Inglewood Police Expand Program for Children

In a move to beef up its community-based policing program, the Inglewood Police Department has expanded a popular youth program.

The year-old Inglewood Rites of Passage program was started by the department to pair adults with youngsters so they could learn morals and values and the importance of staying away from drugs and gangs.

When the program began last year, mentors worked with children 9 to 15, but this year the program was expanded to include a division of preschool children, ages 3 to 5, and primary-grade children, ages 6 to 8.

“We feel that by redirecting and redeveloping these various areas in our young people we will make them the kind of individuals that will cause them to be an asset to the community,” said program coordinator Marcus Taylor. “Because we’re targeting them during their formative years, we’re hoping we can steer them from things like gangs and drugs.”

Last year 25 students and 12 mentors signed up to participate in the program. Taylor said this year there are 20 volunteer mentors and 100 youngsters. Taylor hopes to recruit 100 mentors so that students can work one-on-one with their role models. Despite the expansion, the program still has a waiting list of children.

Program mentors, who are screened by the Police Department, encourage the youngsters to get an education and reinforce the importance of spirituality and family.

Mentors work with students three hours a week for 24 weeks. They tutor students and teach them about the arts by conducting exercises in music and poetry. Mentors also are required to take the students on field trips to museums, the theater or other cultural institutions.

In addition to the time they spend with their mentors, students in the Rites of Passage program attend martial arts classes, receive violence prevention training and learn about healthy relationships.

Meanwhile, their parents attend parenting classes where they learn the same values taught to the children.

“Getting the parents involved is a major requirement for the program because it doesn’t help if the children go back to a dysfunctional environment when they are finished with the classes,” Taylor said. “So far it has been very successful and is providing the kids with a foundation which we hope will become a solid part of them as they grow older.”