During the past decade, counties have taken various approaches to stop the growth of gangs throughout the region. Now an Hispanic community group is also trying to lend a hand.
Fairfax-based Barrios Unidos will conduct a Regional Youth Peace Summit this summer to create initiatives to address violence in communities and encourage those who live in at-risk areas to help try to keep children from gangs.
“With the increasing number of poor and immigrant families living in the Washington metropolitan area, our neighborhoods have been struggling to keep up with the rise in juvenile violence and youth gangs,” said Barrios Unidos spokeswoman Sharon Wentland. “In Northern Virginia, Maryland and D.C., there has been a consistent increase in the number of gangs and members and also in the level of violence.”
Juan Pacheco, the program director for Barrios Unidos, said that the reason for the summit is to attack gangs from a grassroots perspective. Barrios Unidos gets former gang members involved.
“We appreciate the efforts of everyone involved, but kids won’t always listen to someone in a suit, not to mention a uniform,” Pacheco said. “These kids understand the street and might only hear what’s coming from people they see as coming from the same place as them.”
The efforts of Barrios Unidos have received support from Fairfax County officials who say that though gangs are not “out of control” in the county, it’s certainly something that warrants extra attention.
Most of that attention is focused on MS-13, a male-dominated, largely El Salvadoran gang, but there is another type of gang that has grown.
“Certainly MS-13 is a concern, but we also have the community gangs that cut across lines of ethnicity and gender,” said Robert Birmingham, Fairfax County gang coordinator. “These are much smaller and of less notoriety, but for us it’s certainly an issue.”
The Regional Youth Peace Summit set for July is expected to draw about 250 youths between ages 12 and 19 from Northern Virginia and Montgomery County. Attendees will work toward gang prevention, one neighborhood at a time.
At a glance
» Police believe there are more than 1,500 gang members in Fairfax County.
» There are up to 80 gangs in Fairfax of varying size.
» According to the FBI, there are more than 30,000 gangs nationwide with morethan 800,000 members.
» More than 2,500 communities nationwide are affected.
