I know that these are often very fragile young people who get recruited, because they are abandoned and unloved. They are recruited and get involved in street gangs.
I can talk about Quebec. We know that the leaders of the street gangs are not young; they are often much older. They use the young people to do the dirty work, like selling drugs on the street. So, young people make a little pocket money, because there's no money in their homes, because they live with single parents, because there is poverty, and a thousand other reasons. If necessary, they recruit other young people, and that is a real problem.
We must find a way to tackle this problem, a way to handle it. In Quebec we have developed a strategy. Groups of young street workers, working 24 hours a day, have been trained specifically for outreach to young people who have been recruited by street gangs. They try to get them out, so they can return to more normal lives. They help them find the services they need to get back into society.
I don't know if that happens here, too, or if you have had a similar experience, but I would like to hear what you have to say about it.