$827,498 Allotted to Training Programs in Riot Areas

When Raigeil Manigat graduated from Crenshaw High School, he figured on joining the Army. But that was before the 18-year-old Watts resident enlisted in the school’s Food From the ‘Hood program “as just something to do to stay off the streets.”

Cultivating what was once a weed-choked patch on the school campus in Southwest Los Angeles, Manigat and 29 other students have raised lettuce, squash, sage and cantaloupe through the volunteer program, which was launched after last year’s riots. They sell the produce at Santa Monica farmers markets to raise funds for college scholarships.

Manigat, who graduated in June, is enrolled in business courses at Santa Monica College. He also returns regularly to Crenshaw, he told the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, to help develop a line of Food from the ‘Hood salad dressings spiced with herbs grown at the high school.

After hearing Manigat’s story, the council voted unanimously to target $49,500 in riot recovery funds from the state to Crenshaw to help purchase textbooks and other materials for an expanded entrepreneurial training effort.

In total, the council allocated $827,498 in riot recovery funds Wednesday to 11 adult and youth entrepreneurial training programs that help provide instruction for more than 700 inner-city residents hoping to start businesses.

With limited government spending going toward job training and development and few sizable businesses opening in poor neighborhoods, public officials are increasingly seizing on the concept of training residents to create their own opportunities.

“What this does is give structure to the dreams or hopes of people who want to be entrepreneurs and also to people already in business who want to operate their businesses more effectively,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said.

But proponents of such programs caution that additional sources of start-up loans for small businesses are needed or most efforts will go for naught.

“Banks tend not to bother too much with loans in the $1,000 to $5,000 range,” said Judith Luther, executive director of the American Woman’s Economic Development Corp., whose agency received $140,000 in training funds from the council.

Earlier this year, the council approved $148,000 for an ongoing entrepreneurial program at Bethel AME Church in South-Central and $405,000 to two similar programs in the San Fernando Valley.

As well, the council granted $260,650 to a Korean Youth and Community Center program to provide training in new job skills to owners of riot-ravaged liquor stores willing to convert their businesses to less controversial uses.

The funding approved Tuesday went to organizations including Cal State Los Angeles, $95,000; USC, $95,000, and the Community Youth Sports and Arts Foundation, $50,000.