ATLANTA — Court systems across Georgia are looking for new education programs aimed at preventing gang-related crimes, focusing on juveniles and first or second-time offenders with gang connections.

Caleb Morris, co-founder of the group ProCivica, says they are working with systems across the state including some in metro Atlanta, to provide prevention and awareness training.

“There is some kind of educational tool for not only juveniles who are at the beginning of potentially going deeper down that path, but also people who are first or second time offenders who maybe have some relation to a gang,” he said.

Morris says prosecutors and agencies statewide have reached out. “We’ve been approached by many prosecutors across the state, not only in Athens and Monroe, not only the state of Georgia through the Department of Juvenile Justice, but also through individuals through Fulton County,” he said. He adds that systems want programs “specifically targeting gang related offenses.”

The Georgia Gang Investigators Association estimates that about 65 percent of all crimes in the state are tied to gang activity.

ProCivica is developing education services to help offenders change course, and Morris says they plan to collaborate with universities to strengthen those efforts.

“We’re going to be working with universities like the University of Georgia and hopefully Georgia State to be able to build in the statistical side of things in terms of the online process of how it’s presented,” he said.

Over the next year, ProCivica expects to work with those institutions to help ensure the programs reduce repeat offenses.

WSB Radio’s Mary Ryan Howarth contributed to this story.