Photographer Helps Teens Focus on Life

It didn’t take long for Ralph Ramirez Kacy to grab the attention of the small group of Fulton Middle School girls seated around his table at the Van Nuys campus.

Using just a few drops of glue and the skills of an architect, the artist fashioned a bunch of pastel-colored Popsicle sticks into a funky jewelry box. The delighted students, participants in the city-run Los Angeles Bridges after-school program, followed suit and half an hour later showed off their own creations.

As the preteens worked, Kacy, 50, chatted with them, taking the opportunity to discourage one of the eighth-graders from dropping out of school. She listened intently, but made no promises. Kacy has heard the talk before, but he says he won’t give up on the troubled kids.

“I don’t want to just complain about problem areas of the city; I want to help make the city better,” the Van Nuys native said. “I couldn’t move away from my neighborhood when it got bad, so I decided to help make it better for me and my kids and all the kids around here. I want to dig in and do my share.”

Kacy, a San Fernando resident, has spent his adult life reaching out to the Valley’s at-risk teens and unemployed. When he’s not at the middle school, he can be found at Mission College’s Business and Professional Center, where he helps secure city and county grants for unemployed workers to learn job skills.

He has also worked with immigrant street vendors, spearheaded job-training and youth-motivation programs and still manages time for his photography, which has been exhibited in galleries around the Valley for the past decade.

“There used to be more money to keep kids off the streets,” Kacy said. “That money is dried up. We have to work hard to keep them busy. If kids have nowhere to go, they get into trouble. That’s when I get involved.”

His activism began early in life.

In 1965, Kacy graduated from San Fernando High School, where he says he hung out with his neighborhood gang. When he became a father at 18, his young wife encouraged him to be a role model for their child.

Kacy was hired by Lockheed Corp. in 1965, where, during a 25-year career with the aerospace giant, he worked in the machine shop, became a publications analyst and eventually a quality assurance manager.

In 1984, Kacy developed and headed the career awareness program at Lockheed, where students from 12 community colleges were invited to tour the Burbank facility and talk to professionals in their fields of interest.

A decade later, Kacy helped obtain a grant from United Way to bring an art teacher to St. Ferdinand Catholic Church in San Fernando, where teenage graffiti taggers traded in their spray-paint cans for summer art classes.

Kacy, who went on to study fine arts at Pierce College and earn an art history degree at Cal State Northridge, recently received the Humanitarian Award of Notable Achievement from the San Fernando Valley chapter of the United Nations Assn. His colleagues say the honor is well-deserved.

“Ralph’s made a big difference here at Fulton [Middle School],” said Maritza Varela, family advocate coordinator for Los Angeles Bridges. “The art he brings is therapeutic, it’s magic. He’s helping the kids to focus on goals and build self-esteem. His input is invaluable.”

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