Youths Learning to Lead by Helping Out

Roger Lee is working the streets of Koreatown, peering into a neon-lighted pool hall in search of gang members.

Just a few years ago, Lee was a gang member who hung out in watering holes like this one, drinking beer and shooting pool with his gangster homeboys.

“I can’t think of one positive thing I did for my community,” Lee says of those days.

But now the savvy 20-year-old is a gang intervention counselor, visiting gang hot spots and trying to prevent the types of crimes he says he committed as a Koreatown gang member.

Lee is getting his shot at community service as part of a Los Angeles nonprofit organization launched this year to help young adults become tomorrow’s leaders. Called Public Allies, the group is training 21 men and women of all backgrounds and placing them with area community organizations for 10-month stints.

The idea of young people giving back to their communities has been a cornerstone of President Clinton’s domestic agenda. In early 1993, at a ceremony on the White House steps, Clinton unveiled AmeriCorps, a much-debated national service program modeled after the Peace Corps.

At Public Allies, directors say their program is fulfilling the ideals of national service at a local level.

“We’re talking about young people from different communities here who are working in their communities,” said the group’s executive director, Rafael Gonzalez. “We’re hoping to build a cadre of young leaders who are committed to Los Angeles.”

Although Public Allies’ Los Angeles office opened just this year, the Washington-based organization was formed in 1992. The group has nine offices across the country.

The Los Angeles office has an annual operating budget of about $400,000 and receives a portion of its funding from AmeriCorps. But the majority comes from local foundations and corporations, including a $15,000 grant from Times Mirror Co., which owns The Times.

The 21 participants, or “allies,” as they are called, include Latinos, Asian Americans, blacks and whites. Some are college graduates. Others are attending college or plan to enroll.

Each ally is paid $15,000 for being in the program. After they are finished, they are eligible for a $4,700 award to help cover college costs or pay off student loans.

During the 10-month program, the allies attend weekly training sessions on topics ranging from neighborhood organizing to public speaking. The rest of their time is spent working for nonprofit groups such as the American Lung Assn., the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the Latino Museum of History.

Working with the community organizations, participants say, gives them hands-on experience that they can use in future careers.

“That’s really what it’s all about for me: being out there and doing the work instead of just philosophizing about it,” said Herminia Trejo.

Trejo, 25, a graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, is enrolled at Pasadena City College and wants to become an elementary school teacher.

As part of the Public Allies program, she is working at the California Latino Civil Rights Network in downtown Los Angeles. Her community project there is to help organize parents in the Pico-Union neighborhood whose children attend classes in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Trejo meets with about 20 parents each Saturday. Among other things, she helps them navigate district bureaucracy to voice concerns and teaches them about various skill tests administered to their children.

“Parents,” she said, “are the ultimate advocates for their children.”

For Lee, the same goal of organizing the community is the driving force behind his antigang work.

As part of Public Allies project, Lee is a counselor for a gang awareness project directed by the Korean Youth & Community Center in Koreatown. It is familiar territory for the onetime gang member, who grew up on the very streets where he now works.

“Everywhere I go, I carry my work with me,” Lee said on a recent evening, walking past bars and pool halls where he and his gang buddies once hung out.

Lee, a part-time student at Santa Monica College, wants to become a graphic artist. But he said he still plans to fulfill the ideals of Public Allies by doing volunteer work with Koreatown youth.

And that’s fine with Gonzalez, the Public Allies director, who says not all of the 21 participants are destined to work at community organizations.

“But if they can take what they learned from the program and apply it to their lives,” he said, “then that’s a major accomplishment.”