Hot Line Created to Help Families of Gang Members

A Los Angeles County agency devoted to curbing street gang violence has established a telephone hot line for South-Central Los Angeles residents in an effort to more quickly refer them to organizations that deal with social problems associated with gang membership.

The “helpline” will be staffed by parent-volunteers, whose presence is expected to encourage South-Central families and gang members to call, organizers said.

Steve D. Valdivia, executive director of the county’s Community Youth Gang Services, said the program is the first step in creating a countywide system of parent “networks” to aid families whose children are involved with gangs.

Hot line volunteers will refer callers to food banks, employment, social service and health agencies, drug programs and psychological counselors. The aim, Valdivia said, is to attack the poverty that often spawns gang involvement and also to counteract the violence that gangs inflict.

Leon Watkins, a regional director of the gang services agency, said many parents are “hurting” from their children’s involvement in gang activities or from gang-related attacks, but simply do not know where to turn for help.

“We anticipate hundreds of calls” once South-Central area residents realize that empathetic parents are serving as a buffer between them and an impersonal government bureaucracy, Watkins said.

“It’s easier for one parent to call another parent and spill his guts than to tell it to somebody you don’t know or can’t afford,” Watkins said. “For the first time, this kind of work will be done by people who can actually handle it.”

The hot line--231-HELP --will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, beginning today. It is financed by the Brotherhood Crusade, a South-Central community organization.

Valdivia said 15 parents have been recruited so far to staff the two telephones. He said he hopes to expand the service to 24 hours a day if enough volunteers sign up.

Youth gang services, a $1.2 million-a-year “intervention” program created in 1981, attempts to reduce tension between street gangs and encourage young men and women to end their involvement in violent or illegal gang activities.

Noting that the involvement of South-Central street gangs in drug trafficking has markedly increased the intensity of gang-related violence, Valdivia said his organization and law enforcement can no longer “solve the problems alone. . . . Drugs have become part of the economy in South Los Angeles. It’s something we didn’t plan on five years ago.”

The organizers acknowledged that many parents are intimidated by street gangs and feel there is little they can do to dissuade their children.

“But if the parents of those very children are on the front line with us, we can turn it around,” said Beverly Williams, a parent who is coordinating the volunteer phone operators. “Banning together, we can overcome that fear.”

Added Watkins, “It’s a common assumption that no one cares about kids in this community, and that’s a lie.”