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Program closes door on gang
Open Door advocates provide alternatives for troubled youth
By Amy Woodward
awoodwa5@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu The Rev. Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, Jan. 16 in his office at Open Door in Denver.

The shooting death of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams has sparked a renewed awareness of violent crime and gang culture in Denver.

According to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations’ website, 47,596 juvenile arrests were made in 2005 with high numbers of drug violations, assaults, larceny and burglary. These statistics are telling, but there is little concrete evidence to provide a connection to gang activity – and there may not be a strong desire to make one.

The pressure to investigate such deaths is light, said Terri Wash, program director at Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives.

“Kids die every month who were Darrent Williams’ age or younger,” Wash said. “There is not a big push to investigate into these crimes, and street justice prevails because nobody is really pursuing who did it.”

The Open Door program is a youth advocacy center that provides alternatives to gang violence and gang activity. The center reaches out to kids as early as kindergarten. The key to the program is to use prevention measures on young children because they are at the age where you can still change their minds, Wash said.

The “heart and soul” of Open Door is the Rev. Leon Kelly, who has dedicated his time since 1987 to helping children pursue a more productive life through counseling, education and community service. Kelly has counseled many young children, including those involved with some of Colorado’s most prevalent gangs, such as the Crips and the Bloods.

Whether it is young children affected by gang culture or teenagers being influenced to join a gang, Kelly is not one to sugarcoat the consequences of becoming involved with violent groups.

“It fills certain voids all of us have. They want identity, acceptance, money and security,” Kelly said.
For newcomers to Open Door, Kelly furnishes a list of those who have died violently from gang violence and a list of those who have been imprisoned.

“He does a realistic approach,” Wash said. “It’s not pretty … he lets them know the real deal.”
Open Door offers a diverse array of alternatives for those looking for a way out of gangs: in-school and after-school programs, community outreach, summer camps, parent connections, gang mediations and interventions, and public education and community awareness.

“Our main objective now is prevention,” Kelly said. “One way to kill a gang is to cut off recruitment. It is easier to mold a kid than repair an adult.”

Raquel Roveitson, 15, along with her two younger sisters, has been in Open Door’s after-school program for a couple of years and is now a part of Open Door’s staff.

“The program gave me a chance to do homework and focus,” Roveitson said.

She now works in one of the gang programs and also volunteers her time for issues like the environment.

“I am able to understand why (Open Door) started the program. It’s not cool to be involved in gangs or drugs,” she said. “It has really helped me out for my younger sisters and younger brother.”

Information courtesy of Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime and Justice Data Online and Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report • Illustrations by Joe Nguyen • nguyejos@mscd.edu