You are the superintendent in charge of overseeing seven public parks and community recreation centers. One of the programs that you decide to try at an inner-city center is a basketball league for teenagers. You have learned about the “Midnight Madness” program at a recent conference and would like to try it in your community. The goal of the league is to keep young men and women off the streets and on the basketball courts between the peak crime time hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Players practice two nights per week and play games on two other nights during the week. The league has 16 teams with names taken from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball association (WNBA). As you evaluate the program by watching a game, the community center director scans the players and spectators, pointing out which people belong to which gangs. “I’d guess that about one-third of the players are in gangs. It’s very strange; the gangs are getting along very well. I can’t explain it.” After each game, players are required to attend workshops on subjects such as job training, drug abuse, and parenting. Role models talk to the young men and women. Although the sport director does not have actual proof of the success of the program, she makes a public statement that the program is benefitting the community – namely, that crime is decreasing in the area. Discussion questions: What sort of concrete evidence could the director give to support her “gut feeling” that the program works? Should community recreation centers be “gang hangouts”? Should members from the same gang be allowed to play on the same team, or does this cause more “us” versus “them” feelings? What security precautions can you take to prevent gang rights? Is it fair to insist that the players attend workshops after the ball game? Are the workshops’ topics appropriate? What other topics would you include? How long should the workshops be? What sort of teaching methods should be used? Who is qualified to teach these workshops?