New book tells recovery stories of former street gang members
- Fraser Needham | December 04, 2015
Father Andre Polievre wants to get the new STR8 UP book into the hands of as many people as possible who come into contact with those affected by street gang life.
“We hope that judges read it, prosecutors read it, police read it, guards read it, probation officers read it, teachers read it and then they can help young people that they know are going through these different processes and say, ‘hey, read this,’” the founder of the Saskatoon organization that helps people transition out of gang life says.
STR8 UP: Stories of Courage – A Healing Workbook is a collection of stories by former gang members.
It is the organization’s second book.
Polievre says while the first book focused on why young people get into gangs, the new one tells about the healing journeys of various individuals after they leave gangs.
“We talked about the fact that we had a book but that it missed something important. What it missed was the recovery stories. It focused on how come, how come these guys and gals became gang members, what it meant to be a gang member, the behaviour – but there’s more to it than that,” he says. “There’s a whole transition and transformation.”
Curtis Eklund’s story is in the first STR8 UP book and he provides illustrations for both books.
He says young people may be attracted to the quick money and power of a street gang but it is a life that leads nowhere fast.
“I hope that my story will touch even one young person’s heart and they can take from my life experience, they can learn from it and they don’t make a fatal decision to join a gang or do a serious crime or anything like that,” Eklund says. “Because the truth of it is, is to join a gang means to do a life sentence or go six feet into the ground. That’s the reality of gang life.”
Eklund is currently on parole, living in Vancouver and in the process of turning his life around.
He has his driver’s licence back and owns a car, has a tattoo business on the side and will begin studying to be a carpenter in the new year.
Eklund says he is now certainly living a life he never thought possible just a few short years ago.
“My every waking thought and every waking move was about my gang, about my drugs, how much I was going to make and what I was going to do with it, who I was going to take out with the drug business, all sorts of stuff like that – shadows, just shadow thoughts,” he says.
The official launch of STR8 UP: Stories of Courage took place at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon on December 2.
The book is published by Hear My Heart Books Inc.