County steps toward fighting gang violence

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima County commissioners on Tuesday authorized spending up to $6,000 on a grant writer who will apply for federal money and Gates Foundation grants to fight gangs.

If the county secures the grant money -- up to $850,000, according to Commissioner Kevin Bouchey -- it would be spent on the Yakima County Comprehensive Youth Gang Project.

The project is a partnership between the county, the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, the city of Yakima and Educational Service District 105 that aims to provide anti-gang counselors for the county's rural schools, among other initiatives.

"There are smaller communities, areas of particular interest, that need to be targeted," Bouchey said.

Gang violence has long been a problem in the Yakima Valley, with several local cities passing ordinances in recent years specifically aimed at cracking down on gangs. It has been in the headlines lately as a spate of shootings from Grandview to Yakima has rocked the Valley.

The county's cooperation with educators and with the farm workers clinic gives the new anti-gang effort an existing framework within which to function, Bouchey said.

"We're using their expertise in their given areas on how we're going to implement this," he said.

The commissioners action Tuesday -- hiring a grant writer at $50 per hour with a $6,000 limit -- is intended to lead to funding for anti-gang counselors and starting an anti-gang curriculum in county schools.

The plan also calls for using former gang members from the nonprofit Building the Bridges program to mentor youth who are arrested for gang activity.

"The ultimate goal is to get these programs on the ground in the community," Commissioner Mike Leita said. "Enough with planning."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693, or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.