Making A Difference in Your Community : Improving the Neighborhood from Within

As far as Kay Inaba is concerned, the term “there goes the neighborhood” may have more to do with who moves out than who moves in.

If a poor family in a depressed urban environment somehow manages through social services and job training to double their income, Inaba says, the first thing they usually do is move out.

The result, Inaba says, is a downward spiral whereby blighted communities remain that way or get worse due to a drain of motivated, upwardly-mobile residents.

To combat the problem, Inaba, an industrial psychologist who is president and founder of the Xyzyx Information Corp. in Canoga Park, has worked as a United Way volunteer, using his expertise in an area known as Total Quality Management to help turn around both individuals and communities.

Serving as an adviser to the Quality Workforce Development Plus job-training program at Mission College in Sylmar, Inaba is helping to train poor residents of the northeast San Fernando Valley to fill what he calls “niche markets,” where clusters of companies serving pre-existing or developing industries can be created or expanded.

The idea, says Inaba--whose 17 years of volunteer work recently won him a Gold Key Award from the United Way of Greater Los Angeles--is to target job markets and then provide the training to suit them.

“We first identify that there is or will be a very specific need,” said Inaba, a 65-year-old Calabasas resident. “Otherwise we are in danger of training people for jobs that don’t exist.”

The program now is training 50 residents from the Pacoima, San Fernando and Sylmar areas to be office professionals. Another 35 will join this fall.

Other potential job markets include electronics maintenance, aircraft maintenance and multimedia production. But job training isn’t enough, Inaba insists.

“If they move out or if the 10% that you train don’t influence the other 90%, then you haven’t gained much,” he says.

That’s where Total Quality Management comes in, according to Inaba. The theory involves an ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of a program, an industry or service.

Adjustments are made to find the best approach to achieving an objective, Inaba says. In the case of Quality Workforce Development, the objective is upgrading the skill levels of community members while identifying and upgrading the community itself.

It is a holistic approach to urban renewal that involves surveying community members to find out what they want to see improved, so that their neighborhood can become a place they want to live in rather than escape from.

Volunteer task forces look into ways of improving housing, health care, schools and youth activities.

The trainees, who range in age from 18 to 40, spend one year in the program, although plans are being made to expand the job training.

Inaba says volunteers with expertise in Total Quality Management are needed to help upgrade the program. “We have 12 specialists now, and we need to double or triple that number,” Inaba says. Volunteers also are needed for training programs and to teach basic reading and math skills.

For more information, call Penny Young at Mission College at (818) 837-2236.

*

Other volunteer opportunities in the San Fernando Valley:

The Meals on Wheels program seeks drivers to help deliver food. Volunteers must have a valid California driver’s license, proof of insurance and a car. Call (818) 365-8110.

The Canoga Park-based group Aetos (the Greek word for eagle) needs volunteers to work with the physically challenged. For information, call the Volunteer Center of San Fernando Valley at (818) 908-5066.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.