Opening the Gates: L.A. Congregations Confronting Gang Violence

In 2009 the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC partnered with The California Endowment to address Los Angeles’ gang epidemic by creating the Institute for Violence Prevention. This report looks at that effort’s central question: What could be done to increase the effectiveness and engagement of congregations and other faith-based organizations to stem the flood of violence in their communities?

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Los Angeles has been regarded as the epicenter of the nation’s gang epidemic for decades. What began as relatively localized battles over turf and small-scale drug sales in L.A. has morphed into complex networks of gangs with transnational connections to regions where drugs are grown and produced among other multilayered criminal activities. While there has been a slight decline in gang-related deaths in Los Angeles in recent years, neighborhoods in relatively close proximity to the USC campus are still marred by violence.

In 2009 the Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) at USC partnered with the California Endowment to address this problem by creating the Institute for Violence Prevention (IVP). We began our efforts with the observation that neighborhoods with the highest rates of gang violence also seemed to be populated with numerous religious institutions, which led to the obvious question: What could be done to increase the effectiveness and engagement of congregations and other faith-based organizations to stem the flood of violence in their communities?

After three years of research and programming, we have drawn the following conclusions. First, faith organizations in gang-impacted neighborhoods often function as locations where residents can escape violence, rather than confront it. Second, congregations that seek to intervene in the cycles of violence in their neighborhoods often lack the organizational capacity to do so. Third, many Christian churches in these neighborhoods operate out of a theological framework that does not motivate or equip them to confront the tough social problems that they face on a daily basis. And, fourth, despite these challenges, faith communities have a latent capacity to address community needs if they are equipped with the appropriate training, mentoring, and technical assistance.

In this report we will describe the research and programming that was funded by the California Endowment and also propose some answers to the challenges that confront congregations that wish to engage the problem of violence in their neighborhoods. We do so recognizing that the critics of intervention and prevention programs have charged, perhaps justly, that few of these efforts have actually stemmed the flood of violence, given the deeply rooted social issues that characterize communities with high levels of gang activity. We see little value in cynicism, or in giving up. Rather, we are challenged by the need to help faith-based organizations as they seek to play a productive role in addressing these issues. Hence, this report is not a proposal for religion as a panacea for peace-making in the city of Los Angeles, but an attempt to increase the effectiveness of one element of the larger matrix of policies, institutions and personal efforts that make up the City of Angels.

Working within the parameters of the Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development, established in 2007 by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and headed by then “Gang Czar” Jeff Carr—himself a minister with significant community engagement experience from a faith-based perspective—we decided to focus on three Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) zones out of the 12 that had been identified. All three (Baldwin Village, Newton, and Florence-Graham/77th Division) were in relative proximity to the University of Southern California, and each zone had gang-related violent crime rates that were at least 400% higher than other areas in Los Angeles. In 2007, for example, 12 of 13 homicides were gang-related in the Newton GRYD. Newton has 14 active gangs that claim territory, six Latino gangs and eight African American gangs. Baldwin Village has only four active gangs, but 60 percent of residents report that gang activity is “always” or “often” a problem. The Florence-Graham/77th Street Division GRYD has 11 active gangs. In 2007, the Florence-Graham/77th GRYD experienced 354 gang-related crimes. These three areas also had a significant religious presence with hundreds of congregations spread throughout each zone, ranging from a few large churches to numerous smaller congregations.

In the early days of establishing the Institute for Violence Prevention we met with staff members that had been hired by the city in each of the three targeted GRYD zones. In addition, we drove and walked through the zones in an attempt to understand their religious ecology, talking with residents as well as clergy. Perhaps we should not have been surprised to discover that many of the churches were closed during the week and opened only for Sunday worship services and, on occasion, for Wednesday night prayer and Bible study. We also noticed that there were historic African American congregations in communities that were largely Latino. And there were Latino congregations that catered to immigrants from particular countries, and even specific regions of a country. These congregations often provide an informal social safety net and system for their congregants but tend to have less engagement with the larger community.

