution to gangs' cycle of conflict
Daily News, July 26, 2006
Recent statistics released by the Justice Department reveal that gang members in America has grown to over 1 million. That figure is twice what it was 15 years ago. It is clear we are facing a serious problem, compounded by the fact that many communities and schools throughout the country are in denial that this threat even exists... (more)
The gang's all here
Daily News, June 27, 2006
You might expect a man who arranges sit-downs between the toughest of tough street gangs to look like a combination of "The Godfather's" Luca Brasi and Conan the Barbarian. But Bob DeSena, founder and president of the Council for Unity, resembles more a glad-handing mayor with an easy manner and a man-of-the-people demeanor... (more)
Ganging up on violence
Daily News, June 18, 2006
At 14, Lefrak City native Sean (Dino) Johnson was running drugs across the country for a street gang. He spent the next 12 years in and out of jail. With each release - and each return to his neighborhood - Johnson ascended the all-important street-credibility ladder... (more)
From Sing Sing to Broadway, evening without walls, a benefit performance of Rehabilitation through the Arts (RTA)
Rehabilitation through the Arts, June 13, 2006
On Monday June 5, at Playwrights Horizons, an ensemble of former prisoners from various New York State correction facilities presented an evening that had an impact far beyond the words and actions on the stage. Eight men of differing ages, races and time served behind bars revealed through from the inside the stark reality of prison life, from the voices of prisoners of Sing Sing, Woodbourne and Fishkill… (more)
East End Gang Awareness Committee is holding its annual gang awareness seminar
Suffolk Life Newspapers, March 18, 2006
In a continuing effort to apprise society of gang violence and aggression amongst youth, the East End Gang Awareness Committee is holding its annual gang awareness seminar...Robert J. DeSena, is presenting a workshop entitled “Girl Gangs: Through the Eyes of Former Female Gang Members”… (more)
There is life after gangs
Times Review Newspaper (North Fork, L.I.), January 18, 2006
RIVERHEAD--Kyle Harmon said he joined the street gang the Crips after watching his best friend get gunned down in a drive-by shooting on a Bronx street in 1999... (more)
