Los Angeles mayor seeks to curb youth violence

In a conference hosted Friday by UCLA and Los Angeles Mayor
James Hahn’s office, L.A. County took a step toward improving
relations between law enforcement officers and the Los Angeles
community.

Friday’s conference, which was  attended by social
workers, non-profit agencies, law enforcement officials, UCLA
affiliates such as Chancellor Albert Carnesale and politicians from
the L.A. City Council and the mayor’s office, featured
emotional speakers suggesting methods to improve relations between
law enforcement and the community.

Specifically, the speakers discussed ways to lower youth
violence, which included, among other things, the need for the
elimination of gangs.

The conference, titled “Making Collaboration Work: Linking
Law Enforcement with Community Resources for Youth,” included
speakers like Carnesale, Barbara Nelson, the dean of the UCLA
School of Public Policy and Social Research and Los Angeles City
Councilman Alex Padilla.

Carnesale said UCLA has a “selfish” interest in
ensuring the peace in the L.A. community because half of
UCLA’s undergraduates come from the greater L.A. area.

“If you want outstanding seniors, you must have
outstanding freshmen,” he said.

Suggestions of how to decrease youth violence included parenting
classes, future conferences, aid for non-profit organizations that
work with at-risk youth, and expansion of programs such as
“Explorers,” in which youth work with police
officers.

These and other ideas were presented to Hahn’s office at
the final panel of the day. In response to training requests for
non-profit organizations, the panelists explained that such avenues
already exist, but that they could be improved.

Keynote speaker the Rev. Eugene Rivers III also said changes
within the community are necessary to fight youth violence. He
stressed the importance of fathers in their children’s lives
and called for an increase in the number of men who raise their
children.

He also discussed combatting violence in the black and Chicano
communities. He told conference members that Los Angeles’
resolution of violence in these communities will create a model for
the rest of the nation.

Joseph Nunn, vice chairman and director of field education for
the UCLA Department of Social Welfare, said he thought the results
of the conference were encouraging, adding that one of the most
important suggestions he has for Mayor Hahn’s office is to
make the resources for non-profit organizations user-friendly.

“Everyone says, “˜We want to know what the resources
are,'” he said of the attendees, but noted that some of
the very resources they want already exist, though they are not
well advertised.

He also agreed with the suggestion for holding future
conferences.

“This is very much considered the first step,” he
said of Friday’s conference. “Persistence over time is
required.”

Most attendees said they sensed a genuine desire to work
together, but said it is much harder in practice than in
principle.

“I felt that participants were heartened by the level of
desire that they sensed within the groups for more collaboration,
but felt frustrated by the lack of concrete avenues for action that
currently exist,” said Eve Garrow, a UCLA doctoral student in
social welfare.