Seeds of Opportunity : U.S. Program Puts Inner-City Residents to Work in Forests

Each morning before dawn as Sue Rogers heads for the bus, she passes a stark reminder of the turmoil that so recently engulfed her South Los Angeles neighborhood: the burned-out, soot-smudged remains of a store set aflame during the spring riots.

Two buses and two hours later, Rogers stands in the middle of a stream in Angeles National Forest, pulling tree branches from the debris-clogged waters.

The job, her first in six months, is part of a post-riot U.S. Department of Agriculture program that is putting mostly inner-city residents to work under blue skies--fighting wildfires, cutting fire breaks and building trails.

“It’s hard work,” said Rogers, 35. “But I have two kids to take care of and it’s a blessing just to have a job.”

Rogers is one of 643 who don combat boots every day, hitting the trail to work at sites in the Angeles, Cleveland, San Bernardino and Los Padres national forests.

“Opportunity L.A.,” the $5.8-million program behind this mobilization, began in June and has quickly moved to recruit participants. Working closely with community organizations, the U.S. Forest Service distributed job announcements in English, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.

The program’s employees are paid $6.68 to $9.34 per hour and are guaranteed 40 hours of work a week.

Richard Watson, 24, of South Los Angeles, was “wastin’ time and goin’ nowhere fast,” he said, when a friend showed him one of the Opportunity L.A. job postings.

“Nobody could believe that there were really jobs. Everyone in my neighborhood thought it was a hoax,” Watson said. “I was the only one to check it out. And when I actually got a job, all of my friends were shocked.”

Rogers heard about Opportunity L.A. while she was enrolled in a drug recovery program at her church.

“I want to work,” she said. “I don’t want to receive welfare, and I’m not going to stay at home and wait for a job.”

The program, designed as a short-term measure to assist residents, will last 90 days. But in a city where the overall unemployment rate is 10.9%--and runs far higher among minority youths--many Opportunity L.A. participants remain concerned about their long-term prospects for employment.

“Having a good job like this keeps you straight and out of trouble,” said Ricardo Sanchez, 22, of East Los Angeles. “But there are no jobs in the city--just McDonald’s and selling peanuts on the freeway. If that’s all there is, I’ll probably fall back into drugs and gangs.”

Forest Service personnel running the program say part of their job is ensuring that the participants have a future elsewhere. “There’s a real commitment here to see that something happens after this,” said Larry Edmonds, a Forest Service spokesman.

Terry Ellis, the senior Forest Service official at Opportunity L.A., said there will be a job fair at the end of the program to help the predominantly Latino and African-American participants contact employers in their communities.

“Look at Vons and their announcement about opening more stores in the inner city,” he said, citing the company’s plan to open at least 12 stores in inner-city communities as an example of job opportunities. “Many of these people would be perfect for the job. They live in those communities and are hard workers.”

For Rick Rodriquez, 40, Opportunity L.A. has provided an opportunity to regain the self-esteem he lost during seven months of unemployment. “It feels good to work again,” the Azusa resident said.

Standing in the shade with his fellow crew members after a day spent cutting brush and clearing a stream of logs, Rodriquez added that he enjoys the camaraderie gained from working with others. “There’s lots of different people out here,” he said, “but we all work together and show each other respect.”

Some of the Opportunity L.A. participants, though, wonder if the money spent on the program wouldn’t have been better invested in improving their communities. The Department of Agriculture’s post-riot program in the inner city is about half the size of Opportunity L.A.--$2.75 million in grants for community gardens and other urban greening projects.

“The program has a certain political flair to it,” said Calvin McCoy, 37, of South Los Angeles.

“While I appreciate that this program is providing an opportunity for me and other people from the riot-struck areas, I wish that they could have done projects in the inner city,” McCoy said. “That’s where the rebuilding is needed, and the money could have been better used in the community.”