Churchmen from across Bermuda have gathered to try and map out a plan to combat violence and gangs on the Island.They gathered on Thursday under the banner of United for Change to pool ideas for dealing with Bermuda’s gang problems.“This isn’t a one-year or a two-year plan, but a five-year plan,” said Pastor Gary Simons, who helped organise the meeting in the Fairmont Hamilton Princess of the religious fellowship United for Change.He urged church representatives to write down their available resources and skills, and hand them in.“We’ve got to collate this information and discover how we can collaborate,” said Pastor Simons, standing before about 35 people from various ministries.United for Change, which bills itself as a fellowship of Bermuda’s evangelical churches, formed last year in opposition to gambling in Bermuda. The group now intends to intervene in the lives of at-risk-youth who they say are fuelling a rising gang culture.Pastor Mark Hall said: “We have 70 different churches involved. Tonight we’re getting them speaking to us about what they can do.”The reasons for change, he said, “keep getting bigger and bigger”.“We choose to step out of the church and into the kingdom,” said Major Alfred Wilson from the Salvation Army, leading the meeting in an opening prayer. “My church may be different from your church, but we are here to do God’s business.”Pastor Simons told the meeting that: “We know that many of our youth are involved in gangs, with 14 teen groups involved. The Parkside gang alone has 200 to 300 members at different levels, from the young people who are in, to their associates, to the want-to-bes.”The mission, he said, was to get involved in young people’s lives and shrink the available pool of aspiring gang members.“School is a crucial area,” he said. “Those that drop out are ten times more likely to get involved in gangs.”Preacher Scott Smith told them: “I’ve been called to speak at schools, at Dellwood School and TN Tatem Middle School. Recently I spoke to 300 students at CedarBridge. I had a young guy in the front row saying it was all right to go out and kill. I asked him if his father was involved in his life, and he told me his father was dead.” Mr Smith urged the religious community to “get out of the church house and get into the people’s houses”.Tricray Astwood of New Creation Worship said: “We have to get the youth off the streets, but we still have to get them to Jesus.”He said his organisation has been organising larger and larger prayer and worship groups in recent months, and “our ultimate goal is to take it to National Stadium”.Pastor Simons called for the development of effective youth groups. He said United For Change was working on a youth intervention initiative, Chain Reaction, so far providing qualified in-school mentors at the Berkeley Institute and Whitney Institute, which is to be launched in CedarBridge Academy and Dellwood Middle School this September.“Schools contain a tremendous amount of at-risk youth, and the name of the school doesn’t matter any more,” he said.He said the group is recruiting members to work through Child and Family Services to provide respite foster care “temporary foster care for a young person, to give long-term foster parents a break”.United For Change is also seeking mentors for the Sunshine League home.Pastor Simons said the group urgently needs to branch into the Oleander Cottage boys’ correctional home and the Brangman Home for girls, as well as get involved in the lives of Westgate inmates, and forge relationships with programmes overseas.“The churches need to provide effective people to get involved in our young peoples’ lives,” he said. “If we don’t do this, chances are we are not going to see much improvement.”l Useful web link: www.ufcbermuda.org