CITY OF LOS ANGELES 1989 PILOT PROGRAMS

Looking for ways to improve its operation, the city of Los Angeles sponsors a number of pilot programs in areas ranging from crime prevention to child care. The money for these experimental programs comes from federal, state and local governments, as well as from private corporations. This is a list of many of the major programs approved in 1989 .

California Youth Authority Re-Entry

PURPOSE: This one-year program, which began operating this month at the Fred C. Nelles school in Whittier and the Ventura school in Camarillo, is aimed at protecting society by providing training, counseling, self-esteem building and job preparation six months before parole for 316 incarcerated youths.

FUNDING: A grant of about $754,000 is administered through the Community Development Department and financed through the federal Job Training Partnership Act.

Child Care Revolving Loan

PURPOSE: A one-year effort that is scheduled to start in December, the program will offer loans to city residents who want to open child care centers in their homes and who have begun the 60-day licensing process. Prospective child care providers can receive loans of up to $2,000 to buy toys and cribs, meet licensing requirements or help pay for insurance. The loans will be issued at two points below the prime rate and will be payable within three years.

FUNDING: The city and the nonprofit California Community Foundation, a charitable organization that works with United Way, have provided $225,000.

Bilingual Home Health Workers

PURPOSE: Designed to train 168 participants, mostly Latinos, to become home health workers and provide in-home care to people with AIDS, the program began in April with 16 trainees. After completing eight weeks of training, participants are placed in jobs with local home health agencies. Twelve of the 16 have completed the course and received their certificates.

FUNDING: A $600,000 Job Training Partnership Act grant will pay for the two-year project.

Day Laborers

PURPOSE: A controversial six-month project, approved by the city in February, is aimed at regulating the hiring of illegal immigrants, who typically congregate at selected intersections, waiting to be hired by private employers. The first site opened in Harbor City in late October and a second will open in Sun Valley sometime next month. A total of six hiring sites eventually will be set up around the city.

FUNDING: The city is providing $90,000 through the Community Development Department.

Drew Medical Center

PURPOSE: In this six-month program that began in July, 36 school dropouts and teen-age parents are being trained for a variety of health-related jobs, including medical assistant, X-ray technician, ward clerk and laboratory assistant. Participants will earn six-month certificates, be placed in jobs and become eligible to receive up to 12 college credits from the Drew Medical School. In some cases, participants will be able to use the program to satisfy course requirements in Drew’s associate’s and bachelor’s degree programs.

FUNDING: A Job Training Partnership Act grant is providing $194,675.

Neighborhood Pride

PURPOSE: Providing constructive outlets for youths who might be tempted to join gangs or experiment with drugs is the goal of the program, which began July 1 and is scheduled to run through June 30, 1990. Up to 10 young people, ages 14 to 21, are paid the minimum wage to help professional artists design and paint 15 large murals in their neighborhoods, from Venice to South-Central Los Angeles. Nine of the murals are expected to be completed by next summer. Backers hope the yearlong program will instill in participants a sense of pride in their work and neighborhood.

FUNDING: The nonprofit Social and Public Arts Resource Center will spend $405,383 on the program, which is administered through the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

Community Service Center

PURPOSE: The two-year project, a joint venture of the Community Development Department and the Los Angeles Housing Authority, is designed to get more residents at five of the city’s most problem-plagued housing projects off the welfare rolls and into the workplace. The first center opened Nov. 14 at Ramona Gardens in East Los Angeles. Additional centers are planned at Nickerson Gardens in Watts, San Fernando Gardens in Pacoima, Rancho San Pedro in Wilmington and Mar Vista Gardens in West Los Angeles. The program offers project residents counseling, job training and services ranging from child care to basic education classes.

FUNDING: A $1.3-million Job Training Partnership Act grant is administered through the Community Development Department.

Operation Clean Sweep

PURPOSE: This six-month program broadens the city’s attack on graffiti and calls for fines against property owners who do not sign a consent form allowing the city to paint over graffiti at city expense. A new city ordinance makes it illegal to leave graffiti on surfaces visible from a public roadway. If a property owner refuses to sign the form, the city will cover the graffiti, send the owner a bill or, as a last resort, assess the costs against the owner in the form of a lien. Since the program began Sept. 8, the Department of Public Works has received 915 requests to clean up graffiti. About 700 of those have been granted.

FUNDING: The city, through the Department of Public Works, will spend $500,000.