In studying demographic surveys of these three GRYD zones, it became clear that gang activity must be understood in a larger context, not only of low and under-performing schools, historic and current public policies and practices that create racial discrimination, high unemployment and the persistent lack of capital investment in these communities, but also the significant demographic shifts that have taken place in Los Angeles over the last 30 years. Since 1990, Los Angeles has in general become less Caucasian, less African American and more Latino in its racial and ethnic makeup. In 1990, Latinos made up 38% of the population of Los Angeles County, while the 2010 census data show that Latinos make up almost one-half of the population. These changes were also mirrored in the religious ecology of the three zones we were studying.

In the three zones, we mapped 329 congregations, not including storefront churches, multiple congregations meeting in the same building, or those meeting in more informal settings. In 2010, the population of the three zones was 108,710, which means that there was at least one congregation for every 330 people. In neighborhoods that had experienced dramatic shifts from historically African American to now being increasingly Latino, this trend created both new tensions and new ministry challenges. Many of the Black churches were comprised of commuters who were driving to the church they attended after moving to the suburbs or to areas like Palmdale and Riverside. Hence, these congregants were not confronted with daily life in these neighborhoods which lessened the motivation to challenge the violence and social problems in the areas surrounding their churches. Further, many Latino churches in these neighborhoods were Pentecostal imports from Mexico, Guatemala or El Salvador and their members were seeking to recreate the extended family communities that they had left behind. Indeed, possibly because of their immigrant status, or their experience of oppression in their countries of origin, or a theology that emphasized personal salvation, many Latinos were reluctant to engage government representatives or political structures.

Within the three GRYD zones, the IVP staff collected data on congregations and contracted with the Advancement Project’s Healthy City initiative to create community profiles and asset maps. (Maps are available at https://crcc.usc.edu/ivp.) Our relationship with staff at Healthy City proved to be invaluable. They combined our survey of congregations with other community assets and produced three community profiles that mapped active congregations in or near the GRYD areas as well as gang intervention assets already in place in the community.

Place-based religion

One side benefit of the relationship with Healthy City staff was that these mapping exercises provided an opportunity for the Center for Religion and Civic Culture to deepen its place-based religion model, which seeks to understand congregations within the context of geographic communities and the ways in which religious organizations function alongside other institutions, such as schools, health care facilities, nonprofit organizations, and other community resources.

Historically, religion scholars have been focused on religious beliefs—how they develop, are influenced by, and in turn influence culture, and, how beliefs may influence social action. In contrast, a place-based religion approach seeks to discern how religious organizations operate as community actors within a network of other community resources. This approach promotes a scholarly understanding of how religion and community relate to each other, but it also can aid communities as they seek out religious organizations as partners in improving the lives of its members, and for congregations as they perform important roles within the community:  socializing children and imparting values that enable them to be responsible members of the human community; being a prophetic voice for justice; nurturing, consoling, and inspiring people in need; and being an important location for a variety of community-based activities.

Enhancing Faith-Community Efforts on Gang Violence

Equipped with a more in-depth understanding of the social ecology of neighborhoods impacted by gang violence, we determined our objectives:

1. Equip congregations with skills to address gang issues
2. Deepen theological frameworks to support an ongoing
   commitment to community work
3. Bridge racial/ethnic/theological divides
4. Enhance the organizational structures in which this work
   can take place.

With these objectives in mind, the Institute for Violence Prevention was initially designed as a fellowship program for congregations and other faith-based organizations. Through a nine-month program at the University of Southern California, including a week-long intensive followed by monthly evening meetings for community-building, mentoring, and classroom learning, participants explored ways to deepen their commitment to addressing gang violence in their communities. In addition, opportunities to understand best practices by leaders in the field and to understand current policy work in Southern California were offered in supplemental programs. IVP was formed to allow participants to develop their skills and networks so that they could implement their own initiatives or join with others in partnership to address gang violence in their communities.

