SOUTH-CENTRAL : President Praises Community Agency

President Clinton’s recent visit to South-Central Los Angeles focused national attention on a local social service agency and its plans to launch a program providing employment and educational opportunities in inner-city neighborhoods.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Clinton stopped by the Vermont Avenue offices of Community Build and lauded the agency for its new job training, employment referral and mentor program, or Youth Fair Chance Plus, scheduled to open in March.

Funded by an initial $3-million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, the program hopes to put 600 participants ranging in age from 17 to 30 on the path toward higher education or well-paying jobs. Other allocations of roughly $1 million annually are expected to follow over the next four years.

“We’re trying to allow people to have options they’ve never had before,” said Brenda Shockley, president of Community Build.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) launched the private, nonprofit agency shortly after the 1992 riots in an effort to combat joblessness, economic lethargy and a lack of job training and educational programs.

Since its inception, Community Build has helped foster home ownership, provide jobs and shepherd earthquake-rattled residents through a maze of bureaucracy to get recovery assistance.

Last year, the agency received a $3-million discretionary grant from the Labor Department to fund Youth Fair Chance Plus. The grant, which will be administered by the city Community Development Department, raised concerns with Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas because federal officials awarded the money without giving other agencies a chance to compete for it.

Still, Ridley-Thomas, in whose district the program will be centered, said he is “prepared to be supportive.”

“I’m open to any number of programs that have the potential for being successful,” he said. “But we are always compromised when we have a non-competitive process.”

Meanwhile, agency officials are busy putting finishing touches on the program they’ve been crafting since November.

Once the program is running, organizers plan to set loose a team of peer counselors into the agency’s target area to recruit participants. The target area is bounded by Florence, Central and Vermont avenues and 104th Street.

Peer counselors plan to pitch the program at high schools, recreation centers and street corners.

Kevin Nelson, a peer counselor and former gang member, said his key to recruiting will be to convince other young men that he’s been in their position.

“I think I can understand the conditions on the street that caused them to go astray,” Nelson said. “Maybe if they see me doing something positive, they’ll follow suit. But they really need to make a decision to change their lives.”

Nelson said he decided to change his life after he realized the street had nothing to offer but hopelessness.

“I was tired of the violence and feeling like I had no future,” he said. “I didn’t want to end up dead or in jail for the rest of my life.”

After outreach efforts, the agency will focus on the needs and aspirations of participants, steering some on the road to college and others to vocational programs. For those with sufficient training, the program will provide job referrals and placement services.

Stipends will be given to 400 participants to cover living expenses for 400 students and job trainees or to supplement earnings for workers at businesses unable to pay livable wages.

Community Build operated a more limited program in 1993, which Shockley said helped about 20 people a month find employment.