TOPANGA : Inner-City Girls Take a Path of Interaction

“Wasn’t there water up here?” asked LaVette Thomas, as she and nearly 30 other girls from the Watts area hiked in 90-plus degree weather past the dried-up Red Canyon Creek.

As members of “Sista 2 Sista,” a social and recreation program that teaches confidence and communication skills to inner-city youths, the girls embarked on an all-day hike and played outdoor games in Red Rock Canyon Park.

Called “LA WILD Challenge,” the day was coordinated by the Mountains Conservancy Foundation and organized by both the Watts Friendship Sports League and People for Parks, co-sponsors of “Sista 2 Sista.” The girls learned team-building, communication and leadership skills in the mountain setting.

The games heavily emphasized trust and group interaction. The game “People to People” helped the girls, many from different neighborhoods, get to know each other. Standing face to face with a random partner, touching foreheads or limbs, the girls switched partners, in a musical-chairs fashion, whenever the game’s title was shouted out.

One game called for two girls--one blindfolded--to walk on a cable suspended above the ground while holding on to the same rope running through a pulley overhead. The goal was for the blind girl to trust both her partner and the several “spotters” positioned nearby to help her stay balanced.

With various self-empowerment activities, like pregnancy prevention talks, sporting events and career-oriented seminars, “Sista 2 Sista” operates through a coalition of Watts-area parks recreation departments committed to reaching at-risk youths.

However, in Red Rock Canyon Park, those problems took a back seat to more immediate concerns.

“It’s hot and we’re hungry,” groused Starr Williams from the Nickerson Recreation Center, as she and her group helped each other from stone to stone over an imaginary “piranha-infested acid river.”