Participant Recruitment

In order to recruit a class of fellows for the Institute for Violence Prevention, the Center for Religion and Civic Culture distributed information to its network of congregations and faith leaders. The outreach targeted congregations and faith-based organizations within the three Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones and expanded throughout the region to areas with increasing challenges related to gang activity and youth opportunity. Rev. Mark Whitlock, director of community initiatives and newly appointed executive director of the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, and Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray, senior fellow and holder of the John R. Tansey Chair in Christian Ethics at the University of Southern California, used their strong relational connections in South Los Angeles to generate interest in the program. In addition, the center hired two community outreach coordinators, Rev. Frank Jackson and Rev. Jim Ortiz, and partnered with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), to recruit African American and Latino candidates for the program and to inform the design and implementation of the program. Ortiz, Jackson and CLUE staff attended numerous clergy and denominational meetings and conducted outreach sessions at seminaries, local clergy associations and alliances, and churches within the three Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones and other areas around the city.

The Institute for Violence Prevention originally planned to work only in the three zones, but as the outreach continued, a substantial number of applicants from other areas began to express their interest. Due to the overwhelming response, IVP staff made the decision to include pastors, gang intervention workers, and lay leaders outside of the original three selected zones. Nearly 150 candidates submitted applications for the program. Each applicant described their current gang intervention or prevention programs and their interest in receiving training in civic engagement, public policy, gang intervention and prevention. A committee reviewed each application and selected 65 participants for the first phase of the program. The first cohort of students completed the institute in September 2009.

The program included a diverse range of participants, including African Americans and Latinos, men and women, those with advanced degrees and those without. Of the 65 participants, 21 were Latinos. In fact, several participants required Spanish translation during classroom sessions. In all, 42 different congregations and nonprofit organizations were represented. Several organizations sent multiple participants in order to increase the impact of the program on their organizational culture. Many participants were bi-vocational, serving as pastors or nonprofit leaders in addition to their regular employment.

A unique aspect of the IVP program was its ability to recruit from the heart of the community. This was not a class of privileged personalities hoping to assist “those in need.” The fellows were selected directly from communities affected by violence, whether within the GRYD zones, adjacent to them, or in other areas. Many of those attending the class had either been former gang members, or have been directly impacted by gang violence. One participant gave an example of why he decided to join IVP: “Just before we came out of church we heard all these Uzi shots. One guy had gotten shot, wrecked the car, was bleeding, running down the street…And to see this just let us know that the area had become unstable for some reason. It turned out it was gangs, one against another.”

In 2010, a select group of the original 65 participants was invited to participate in an “advanced” session. The original program design envisioned admitting a completely new cohort of fellows in the second year. However, after completing the first year of the institute, staff identified additional training needs and decided to create a session that would further solidify skills and strengthen the capacity of the participants to become more closely involved in civic engagement efforts. The second year of IVP included a practicum phase with placement in a community organization. Twenty-seven fellows completed the advanced session.

From Gang Leader to Community Leader

“I was a good kid who did something very bad,” says Cornell Ward.

Though Ward was raised during hard times in South Central by a single mother whose restless ways meant Ward had to attend seven different elementary schools, the gifted athlete flourished at Los Angeles High School and was named College Football All-American at Compton Community College during his freshman year.

But when his GPA slipped and he had to return to his neighborhood, Ward let the set-back continue to determine his trajectory.

“I got into dealing drugs,” says Ward, who became a top lieutenant for Rick Ross, a drug lord who was known as the “King of Crack” during the worst days of the urban cocaine epidemic. “From the time I was 19 until I was 22,” Ward says, “I was in the streets selling this poison.”

Crack addiction claimed the lives of people all around Ward, including three members of his family. Just as he was beginning to heed the pleadings of friends and former coaches to get out of the drug scene, he was beaten and arrested by police officers who had a stake in his business.

“They were caught up in the mess just like me,” Ward says.

Ward was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony against the crooked cops, and he spent the next couple of decades regaining the ground he had lost and building a career as an activist-athlete. He’s now the head coach of the football team at Compton College.

How has the Institute for Violence Prevention figured into his efforts to give back?

“I’ve always been involved in community work,” Ward says with an ironic smile. “Only now it’s about giving life, not taking it.”

As the executive director of the Unity One Foundation, Ward oversees character development and leadership training curricula as well as programs to reduce recidivism among former prison inmates who are reentering their communities. He has also developed a broad network of relationships to reduce inter-gang violence.

