Council Clears Way for Mentoring Grant
The City Council cleared the way Monday night for the city to receive a $49,675 state grant to suppress gang violence through local mentoring programs.
Administered through an agreement between the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning and the city, the grant will fund two programs for one year.
The first, Las Angelitas Program, provides group and one-on-one mentoring to students in junior high and high school. City Impact, an Oxnard-based nonprofit group involved in mentoring at-risk youth, directs the program.
The second, Los Hermanos de las Angelitas, targets elementary schoolchildren, and is under the direction of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Ventura County.
In 1996, Wilson created the California Mentoring Initiative to address the devastating effects on youth of alcohol and drug use, teen pregnancy and violence. The goal of Wilson’s initiative is to recruit and train 250,000 mentors to work with 1 million young people by 2000.
The money for the local programs comes from the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, administered by the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures lauded the local mentoring programs as one of the most effective ways to keep children out of gangs.
“Mentoring is one of the finest ways to reach out to youths who are really begging for attention,” she said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