Police Substation in Housing Projects

PURPOSE: Designed to crack down on gang- and drug-related crime in the city’s housing projects, the six-month program began in July at crime-plagued Imperial Courts in Watts. Police hope to build a relationship of trust with the tenants. A sergeant and 10 officers who volunteered for the program use a converted apartment as their headquarters and work with two officers from the Housing Authority’s police force. Eventually the pilot project could be expanded to more of the Housing Authority’s 21 public housing projects.

FUNDING: The city budgeted $19,245 for furniture, office and technical equipment.

Refuse Collection Truck Operator

PURPOSE: The project, which started in September and ran for six weeks, helped train 29 young people and adults to operate refuse collection trucks and prepared them for placement in full-time employment. The Department of Public Works operates a combination classroom and on-the-job training program. After completing the program, each participant received a Class B motor vehicle license and was hired by the city for two months on a part-time basis. Twenty-two participants have prepared to take the Civil Service examination to qualify for permanent employment, and 11 have passed.

FUNDING: A Job Training Partnership Act grant of $200,000 is administered jointly through the Community Development Department and the Department of Public Works.

Stolen Vehicle Recovery Network

PURPOSE: In order to help curb the ever-growing problem of car theft, the three-year program, approved in March, involves installing a “James Bond-type” tracking device in about 150 Police Department patrol cars and a number of police helicopters. Homing devices that work with the tracking equipment will be available to the public in January for about $600, police said. If a car with a homing device is stolen, police can track it down by sending out a radio signal that activates the transponder in the car.

FUNDING: The LoJack Corp. of Braintree, Mass., an auto alarm dealer, will donate $1.5 million worth of tracking devices and other equipment.

Secured Area Foot Beat Enforcement (SAFE)

PURPOSE: Prodded by pleas from residents of crime-plagued neighborhoods, 60 police officers have been bused sinced early October to eight epicenters of gang activity and drug dealing in the city. Police say the program already has reduced crime considerably in the target areas. Statistics, however, were not immediately available.

FUNDING: The Los Angeles Police Department is spending $750,000 for this scaled-down, three-month program, which is to run until Dec. 1. Mayor Tom Bradley balked at spending $2.5 million for the program, but promised to keep it alive until June 30, 1990. The City Council will have to come up with money for the patrols after current funding runs out.

Watts Friendship Sports League Task Force

PURPOSE: Operating at four city recreation centers--Imperial Courts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens housing projects and 109th Street Park--the program gives 240 youths in the grades 1 through 6 the opportunity to boost their self-esteem through sports participation.

FUNDING: The city, through the Department of Recreation and Parks, is spending $12,960 for the soccer season, which began in October and continues through mid-December. The task force running the program is now seeking $44,000 from private corporations for the basketball, track and field and baseball seasons.

Homeless Evaluation and Linkage Program

PURPOSE: Dubbed HELP, the three-month demonstration program at Weingart Center, which began in October at the center, is designed to expand outreach services to 15,000 to 20,000 homeless people in the Skid Row area. Social workers match the homeless with existing jobs, housing and substance-abuse programs. Since the program got under way, more than 220 people have been helped, 95% of them receiving housing and meals.

FUNDING: The city and county have provided a total of $67,000.

Adult Sponsors for Youth at Risk

PURPOSE: A two-year anti-gang program run by the Community Development Department, this effort is designed to pair as many as 500 adult volunteers with children who live in five of the city’s housing projects to help them resist the lure of gang life. The program, which began last month at Mar Vista Gardens, Ramona Gardens, San Fernando Gardens, Nickerson Gardens and Rancho San Pedro, is aimed at youths between the ages of 8 and 14. Under the program, the city also contracts with community organizations for after-school education, child care and sports activities.

FUNDING: A $2-million grant comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Youth at Risk Advocacy Unit

PURPOSE: The one-year program, which began in July, coordinates all youth-at-risk programs throughout the city, which include programs for school dropouts, nonviolent youthful offenders, truants, welfare youth, young people learning English as a second language, pregnant teen-agers and teen-age parents, learning-disabled and mentally retarded youths, victims of physical, emotional or sexual abuse or violent crimes, and youth who have witnessed violent crimes. The unit is in the process of setting up a hot line providing information on where to go for gang-and drug-related services.

FUNDING: The city, through the Community Development Department, is spending $2.1 million.

Sources: Los Angeles Community Development Department, Department of Public Works, mayor’s office, city clerk, Police Department and the Cultural Affairs Department.