A memorial walk in Regina on Friday began at the spot where a 16-year-old’s body was found five days earlier.
Earlier this week, Regina police confirmed the teen’s death was a homicide – the seventh of this year in the city.
Police aren’t sharing much about how Darian Moise was killed. Moise was to turn 17 years old the same day as Friday’s memorial walk, which was called “Darian’s Walk for Peace.
The Saskatchewan Coalition against Racism says it wants local, organized efforts to keep kids from joining gangs and for current gang members to leave the lifestyle.
From 2007 to 2012, Regina’s North Central Community Association operated a program called Regina Anti-Gang Services, but no such service exists now.
Funding was only meant to last for those five years, and there were issues with management that kept it from continuing.
The NCCA says it’s difficult to make targeted efforts to help people out of gangs, but there are groups who look to help kids who are vulnerable to getting into gangs with things like employment.
That doesn’t mean targeted efforts aren’t possible.
About 17 years ago, Saskatoon’s ST8 UP program was formed by gang members looking for support to get out. Its website says the gang life was part of “an organization, which for them had become abusive, destructive, dysfunctional and alienating.”
Its staff says it’s a 95 per cent-successful program that offers supports for those leaving gangs. The operation has existed for 17 years, but just recently got non-profit status.