Cyberangels ^Å^ Information

How many people know he created one of the first recycling centers, essentially by himself, when he was only 14 years old? He was invited to Washington to meet President Nixon, as a result of his community projects as a young teen from Brooklyn.

His multi-racial, multi-racial concept for providing neighborhood watches were radical at the time. But he knew that it would take residents of the neighborhoods to make a difference. And, Guardian Angels went were they were needed most, in the inner-city and projects where few others cared.

Most of the Guardian Angels are between 17 and 24 years old. Curtis always turned to young people to help him attain his dreams for the community. As his original Guardian Angels matured, they devoted their time to teaching the younger ones, and designing programs for teens to give them mentors and choices...

Children have always been a chief focus of his programs. He formed his organization from inner-city teens. He gave them alternatives to drug-pushing, crime and gangs. He taught them dispute resolution, instead of violence. Taught them to do unto their community as they would have done unto themselves...The Vanderbilt YMCA, one of the leading YMCAs in the world, has just announced a strategic alliance with Guardian Angels, to bring the Junior Angels and Cyberangels programs into the YMCA.

Curtis is best known for having started the first neighborhood watch and patrol, almost twenty-three years ago, originally named the Magnificent Thirteen (when Curtis and twelve others began the group) and now known worldwide as The Guardian Angels.

Curtis, then twenty-four years old and the night manager of a McDonalds in the toughest section of the South Bronx, decided to expand his neighborhood cleanup and pride program...to patrol the subway, then known as the "Muggers Express."

It was a dark time in New York, with massive budget deficits, law enforcement layoffs and increasing crime. It was the time when then-President Ford told New York to "drop dead." There was no funding for much needed law enforcement either from within or from without New York.

Curtis reacted by recruiting a multi-racial team of volunteers. It started out with Curtis, and twelve volunteers. They were known initially as the "Magnificent Thirteen." They agreed to ride the subways between the toughest stops, without weapons...to find the gang members who had been mugging the straphangers in the subway and detain them for the police to arrest.

The thirteen soon grew to thousands, and was renamed The Guardian Angels, to counter the then-popular Hell's Angels group. Angels for good. With men and women from around the world forming 64 Guardian Angels chapters worldwide, they made a difference in the lives of people in the communities they patrolled, every single day...without pay, without any reward other than knowing they were making a difference. These young men and women are indeed "angels."

We'll be introducing you to some of them here at this site...you'll be inspired. Each and every one of them patrols the streets, on their own time, without payment...just to give back to their communities. Mothers and fathers, young men and women, with street-names that range from "Road Block" to "Cricket" and with bodies to match these names...these people have one thing in common...they care!

Over the years, the tougher side was emphasized...it made better press. But if you only know only the tougher, more militant image of the Guardian Angels from twenty years ago, you don't know the Guardian Angels. In addition to their well-known street patrols, Guardian Angels has added new programs that reflect how they have changed with the times.

Cyberangels, the first cyber-neighborhood watch and patrol was formed in response to the request of parents who were worried about the lack of regulations in cyberspace. Now, the largest online safety and education program in cyberspace, with hundred of volunteers from around the world...Cyberangels can claim credit for helping put child pornographers and predators in jail, where they belong. Our close working relationship with law enforcement allows us to get results when we find and report illegal material and predators online.

Angel Watch (often better known as "Angels in the Park") uses Guardian Angels on foot, inline skates and bike patrols to patrol Central Park, in New York. Men and women, in special uniforms, help keep the park safe for the enjoyment of families and sports enthusiasts.

Junior Angels, for pre-teens and teens, in 32 Guardian Angels' chapters around the world, are taught self-discipline, self-esteem and self-control. Too young to patrol the streets with the adult Guardian Angels, they go through the training, but use their new-found skills to help seniors, work in soup kitchens and clean up graffiti. Some go on to become full-fledged Guardian Angels, but all go on to become better people.

Urban Angels, instituted for children and teens in the toughest projects of the South Bronx in New York, was created by the Guardian Angels in conjunction with the N.Y. Housing Authority. These kids are often troubled, creating and experiencing problems in school, with no where to turn, no choices available to them but the wrong ones. Guardian Angels, many from the same projects, and all of them from the tougher inner-city work with these kids to give them choices...to give them role models...to give them hope.

There's so much more - check out the Guardian Angels official website.