CRENSHAW : Students Shape Ideas to Combat 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 in your communities, and how would you solve them?

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

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

“Everybody focuses on gangs as being the main problem, but it’s not just them,” said 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 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 committee that prepared the conference agenda. Palmer and the group christened themselves the Dorsey-Crenshaw Area Youth Action League, and she 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, the Action League will be able to continue workshops and offer stipends for student league workers for at least two years. Muldaven has acquired some office equipment, and is seeking a Crenshaw-area space to house the league.