Making a Difference in Ohio

Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug
Abuse Outreach Program
Of Lucas County, Ohio
2447 Nebraska Ave.
Toledo, OH 43607

March 22, 2006

Dear Steve:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for presenting at our conference “Unifying to Prevent Youth Involvement in the Street Gang Sub-Culture” on March 13, 2006 at the University of Toledo Scott Park Campus.

Your dynamic presentation made the conference an overwhelming success both in terms of the number of people who attended the conference and more importantly how well the information that you provided was received by those in attendance. The sign in records revealed that over 200 people attended the morning and evening sessions of the conference.

The attendees were from a widely diverse range of occupational backgrounds that included school teachers from several different school districts, police officers, juvenile court probation officers, school nurses, youth prevention program personnel, elected officials, clergy, physicians, parents and youth. Your presentation was educational, powerful and compelling. After you had finished one youth who asked that his identity be protected and kept anonymous, turned in two bullets that he had in his pocket. Another youth, who also requested anonymity, revealed that he had a gun hidden at home that he would like to surrender to the police department if he could do so without getting himself or his parents in trouble. One of our staff members made an arrangement with one of the police officers attending the conference to facilitate the youth’s request.

Again, thank you for coming to Toledo. Your presentation and the information that you provided exceeded our expectations. In light of the gang related riots that occurred in Toledo on October 16, 2005, many of those attending the conference stated that the information that was provided will go a long ways toward helping to prevent a future recurrence of such negative incidents.

May God continue to bless your work.

Sincerely,

John L. Edwards
Executive Director