intervention that worked.

[emeraldkity4]

<p>[Local</a> News | Ex-member of Crips gang in Seattle credits an adult mentor with helping him to break from gang | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008726881_savedfromgangs10m.html]Local”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008726881_savedfromgangs10m.html)</p>

<p>

Javier Luna owns a successful construction business and a million-dollar view home near Dash Point in Tacoma. Until the recent economic downturn, his firm employed 13 people and worked with another 40 subcontractors. He volunteers at his youngest children’s elementary school. His oldest son started college in the fall at the University of Washington.

</p>

<p>It was nice to read this success story today.</p>

<p>

It’s not a future many would have predicted for the former Franklin High School student and one-time gang member. In the late 1980s, when gangs from Los Angeles and Chicago imported drive-by shootings and a devastating trade in crack cocaine to Seattle streets, Luna wore the blue colors of the Crips. He carried a gun and sold drugs. Most of his friends ended up dead or in prison, he said.</p>

<p>Luna, 34, credits the complete turnaround in his life, even his survival, to a city of Seattle initiative that provided adult mentors, jobs and recreation to young gang members.

</p>