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A team you can count on.
Astwood's senior team of advisors boast more than 150 years of experience in criminal and social justice matters. This team is supported by junior Astwood resources with skills in data management and analysis, qualitiative evaluation, and program delivery.
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MICHAEL C. CHETTLEBURGH (Batman) - President
Michael C. Chettleburgh is a recognized Canadian expert on street gangs and President and CEO of Astwood Strategy Corporation, a firm he founded in 1991 which serves clients as the RCMP, Ottawa Police Service, National Crime Prevention Centre, Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Cree Regional Authority. An economist by training, he is author of the acclaimed non-fiction book and prestigious Donner Book Prize runner-up, Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs (HarperCollins Canada, 2007), author of the upcoming book, Gladiator School: Life Inside Canadian Prisons (HarperCollins Canada, April 2011), editor and publisher of Lessons From a Gang Cop, by one the world’s leading gang experts, retired LAPD Detective Sergeant Tony “Pac-Man Moreno, and editor and publisher of the upcoming book, White Noise: A Journey Through Drugs, Gangs and Prison, by former outlaw biker Rick Osborne. Michael is one of North America's foremost media commentators on street gangs and related criminal justice matters, with 600+ national and international media credits including CTV National News, CBC’s The National, Canwest Global Television, CBC Radio One, National Post, Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail, the Times of London, Aljazeera, Radio Europe, BBC Radio One, Life Week (China), UK Daily Mail, and major news services including Reuters, AFP and Canadian Press International. Presently, he is acting as Principal Investigator on several large program evaluations including the National Multisite Evaluation of the SNAP Program, the Waterloo Gang Prevention Program, the Youth Challenge Fund, the Youth in Policing Initiative, the Summer Jobs for Youth Program, the Youth Outreach Worker Program, Project Youth Options for Success,the Cree Reintegration, Education and Employment program and several others. Along with Rick Osborne, he is also the founder of the Ozzy’s Garage youth mentorship program, one that allows gang affiliated and high risk youth to build custom motorcycle choppers and muscle cars. |
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ANDREW BACCHUS (Chef) - Vice President
Andrew Bacchus is Astwood’s Vice President and plays a leading role in the company’s gang intervention programs as well as project leads several large process and impact evaluations including our evaluation of the Youth Challenge Fund and the Youth Opportunities Strategy. Andrew is one of the country’s top gang experts with special expertise in gang exit/renunciation. A former leader of the notorious Vice Lords gang in Toronto’s Jane-Finch community, Andrews has worked with gang involved and affiliated youth in the City of Toronto and across the country for more than a decade. After leaving behind the gang life in the late 90’s, he worked for seven years as a Community Worker for Youth Clinical Services in Toronto’s Jane-Finch community, then four more as Case Manager and Project Manager for the country’s acclaimed gang exiting program, Canadian Training Institute’s Breaking the Cycle Project, where he mentored youth and designed and delivered customized interventions to help more than 160 young men and women leave their gangs in favour of a better life. His work at the gang front-lines has been widely featured in the media including Canada AM, CTV, Global News, CP 24, Much Music, Crew TV, Toronto Life, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Eye Magazine, National Post, LA Times, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sentinel, CHRY and CBC Radio, among others. Andrew is also a much sought after public speaker on the topic of youth gangs in Toronto, and has spoken at many conferences including: PREV Net’s National Anti Bullying Conferences, Canadian Safe School Network Conferences, Crime Prevention Ottawa Conference, National Aboriginal Youth Gang Conference, and many more. He has also delivered awareness programs to more than one hundred schools in Toronto and continues to mentor young people caught up in the gang life in his community of Rexdale. |
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RICK OSBORNE (Ozzy) - Director, Mentorship
