City Council Expands Gang Intervention Program
The Pasadena City Council last night approved spending $130,000 to continue and expand the gang-intervention Neighborhood Outreach Workers Program.
Formed as a pilot program to combat gang violence last August, the program exhausted its initial $25,000 funding in December. It's workers have been working without a contract since then.
NOW is run through the Western Justice Center Foundation by Pasadena Neighborhood Services Administrator Horace Wormely and Ricky Pickens, formerly of the Pasadena Police Department's Safe Schools Team.
Pickens interacts with black, gang-involved youth in Pasadena. He has been successful in convincing a number of them to attend NOW's weekly meetings. Some have even become outreach workers who help recruit others into the program.
Since September, the program has employed as many as eight workers, held 14 weekly sessions attended by 35 young men and women on average, established computer literacy training, driver's license test preparation and conducted a late-night basketball competition.
Guest speakers from the public and private sectors have presented issues of interest to the attendees including the justice system, private employment opportunities and information on the Job Corps.
The $130,000 approved last night will fund the program through June 30 and expand the number of hired workers to 12.
It will also pay for the WJCF to provide training and support in the form of classes and activities and conflict resolution training to bolster the ability of NOW workers to mediate violent conflicts on the street and increase the NOW staffs communication skills for professional development.
NOW will partner with private industry to begin placing outreach workers in long-term positions they will be ready to assume after they have had significant job preparation through their NOW experience, Wormely said.
The Committee on Youth Development and Violence Prevention had recommended to the City Council that it expand the NOW program.
During a December meeting of the youth committee over two dozen high school students and young adults who have participated in the NOW program praised it. They said it was reaching people not reached by other programs, was working to turn their lives around, and should be expanded.
Tony Massengale, Los Angeles County racialized gang violence prevention coordinator, had also advised the youth committee to expand the NOW program.
He told the committee on Nov. 1 that there are about ten gangs that impact the Pasadena/Altadena area. Ultimately, the community needs a team of two intervention workers for each of them, he said, recommending that NOW be expanded to do the job.
At the time he asked: "Are you willing to invest in gang-involved young people?"
Last night the City Council gave its answer.