If you call the Community Youth Hotline these days to ask about the presence of Hmong gangs in North and Northeast Portland, you’ll get an unflinching, cool-headed response. Not what you might expect from the person who’s only been answering 503-823-GANG since Sept. 15.

In the short time that Imani Muhammad has held the hotline responsibility at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, she has revolutionized the position. Muhammad prefers to call herself the youth coordinator to shift the focus from gang prevention to life enrichment of young people. With every caller to the hotline, her goal has been to enroll each into an after-school program, whether in sports, a study hall or a chess club. She thinks that our city has too long targeted certain groups, such as foster homes, for special treatment.

“We spend a lot of money on the ‘at-risk’ youth, whatever that means, but we need to have a positive twist on youth programming so that the straight-A students don’t fall through the cracks either,” she says.

Change in attitude comes in part from the area’s transition from a hotbed of gang activity during the early ’90s to the relative quiet of today. However, as Muhammad sees it, there are still special considerations for minority and low-income youth, especially new groups like the Hmong people, who haven’t yet found a place in Portland culture.

“With such an overwhelming majority of this area being white, it’s easy for minority groups to feel ostracized,” she says. “It’s natural as a defense mechanism to retreat into your own ethic group.”
Muhammad’s core belief is that people do what they know, whether that’s what they see on TV or in their family. She calls the gangs of Portland “artificial,” unlike those of Los Angeles and Chicago, because our local gangs rise from a vacuum of community support or just plain boredom rather than a true need to defend oneself.

“What we have is a bunch of youth that lack meaning in their lives, so they put together a clique and start wearing the same colors,” she says. “What we see when we have Asian gangs or any other [type of gang] is people operating under the first law of the universe.”

Currently a Cully resident, Muhammad grew up at Northeast 16th Avenue and Mason Street, and bounced around through various grade schools following her parents’ separation. This tumultuous period of her life has given her the ability to empathize with students whose lives are less than stable.
Muhammad credits her rejuvenation with civic participation forced by her mother, including cleanups of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.  Playing basketball kept her afloat through high school and college, and through sports she continued her community involvement, starting as an instructor in 1999 at Blazers Boys & Girls Club. When one of her favorite students, 14-year-old Davonte Lightfoot, was killed on the street in 2007, Muhammad realized there was more she could do with neighborhood youth.
“Davonte was the turning point in my becoming really dedicated and waking up every day with the drive to make a difference,” she says. To grapple with the issues, she quickly organized a conference that brought together hundreds of youth in his memory. Now a tradition, the fourth annual Youth Summit will take place Saturday, Feb. 6, at Portland State University, and will focus on activities to enhance personal guidance and self-worth.

Muhammad has her own plans in the works for self-enhancement as well. This spring, she plans to complete her certification in drug and alcohol counseling at Portland Community College. “Our need is now more directed to prevention and trying to figure out how to connect youth to resources so the streets aren’t so attractive,” she says.