“There are 12 geographical war zones that we work in,” Ward says. “In those zones we have relationships with different gangs along with support from gang intervention groups like clergy, civic organizations and law enforcement. The point is to put the fires out before they spread.”

Ward, who has mentored hundreds of student athletes, sees his own story as the clearest evidence that even the most hardcore life in the drug-and-gang scene can be transformed.

“Drug dealers are great at math,” he says with the same sly smile. “And they have to have some pretty sharp people skills.”

“Children need to play again”

Keith Johnson grew up just a couple of miles from the park that serves as the training center for the Southern California Falcons Youth Football and Cheer Program, which he founded in 2005.

“Back in the day you could still play in the streets,” says Johnson, who’s in his mid 40s. “And there was a certain level of respect for the church. Now kids are tagging churches. Times have definitely changed.”

Johnson cites both social stresses accompanying demographic shifts in South Central Los Angeles—“The neighborhood used to be predominantly African-American,” he says, “now it’s mostly Latino”—and the failure of many black churches to respond to those changes as key contributors to the uptick in violence.

“The worst you would expect used to be black-on-black fisticuffs,” Johnson says. “Now warring black and Latino gangs are settling scores with drive-by shootings.”

Johnson says that many black churches have been slow to adapt to the evolution of their communities and the changing needs of the young people they serve. In a part of Los Angeles where a third of the households are living at or below the poverty line, those unmet needs quickly compound problems—truancy, drug use, family instability and economic stagnation—that make gang membership seem like one of the few choices offering upward mobility.

Focusing on the key age-bracket when children are being shaped by their interaction with peers—from ages 6 through 14—Johnson decided to create an organization that would replicate the functions of the institutions that had molded him when he was a young person.

“Falcons Youth uses football and cheer as magnets to bring kids in,” Johnson says. “But it’s really a social recovery program for at-risk youth.”

Johnson hopes the mentoring and social skills that boys and girls acquire through Falcons Youth will not only diminish the appeal of gangs and drugs but also prepare them to make positive contributions to their communities—an aspiration embodied in the organization’s motto: “New school kids, old school values.”

As the football and cheer programs have thrived, Falcons Youth has expanded to include a mobile homework station for training participants as well as several other intervention initiatives to address needs ranging from character development to physical fitness. The ongoing community enhancement strategies at Falcons Youth reflect many of the networking skills that Johnson says he acquired through the Institute for Violence Prevention. And the flourishing of the organization is also deeply rooted in both the nostalgia and the optimism of its founder.

“Children need to play again,” Johnson says.

Working with Law Enforcement for the Greater Good

Not long ago, Lydia Hollie’s nephew, a young veteran of the war in Iraq, was stopped by the police in central Long Beach.

“Are you on probation or parole?” one of the officers asked Leon Hollie, who’s now a senior at Clark Atlanta University.

After Leon related the story of the officer’s grim assumption to his aunt, he told her, “Now I know what it feels like to be an Iraqi.”

Understanding how unexamined social narratives can cause conflict—along with how community activism can help to get people on the same page—is one the underlying imperatives for Lydia’s work as co-chair of the Long Beach Weed and Seed Strategy Steering Committee. An even deeper motivator is her intimate acquaintance with the wages of urban decay in her native Long Beach.

“A lot of the social ills we’re dealing with now didn’t exist for me when I was growing up here,” Hollie says. “The ghetto came to me.”

The twin plagues of violence and desperation have claimed the lives of many young people known to Hollie, who’s also a teacher in the Lynwood Unified School District north of Long Beach. Even closer to home, Hollie’s younger brother was caught in his community’s downward spiral. Robert Hollie is currently serving 25 years to life in a federal penitentiary.

“Despite my family’s poor relations with law enforcement,” Lydia says, “I’m committed to working with them for the greater good. I credit my father”—a career military man—“for instilling in me the importance of keeping things in a broader perspective.”

