"GREAT"

Law enforcement provides a wide range of structured community-based activities and classroom instruction for school-aged children. The desired results are a sense of competency, usefulness and personal empowerment needed to avoid involvement in youth violence, gangs and criminal activity.

• Orange County's Sheriff has made it a long-standing goal for this office to help guide our youth toward productive and successful lifestyles.  

• After discussion with area school administrators, the decision was made to implement the "GREAT" program, as a training tool, to help prevent our youth from participating in gang related activities.  

• The Orange County Sheriff's Office is the first Law Enforcement agency in Orange County, North Carolina, to complete the "GREAT" training and implement it into the school systems. 

• There are only 4 law enforcement agencies in North Carolina that have entered and completed "GREAT" training and the Orange County Sheriff's Office is proud to be one of them.

Deputies graduate Gang Resistance Training

• On Friday August 9, 2002, nine Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies graduated from an extensive two week course on GANG RESISTANCE EDUCATION AND TRAINING (G.R.E.A.T). This training was initiated by our US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) to curb teenage participation in gangs, gang activity, and subsequently violence commonly associated with gangs.  This past school year we detected some gang activity and also received reports from some students in the county. With cooperation of the school administration we decided we would implement this program into the classrooms in aspiration of the prevention and deterrence of the opportunity of such activity on our school campuses and communities.

• The G.R.E.A.T. Program helps youth avoid gang membership, prevent violence and criminal activity, and develop a positive relationship with law enforcement.  This is accomplished by using a skills-based approach that addresses three domains of learning: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. The Great Program produces positive attitude and positive behavioral change through a unique combination of skills training, cooperative learning, discussion, and role-playing.  Students are provided with many opportunities to model and practice relevant life skills.  Once students have rehearsed theses skills, they will be more likely to use them in real-life situations.

The G.R.E.A.T. Program :http://www.great-online.org/