Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Gangs in North Carolina

A report by the governor's crime commission estimates that youth gangs in North Carolina are growing at an average rate of more than 10 percent per year. Youth counselors across the state are scrambling to develop programs that prove effective in curbing this growth. In Raleigh some have discovered a method that appears to be working. Next Generation Radio's Dave Nourse reports

Walking into Second Round you pass a sign reading "No colors, hand signs or gang clothing allowed." Walk a little further and enter a dim, cavernous room, that smells of sweat and filled with about 25 young men and women. Several things immediately jump out, kids are jumping rope, jabbing punching bags and sidestepping on a regulation sized boxing ring.
Since it began in January 2006, the Second Round boxing program has been the after school home for dozens of Raleigh?s most disadvantaged young men and women. Here they spend hours every afternoon training with the program's staff working for their amateur boxing certification.
Program co-founder, Matt Schnars opened the facility as a result of increasing gang activity in the Triangle. He wanted to get kids off the street.
(Clip from Matt about what makes Second Round attractive Matt -- attractive activity for youth)
We created this program based on the idea that we needed something that was culturally competent for young people of color, primarily African American and Latino youth. So we wanted something that would really be an attractive activity for them.
One of the program's most successful participants is a slim and fit sixteen year old we'll call Jorge. He has a criminal record and a history of fighting.
(Clip from Young Antonio " Young Antonio" 95 percent of my friends are in gangs?this place took me in got me focused on something else)
Like 90, 95 percent of my friends are in gangs. I'm not in a gang, but I try to look out for my friends, so I get involved in a lot of stuff they do. I don't gang bang, I?m not really trying to be a gang member, but just trying to help them out, and keep them safe, keep them out of trouble, so this place like kinda really took me in got me focused on something else.
Jorge has thrived in the high intensity atmosphere that Second Round provides and in addition to getting training on how to be a better boxer, he gets the encouragement of the staff and his peers.
(Clip from Clip from Young Antonio ? This place is family)
Its like a big family here, like I learn to trust a lot of people and the coach I mainly work with, coach Derek, he's like, probably like a father to me, like I've got a step father, but we don't get along to well, and my real father, we hardly ever communicate, so he's kinda you know, looked after me and taught me everything I know.
It might seem strange to teach kids who've been surrounded by violence for so much of their lives how to box, but Schnars says the benefits are quite clear.
(Clip from Matt about Boxing, Martial Arts and the positive benefits they offer)
There was a whole long body...of research on martial arts training that said that it promotes healthy lifestyles, it promotes positive attitudes... you know it just has all kinds of long term benefits to pro social behaviors.
Watching this group of twenty five young athletes move quickly from skipping rope to practicing jabs against a punching bag, you realize that Second Round is more than just a gym, it's an atmosphere that challenges and fosters the best in them. Antonio Robinson is the assistant head coach at Second Round. He says this program compels the kids to forget criminal and gang life and return to the gym each day.
(Clip from Antonio "Challenge" Hit the bag and forget)
This game is a challenge, he?s gonna hit the bag the first time, you know what I?m saying, he?s gonna do things certain things that I know he?s not able to do. but my whole goal is to keep him...positive mentally, you know what I?m saying, and by me just doing that he's not even thinking about gang related or gang violence, you know what I'm saying, and that's when I get him to come back.
Not all of the kids at Second Round are directly involved with gangs but many of them have been exposed to gangs in their neighborhoods and families like one twelve year old we?ll call Natisha.
I've seen my family members getting hurt by their mistakes in being in a gang, and then by what you have to go trough in order just to be in a gang, and then when you want to get out its even harder then when you got out its even harder then when you got in and I just like, got to leave it alone.
As the afternoon progresses and the members of Second Round grow sweaty and tired, it is clear that each kid?s confidence level is high. The staff at Second Round says many of these adolescent's lives have changed completely. Over the course of their involvement in the program school has become a priority, and they?re staying out of trouble and away from drugs. As program co-founder Alan Muiera is fond of saying, when kids walk in the door here, they?re boxers. Like this fourteen year old we'll call Jasmine confidently says:
(Clip from Alexis "I want to be an example)
I want to be an example to all little girls; if you stick to your dream then you can do it. And I want to put female boxing on the map, I want to make history. So you just got to work for what you want to do, you can't let nobody put you down. (15 Seconds)
The future looks promising for the kids of Second Round, and while they may not be entirely free from the influence of gangs, they now have the skills and techniques to fight back. In Chapel Hill, I'm Dave Nourse.