The UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies hosted a meeting on “Investing in the Children and Families of South Los Angeles,” at the campus of Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA), on Oct. 5. The panel discussion, which was hosted by UCLA Ed Professor Emeritus Welford “Buzz” Wilms and Avis Ridley-Thomas, co-directors of the Institute for Nonviolence in Los Angeles, included L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell; and LAPD Deputy Chief Bill Scott. The panel was moderated by Bishop Dave O’Connell of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies is seeking to collaborate with SEA and the Institute for Nonviolence in Los Angeles to promote a healthy and safe environment in the Vermont-Manchester area, which has been a historically troubled community in terms of violence, fear, and social isolation. The event launched a campaign to raise $200,000 over the next two years as seed funding to establish the Community Center for Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice. The Center will be headquartered at SEA and will leverage community assets and UCLA research to create a neighborhood conflict resolution program.
Bishop O’Connell, who has served as an associate pastor and pastor at churches in Downey, Long Beach, and Pico Rivera, and South Los Angeles, opened the discussion, noting, “Our young people are more and more at the periphery of our society. SEA has done a good job of reaching out to [those] who are most broken.”
Ridley-Thomas, William Scott, LAPD Deputy Chief, Robert Green, LAPD Deputy Chief, and Nathan Arias, president of SEA, spoke on their experiences in the South L.A. community as law enforcement and education professionals. In addition, members of the SEA staff presented an simulation of a domestic situation where mediation solved conflict, and SEA students Maleek Lambert and Julian Henderson expressed their gratitude for the safe space that their school has provided.
“Nothing healthy can grow in communities that are wracked with violence,” said Wilms. “This was an historic moment for South Los Angeles, where the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, the LAPD, educators, religious leaders, and residents worked together to create alternatives to violence and restore vibrancy to the community.”
For more than 10 years, Ridley-Thomas, who has led the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Dispute Resolution Program, and Professor Wilms have been teaching a course in the UCLA Education Minor Program titled, “Restoring Civility: Understanding, Using, and Resolving Conflict.” The course provides UCLA undergraduates with the opportunity to become conflict mediators in some of the most troubled middle and high schools in Los Angeles. The Community Center for Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice is headquartered at SEA, which is a charter school for at-risk youth. UCLA students enrolled in “Restoring Civility” have previously been placed at SEA and other urban schools to fulfill the two-quarter course.
Professor Wilms and Ridley-Thomas have also been involved with the nonprofit, OneWay, Inc. Established in 2007 by Travon Williams in an area of South Los Angeles that has known extremely high levels of crime, the nonprofit program is dedicated to erasing violence through mentoring young African American males, who range from ages six to 22, with a focus on sports, education, and academic and life success. Last December, UCLA Athletics and students from the “Restoring Civility” course welcomed a group of One Way youth to UCLA, with walking tours of campus, lunch in DeNeve Commons, and an exhibition basketball game.
Earlier this year, Ridley-Thomas and Wilms were able to bring members of One Way on a tour of the Port of Los Angeles, courtesy of L.A. Port Police and a tour of the historic battleship USS Iowa. In addition, they arranged for Ebreon Farris (’11, B.A., Sociology), a site coordinator from UCLA’s Early Academic Outreach Program, to speak about the necessary steps to get into college at a OneWay meeting earlier this year. Plans are being made for another campus tour of UCLA for OneWay members in January 2016.
“Investing in the Children and Families of South Los Angeles,” was co-hosted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; the Los Angeles Police Department; Soledad Enrichment Action; the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; UCLA Government and Community Relations; and the Institute for Nonviolence in Los Angeles.
Above: Avis Ridley-Thomas (standing), who teaches a course in mediation to UCLA undergraduates in the Education Minor Program, addressed educators, law enforcement, and other community stakeholders at a meeting last month on “Investing in the Children and Families of South Los Angeles.”