Rick Osborne is also one of Canada’s leading gang experts and is Astwood’s Director of Mentorship as well as co-founder and director of Astwood’s Ozzy’s Garage program. Rick’s story has been well chronicled in the media and it is this story of redemption that allows him to speak with unmatched credibility and power with youth involved with gangs or at the margins of gang membership. As a teenager in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Rick was victimized by a group of heroin addicts who injected him, against his will, with a “speedball” containing methamphetamine and heroin. This set him upon a course of drug addiction and in turn, street gang involvement, which ultimately led to his entrance as full patch member into one of the world’s largest and powerful “one-percenter” outlaw motorcycle clubs. As a result of his criminal activity, at age 21 and with Canada’s most wanted status, he entered the federal penitentiary system where he went on to spend 24.5 years of his life in prison across 33 different institutions from coast to coast. In 1993, after breaking free from drug addictions, he began to reform his life and leave behind his gang affiliations, and was one of the few federal inmates in maximum security in Canadian history to earn a University degree (B.A., Psychology, Queens University) while incarcerated. After leaving prison a decade ago, he dedicated the rest of his life to talking to children and youth about the dangers of gangs, drugs and criminal activity and joined Astwood in 2008 to assist the company in designing and delivering effective interventions for youth involved with gangs or at the margins of gang involvement, such as the innovative Ozzy’s Garage program, where groups of 8 to 12 youth can world alongside Ozzy to build custom Titan Motorcycle choppers or 60s and 70s era muscle cars. In 2010, Ozzy’s book, White Noise: A Journey Through Drugs, Gangs and Prison, will be released by Astwood Strategy Corporation. |
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DR. JILL RETTINGER - Senior Evaluation Associate
Dr. Jill Rettinger (BA, MA, PhD) is a senior evaluation associate with Astwood with her most recent collaboration being the Evaluation of the Domestic Violence Response Training Program for Legal Aid Ontario. Currently a Professor of Psychology at the University Partnership Centre, Georgian College, Jill was formerly a Senior Research and Evaluation Analyst, Research and Outcome Measurement Branch, at the Ministry of Children and Youth Services where she designed and implemented research and evaluations of social intervention programs and strategies for children at risk, users of child and youth mental health services, and justice system-involved youth and adults. Jill has extensive consulting experience, and is currently participating in the project, an Evaluation of a Gender- Responsive Program for Female Youth in Conflict with the Law, Youth Justice Services Division, Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services. She also played a leadership role in the evaluation projects, Performance Measurement Framework for the Child and Youth Mental Health Budget Enhancement, 2005 (Ministry of Children and Youth Services; Provincial Centre for Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health) and the Evaluation Framework to Assess the Family Law and Assistance Services (FLAS) Section Program, 2003 (Department of Justice Canada), among many others. |
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THERESA CAMPBELL- Senior Associate
Theresa Campbell is a recognized national and international expert on School Safety. In concert with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Theresa has developed comprehensive, multi-disciplinary tools and programs that address substance use, violence, gangs, bullying and other issues. As Manager of Safe Schools for the Surrey School District, Theresa was responsible for the implementation and management of the Safe School Liaison, Substance Use Liaison, and Youth Diversity Liaison positions - unique, evidenced-based, highly successful and comprehensive prevention and intervention partnership programs. In 2007 she was recognized by the National Crime Prevention Center (NCPC) for her innovation and creativity in crime prevention. Most recently, in August 2008, Theresa was awarded in the United States, the prestigious Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for Superior Service in Gang Prevention, along with the 2008 Solicitor General Crime Prevention and Community Safety Award of Excellence in recognition of her contribution and commitment to crime prevention and community safety. With Astwood, Theresa supports our work in gang prevention and renunciation programming, school safety and school-based threat assessment. Theresa is also collaborating with Michael Chettleburgh in authoring the definitive book on gangs and school safety for educators, to be published in 2010. |
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JOE PAOPAO (Coach) - Director, Youth Engagement
Joe Paopoa is one of Canada’s most recognizable sports heroes. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Joe Paopao began his CFL career as a quarterback for the BC Lions in 1978 where he earned the nickname the "Throwin' Samoan" for his passing abilities, and later played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Ottawa Rough Riders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and again for the BC Lions, backing up Doug Flutie in his last season. Joe then went on to hold several coaching positions, including quarterback coach and offensive co-ordinator of the Lions; offensive co-ordinator of the Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and San Francisco Demons of the XFL; and, head coach of the Lions and Ottawa Renegades. In addition to working with Astwood in the area of developing and delivering youth engagement programs around sports, culture, leisure and other “crime prevention through social development” activities, Joe serves as offensive co-ordinator of the University of Waterloo Warriors football club. |
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