Natividad Trauma Center introduces gang prevention program

It’s a likely scenario in East Salinas: Shots are firedand agunshot victim is rushed to the emergency room. While medical staff work on the patient, in walks a friendly face.

“They’re afraid; they don’t understand what’s going on. You have to put yourself in their shoes. Maybe this is the first time they’ve been shot,” said Brian Contreras with the Second Chance Youth Program.

Contreras and his team of gang prevention specialists are now offering 24-hour bedside counseling to trauma victims in the ER. The program, called CHOICE, is a collaboration with Natividad Trauma Center.

“I got sick and tired of watching people die in front of me,” said long-time emergency room nurse Kristen Spencer.

Now in her position of outreach coordinator, shewants to stop gang violence in Salinas by bringing forward the CHOICE program.

“When you’ve just gone through something as traumatic as being shot, you feel really scared, you feel really alone,” said Spencer.

Intervention specialists have responded to over 30 calls since the program kicked off in January.The goal is to use that near-death experience to talk the victim out of the gang life – and they aren’t sugarcoating it either.

“Hey look, buddy, you’re one bullet away from a casket, maybe next time you might not be so lucky,” Contreras said he tells victims of violence.

Rather than depending on luck, the program tries to get the gunshot victims to make choices that will keep them out of the line of fire in the future.