Federal Grant Boosts Anti-gang Efforts

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

September 12 -- “Significant” and “prototype” are two words being used by City officials to describe a quarter million dollar grant earmarked by the U.S. Congress for local gang intervention.

The grant will focus on reaching out to youths who have already had a brush with the law and may serve as a “template” for intervention efforts in Los Angeles, where gang violence is rampant, City officials said.

With U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Representative Henry Waxman lending substantial support for the award, the new initiative funded by the grant may be the largest move to stop the violence since a historic conference hosted by State Senator Sheila Kuehl in Santa Monica more than two years ago.

“This is a significant milestone,” said Kate Vernez, the City’s assistant to the City Manager for Governmental Relations who helped submit the proposal for the grant. “This is meant to be a prototype for many communities who are struggling with gang violence.”

The $247,000 Department of Justice grant – awarded in part because of local efforts to combat gang violence -- will keep doors open longer at Virginia Avenue Park for the next three years and boost activities in a program known as “Night Bridges,” City officials said.

“Night Bridges” will be a critical effort to reach youths caught in a downward spiral, cycling through the justice system, said Scott Wasserman, who helps oversee youth programs at the park in the Pico Neighborhood, the City’s poorest and most diverse area.

“Some of these kids have been incarcerated and will be getting out soon,” said Wasserman. “It will teach life skills to older youths who have already had a run in with the law.”

When the program is launched in January, Teen Center doors will stay open at the park two hours longer, until 10 p.m., three days a week and activities will be expanded, Wasserman said.

Excursions will also be planned to help teens learn about job possibilities, such as visiting a local restaurant to learn about culinary arts and operating a business.

The program will also include workshops to help parents determine if their children are being caught up with gangs.

While many agree the program is a step forward, some Pico Neighborhood leaders are concerned it will be initially coordinated by the City and police, without community input.

“This is exactly where we need to be as a progressive City,” said school board member Oscar de la Torre, who is the executive director of the Pico Youth and Family Center, which helps troubled youths.

“We have to make sure that the resources reach the hardest to reach youth and families,” he said. “Every effort focusing on prevention and intervention is the right effort, but if the community is not engaged it’s not worth it and it won’t work.”

The City Council added community input as a requirement when it approved the program Tuesday night.

If successful, the program could have an impact beyond Santa Monica’s borders, Vernez said.

It was Santa Monica’s unprecedented workshops on youth violence in April 2005 and March 2006 that helped land it the grant, despite a relatively small gang problem compared to that in neighboring Los Angeles, Vernez said.

At the conference, scores of “action partners” – including City, police and school officials -- came together and promised concrete steps to address the roots of gang violence

“All the work that went in the workshops…across the City and multiple agencies, has provided us enough details” to push the grant through, Vernez said.

While many programs have been launched, and some progress has been made, some in the community have been concerned that the momentum from the conferences has been lost, as key positions in City government – including the City managers’ post – have turned over.

Vernez believes the new program proves otherwise.

“What this shows is that the teams and systems in place are effective to carry out this community priority,” she said.