Valley Interview : Empowering Families Against Gangs, Funds or No Funds

Anti-gang and youth-intervention programs have been in the spotlight recently, due in part to Hope in Youth’s unsuccessful battle to receive funding this year from Los Angeles County.

Still, many smaller groups also dedicated to battling the scourge of gang violence in the county, point out that Hope in Youth collected about $7 million in public funds last year, including $3 million from the county.

Hope in Youth’s gain, these organizations claim, has been their loss.

One of those groups is United Parent Services of Palmdale, formed four years ago by Miguel Rios, 35, a former gang leader who lost two brothers to violence. He has been shot on three occasions but made it out alive, he said, with a commitment to ending gang conflict.

The problem is that for all his knowledge of gang life, Rios and his group are slowly going under. In an interview, Rios discussed the difficulties of running a youth-intervention program in an era of shrinking public budgets.

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Question: What does United Parent Services do?

Answer: We empower parents so they can empower their children. We become an extension of the family. We hold assemblies at schools and talk about gangs. We have an office where parents who are having trouble with their kids can come in and we can get together with their child and sit down and talk. It’s all based on trust. We teach people to be proud of their culture and to respect themselves. It’s about being real to these kids, coming to them at their level. We talk to these kids a lot, but we don’t really listen to what they say. When you listen, and respect what they say, the kids get the realization that somebody cares about them, that they are somebody. That they are special. I don’t use fear tactics. I don’t bully them around. Respect isn’t bought, it’s earned.

Q: Why is the group struggling financially?

A: For one thing, we don’t accept contributions from United Way and other organizations that attempt to control what we do. I don’t have a price. You can’t buy me. The kids have an expression for people who come into their community, call the media or whatever, and use the kids for their political benefit. They call them street pimps. You have to be careful to not be called that. People say I should get some big star to help out with the money, but I don’t want someone to come in, shake hands, and then poof! --he disappears, never to be seen again. Or people want me to get a professional grant writer. Now, that person could probably write a great proposal, but you end up having to pay for it with money that could be used for kids. Or, people say to me, Miguel, you need to do a super-duper fund-raiser. I don’t have time for that. I’m dealing with people’s lives here.

Q: What’s wrong with going after funding sources if that’s what it takes to continue operating?

A: A lot of organizations start out right, but you know that old saying: Politics makes strange bedfellows. United Parent Services is not going to be like those other organizations. There’s a lot of organizations that talk about the great things they are doing, but all that’s happening is that their program (expenses) are growing and growing and growing. And so is the gang problem. By taking direction from politicians and having outsiders tell them what to do, they are separating themselves from the people they serve.

Q: But by refusing to play the game, aren’t you endangering the services you are able to offer to the kids now?

A: Maybe. But I have to look at myself in the mirror every day. The problem is that people get bigger than they really are. People say, ‘Miguel, you are the greatest.’ And I say, ‘Don’t you say that.’ In leadership positions, egos begin to build, and they become bigger and more real than the people they’re trying to serve. You have these groups putting out these fancy brochures, all color and everything, but not doing anything real.

When I was working for other groups like this, I got so sick and tired of that stuff. We are one of the front-line groups. When politicians talk to me, I tell them, “Be careful what you say, because I’ll hold you to your promises. When people from other places come in asking questions, the first thing I say is take off the shirt and tie, get out from behind the desk and those four walls. There’s too many people hurting out there. The irony is that the front-line soldiers never get recognized.

Q: What are your group’s expenses?

A: The building we have costs $20,000 a year in rent. The telephone bill, on average is $150 a month. Insurance is about $7,000 a year. Electricity is $90 a month. Recently, the city (of Palmdale) ordered us to put up a lighted sign in front of the building that’s going to cost $1,800. We don’t have any staff expenses because we are all volunteers. In the last six years, there’s probably been 30 people who have come to me and said they want to help out. Then, after about two weeks, they ask when they’re going to get paid. But we’ve got about seven people I call the hard-core volunteers.

Q: Where are the revenues?

A: We’ve gotten about $10,000 from the city and about $5,000 each from the county and the Probation Department. We wrote about 60 letters to corporations, but they all turned us down, except ARCO, which gave us about $1,200 a couple of years ago. A lot comes out of our own pocket. You’d think people would be running to fund us, but that’s not going to happen.

Q: How much debt are you in right now?

A: We owe $4,000. It’s possible we won’t last the year. I don’t want to think about that, though. But before we had our building, we operated out of our homes. We would have kids over for dinner with our families, which was kind of nice for everyone. With my children (8 years, 3 years and 9 months), if you don’t tell them, ‘Oh, these bad kids are coming over,’ it’s no big deal. Kids are so innocent. And these kids, they see the mom, the dad, the kids and the harmony. It’s like a refuge for them. It kind of draws them because all kids want that, a loving family. I’d hate to see that building go. But I’m in it for the long fight. My success isn’t the building, it’s the kids.

Q: In terms of working with kids, what would your group be doing if it had more money?

A: We’re probably only reaching 9% of the kids we could because we can’t support the manpower we need. Right now, we can’t pay anyone. We’ve done very well, though. We’ve done more with (almost) no funding than others have done with millions of dollars.

Q: With all the problems you are facing, why do you keep doing it?

A: I’ve given up asking myself that. The answer is, I got to do it. The need has never been more. Right now, I’m a threat to gangs. I’m after their membership. It has to stop. It has to stop. One of the things that really hit me is a few years ago in a workshop when we were told to write our own obituary. I wrote that I was a loving father and husband, that kind of thing.

Then we all had to read them out loud. Then the teacher asked everyone, ‘Is that really how you want to be remembered?’ That blew me away. So I live every day like it’s my last day. Also, I look back on the fact that I survived three bullet wounds. I believe in God. He must have saved me for something.