Establishing a G.R.E.A.T. Program

Implementing a G.R.E.A.T. Program in a community requires careful consideration and planning. The success is founded on the mutual commitment of law enforcement and educational agencies, united in a common goal to:

  • Provide youth with the skills necessary to combat the stresses that set the stage for gang involvement.
  • Provide youth with accurate knowledge about gang involvement.
  • Help youth understand the need to set realistic goals.

Here are three important considerations and requirements for establishing the G.R.E.A.T. Program in your community:

  • Officer Selection
  • Agency Commitment
  • Law Enforcement and Educational Agency Agreement

Officer Selection

The selection of your G.R.E.A.T. instructor is an important part of your program’s success. The Program is very intensive, and great care must be exercised in the selection of your officer.

  • Personal characteristics
    • Enthusiastic
    • Dependable
    • Enjoys working with children
    • Flexible
    • Positive
    • Comfortable talking with a group of children from diverse backgrounds
  • Desired background
    • Exemplary work record
    • Positive role model
    • Well respected by others
    • Well respected by agency management
  • Skills
    • Able to grasp concepts and effectively communicate them, both to children and adults
    • Able to relate well to people, both children and adults
    • Able to respond well to impromptu questions
  • Commitment
    • Program involves a great deal of personal commitment
    • Requires out-of-classroom preparation

Agency Commitment

An essential ingredient to the Program’s success is the law enforcement agency’s commitment to allow the officer to take time for teaching the G.R.E.A.T. curricula.

  • Following the training
    • The agency must allow the officer to begin instructing the curricula during the current or next school semester. If the skills are not utilized shortly following the training experience, they will be lost.
    • Assignment of the certified G.R.E.A.T. instructor to teach the G.R.E.A.T. curricula must happen within 12 months of the training, or certification will be withdrawn.
    • Your officer is about to embark on a rewarding assignment. It will demand a great deal of physical and emotional energy.

Law Enforcement and Educational Agency Agreement

The success of the G.R.E.A.T. Program largely depends on the commitment of the local law enforcement agency and the local school/school district working together to combat the gang problem through prevention. It is important that this commitment be formally established in writing. A formal agreement must be in place prior to sending an officer(s) to training to ensure that the newly certified instructor will be able to teach as soon as possible.

The Law Enforcement and Educational Agency Agreement is a commitment to work together to provide the G.R.E.A.T. curricula to the youth of your community.

This agreement is good for one year, for each agency.

The Cost to Have a G.R.E.A.T. Program

Very few programs can be implemented as inexpensively as G.R.E.A.T. Once in place, G.R.E.A.T. can be operated with few or no necessary costs. The following is a breakdown of potential costs, as well as what is provided at no cost to the implementing agency.

Training

The G.R.E.A.T. Program is making every effort to keep costs for training certified G.R.E.A.T. instructors as affordable as possible. A portion of the cost of training in the United States is covered through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), which helps to keep tuition fees reasonably low. For more information on tuition fees, see the descriptions for the G.R.E.A.T. Officer Training (GOT), G.R.E.A.T. Families Training (GFT), and G.R.E.A.T. Officer In-Service Training (GOI). Depending on the location of the training relative to your agency, you may also need to provide lodging, travel, and meal expenses for your attendees.

For the G.R.E.A.T. Program in Central America, funding is provided through the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), U.S. Department of State, in cooperation with the national government of each participating country. All tuition, as well as many other program expenses, are provided by INL.

Curriculum Materials

Classroom materials necessary for an instructor to teach the G.R.E.A.T. curricula include the G.R.E.A.T. student handbooks, family letters, Extended Teacher Activities booklets, and personalizable graduation certificates. Aside from shipping costs (U.S. only), these materials are provided at no cost through the OJJDP grant. Certified G.R.E.A.T. instructors can order these materials online, using their Instructor/Applicant Resources account. Once officers have completed the G.R.E.A.T. Officer Training, the basic classroom components can be offered at little or no cost to the agency, aside from the cost of officer time to deliver the lessons and shipping costs of the student handbooks.

Optional Incentive Items

Motivational items—such as T-shirts, water bottles, pencils, and pens imprinted with the G.R.E.A.T. logo—are used to encourage students to participate in the lessons and help them develop a positive identity with the G.R.E.A.T. Program. These items are optional and can be ordered from G.R.E.A.T.-authorized vendors by the G.R.E.A.T. instructor’s agency, if funds are available.

Personnel

As with most projects, personnel costs are often the biggest obstacle. Since the G.R.E.A.T. Program is law enforcement officer-instructed, an officer (or officers) must be made available to teach the lessons. Because being in the classroom and school setting may take the officer away from other duties, it may be necessary to add personnel or use overtime to cover the G.R.E.A.T. instructor’s other responsibilities while he or she is in the classroom. Many communities have minimized staffing problems by utilizing school resource officers to deliver the G.R.E.A.T. lessons in their assigned schools. Depending on their duty assignments, they may be able to work the classes into their existing schedules without the need for additional coverage. When necessary, additional personnel costs may be covered by certain federal grants or through state or local resources.

Optional Non-Classroom Components

The other components of the Program, the G.R.E.A.T. Families and G.R.E.A.T. Summer Components, are likely to entail additional costs for items such as food and transportation. Both the families and summer components are optional, and it is not necessary to offer either of them in order to implement the school-based curricula. Agencies that do utilize them often do so in partnership with other community agencies, such as Boys & Girls Clubs, which helps to share both the responsibilities and the expenses.