From Rubies to Blossoms
A Portrait of American Girlhood: The New Gangs of New York

Maisha Sapp, education coordinator for Blossom and sister of program founder Isis Sapp-Grant Photo: David Banks, NPR Online

"I think it's more dangerous now, because little kids have guns -- you have to be afraid of the little kids. Here, I am learning how to avoid all those things, how I can live in this neighborhood and avoid all the stuff that is bad outside." Shekinah, 15, a member of the Blossom program in Brooklyn

The walls of the Blossom meeting rooms are covered with inspirational collages created by the girls in the program. Photo: David Banks, NPR Online

Blossoms in Brooklyn

On a recent Friday night in the Bedford-Stuyvestant neighborhood of Brooklyn, about 20 young girls between the ages of 12 and 15 sit perched eagerly on folding chairs in a church auditorium. They are about to get certificates of leadership as "Blossoms" -- girls identified as "at risk" for gang activity.

Their parents, or schools or the District Attorney's office has identified them as "at risk" for fighting, being sexually active or being truant. The program is designed to give these teen girls support.

Fifteen-year-old Shekinah came to Blossom to get a sense of where her life could go. She's not as intimidated by the adult gang members as she is by kids even younger than her: "I think it's more dangerous now, because little kids have guns -- you have to be afraid of the little kids," she says. "Here, I am learning how to avoid all those things, how I can live in this neighborhood and avoid all the stuff that is bad outside."

Blossom encourages girls to pour out these feelings and write about them. They publish their own poetry, and they're passionate about their poems. It's techniques like these that experts say are some of the best ways to combat the physical and sexual exploitation of young teenage girls.

Programs for gang prevention may be critical, but there are very few of them. Robert De Sena founded one of the best in 1975 -- the Council for Unity today runs programs in 55 New York high schools and other parts of the country.

The Council for Unity is a program designed to reduce violence in schools by emphasizing conflict resolution and gang prevention. "We don't present these young people with enough alternatives, and that is tragic," De Sena says. "And now, with this economic downturn and cutbacks in budgets, a lot of programs that attempt to serve these young people will be short-changed. We will see social upheavals if programs are cut back."

Although Council for Unity can boast that 96 percent of its members finish high school and 97 percent of those go to college, cutbacks in education and social programs nearly shut down the program last year.


 NEXT: The Gangs of Long Island

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