CRENSHAW : Students Offer Ideas to Fix Urban Woes

Marker poised, Jim Muldaven stood at a flip chart and posed the million-dollar question to about 100 Crenshaw and Dorsey high school students:

What are the most pressing problems you see in your communities, and how would you solve them?

Before Muldaven finished speaking, hands shot up in the air and opinions flew from all corners of the room.

That kind of charged response was typical during the two-day symposium at UCLA, created to give South-Central teen-agers a forum to voice their opinions on urban issues and, more important, allow them to shape and implement solutions.

“Everybody focuses on gangs as being the main problem, but it’s not just them,” said participant Renisha Davis, 16, a Crenshaw sophomore. “There’s a lot more to it than that.”

The Community Perspectives L.A. Youth Conference was co-sponsored by the university and Capitol Focus, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that attempts to raise the political awareness of teen-agers and young adults in California.

Muldaven founded Capitol Focus and has conducted similar programs in seven counties.

“The kids get to identify what issues they want to put their time and energy into,” Muldaven said. “And they can’t be as easily dismissed by politicians and other adults when they’ve really thought things through and come up with plans of action.”

Muldaven piloted the Crenshaw-Dorsey project after meeting educator and community activist Celestine Palmer at a Capitol Focus conference in Sacramento.

Palmer, a Crenshaw resident and co-chair of the state Democratic Party’s Woman’s Caucus, organized a student steering committee that prepared the conference agenda. Palmer and the student group christened themselves the Dorsey-Crenshaw Area Youth Action League, and Palmer was named coordinator.

“The big issue here is youth disenfranchisement, and how to change it,” said Palmer. “Kids don’t want to hear adults speak. They need their own identity.”

With a $75,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation, the Action League will be able to continue workshops and offer stipends for student league workers for at least two years. Muldaven has already acquired office equipment such as a fax machine, and is seeking a Crenshaw-area space to house the league.

“We can do good things only if we keep (the workshops) up,” said Jermaine Watson, an 18-year-old Dorsey senior. “We have to keep active, back up what we say.”

Fellow Dorsey student Ebonee Maxey agreed. “This is about perseverance,” said Maxey, who identified apathy as the most critical problem facing South-Central. “If enough of us try, and if we get outside help, we can accomplish things.”

The workshops, mediated by teachers, lawyers and other professionals, covered an array of topics: youth empowerment, school safety, inter-ethnic relations, youth entrepreneurship, life after high school--even a special session on the controversial “three strikes” law.

Participants brainstormed on problems and solutions, brought them back to the larger group and voted on which problems were most pressing and what solutions were most feasible.

By the end of the conference, the students decided to work for increased parent involvement in schools, more human relations and cultural education classes, and abstinence for teens who are not ready for sexual activity.

Ersho Eromo, 17, said all the talk is a small but significant step forward. “Everything starts with the individual,” said the Dorsey junior. “Everything depends on what each person does.”