Today, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) J. Britt Johnson, FBI Atlanta, presented the Director’s Award for Community Leadership for 2015 to Dominic Stokes, founder of Community Teen Coalition Inc., for his efforts, achievements, and extraordinary contributions toward the education and the prevention of crime and violence in the metropolitan Atlanta area concerning violent crime involving area youth. On April 15, 2016, FBI Director James B. Comey will host all of the FBI’s 56 selectees from around the country at a national ceremony to be held at FBI Headquarters with Mr. Stokes present as Atlanta FBI’s honoree.

Mr. Stokes founded Community Teen Coalition Inc. in 2007 after watching local news and headlines of youth violence and gang activity. Mr. Stokes observed an increase in this violence, to include an increase in incarcerations. Concurrent with this trend, Mr. Stokes observed a decrease in area youth attaining their educational goals, noting that many were dropping out of high school. Community Teen Coalition (CTC) was developed as a youth enrichment program designed to generate the skills and motivation necessary for completion of high school and to prepare those students for a post-secondary education. CTC serves youth ages 8 to 18 and tackles important issues such as childhood illiteracy, peer pressure, low self-esteem, homelessness, gangs, and drug prevention so that they may develop healthy self images and life skills.

The primary goal of CTC is to prepare and encourage youth to create the opportunities instead of waiting for them. As such, CTC assists teens with the ability to develop social enterprises and as it helps foster the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Since 2007, CTC has presented and worked with numerous youth in local middle schools and high schools throughout Atlanta in this regard. CTC has partnered with other organizations and volunteers in providing holiday meals to Covenant House of Georgia, a local teen shelter. CTC has also facilitated several events focusing on gang awareness, gang prevention, job readiness, decision making, and conflict resolution. In addition, CTC works along with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies on gang related cases wherein it often provides valuable insight into the life of a gang member.

Mr. Stokes is passionate about these efforts and their focus on prevention, to include addressing violence involving guns, and seeks to provide those various resources needed to those underprivileged youth in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Mr. Stokes has demonstrated a commitment toward gang prevention by providing those at risk youths a positive image and being a role model for them while also establishing bridges to those agencies that can provide so much assistance to this effort.