That broad-minded commitment to bringing stakeholders together to reverse destructive trends in her community led to service on the Long Beach Human Rights Commission and, subsequently, to a four-year stint as chairperson of the city’s Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Task Force. Her current leadership position with Long Beach Weed and Seed entails overseeing a comprehensive spectrum of programs—from gang intelligence and community policing to drug-use intervention and green-space development—intended to retool the social machinery of the city from top to bottom.

“Every society is perfectly engineered to get the results it is getting,” Hollie says. “So with the resources we have, how do we get deeper into root causes to bring about the kind of change we desire?”

Her experience with the Institute for Violence Prevention was particularly helpful in helping her “pull back the layers” of the issues that will likely someday come into play for her brother.

“Does a perpetrator have a responsibility to the community?” she was compelled to ask. “How do they repay that debt? How do we help them reconnect?”

Weed and Seed’s reentry employment plan for ex-offenders embodies Hollie’s belief that building social capital is a matter of both good policy and intimately focused advocacy.

Organizing the Pastors

Over the past four decades, the cultural kaleidoscope that is L.A.’s East Side has shifted around Randy Carillo. Meanwhile, he says, his faith has remained steadily rooted in the ecumenical evangelicalism of his father.

A fourth-generation Mexican American, Carillo’s family lived in Boyle Heights until he was 13, then moved to Eagle Rock, which in the mid-1960s was mainly Anglo and Italian.

“It was like moving to a foreign country,” Carillo says. “I went from a place where cars were being worked on in the front yard to shady streets with birds singing in the trees.”

At Eagle Rock high school, which is now almost 70 percent Latino, Carillo says he could count his other Latino classmates on one hand.

After stints at Azusa Pacific University and UCLA, Carillo deferred his formal education for a few years in order to join a Christian rock group and participate in the Jesus Movement that was flourishing in California in the early 1970s.

When he finally completed his studies in divinity and returned to the East Side to work as an ecumenical organizer, he found that a dramatically diverse—and dauntingly fragmented—collection of faith communities had supplanted the more homogenous congregations he had known in his youth.

The clergy in the Highland Park Ministerial Fellowship, which Carillo began to lead in 2001, mainly saw the organization as a professional support group until Carillo’s gentle nudging toward community activism began to pay off a few years later.

“Now all the people who were complaining about the idea of dealing with city agencies are bragging about working with the community,” Carillo says wryly.

The penny dropped after Carillo’s training in the Institute for Violence Prevention—particularly the instruction in public policy engagement.

“That was transforming,” Carillo says.

A prisoner reentry program was running aground because of pastors’ resistance to the idea of inviting mental health workers to offer services to former convicts and their families. Carillo says that because of his IVP experience, he was able to assess the group’s core concerns and negotiate with city and county officials to establish ground rules for the mental health component of the reentry program. Specifically, the pastors wanted “a face” (i.e. a single contact person) to be their liaison with civic agencies involved in the program, clergy involvement in decision-making processes and a focus on healing rather than medication in developing treatment plans.

“The mental health people were really great,” Carillo says. “They told me, ‘Pastor Randy, we got your face—her name is Laura.’”

Carillo’s ecumenical group has now evolved into the Church of the City Coalition, and he’s now tackling programs that engage the members of his community in work with L.A. County’s Department of Children and Family Services and the Veteran’s Administration.

“It all goes back to the belief that we’re living in the Kingdom of God right now,” Carillo says. “’Become the people I called you to be.’ That’s what it’s all about.”

Early in the Institute for Violence Prevention, Rev. Jeff Carr spoke to the assembled IVP cohort and appealed to them to provide volunteers and food for one of the city’s premier anti-violence initiatives. Summer Night Lights (SNL) takes the simple notion of keeping local park gyms open after dark, and adds free food and youth programs. According to the program website, SNL served 710,000 participants at 24 parks in 2010. Moreover, SNL served 30,000 meals and created 1,000 new jobs in 2010. As they listened to Carr, many IVP fellows decided to become involved in a program that was in need of volunteers, funding, and resources. Later, on a site visit at a local SNL program, IVP fellows saw firsthand how community assets, like a local gym, can have a dramatic impact on youth.

IVP trainers sought to create similar breakthrough moments in the classroom, on site visits, and in practicum sessions. Rather than dry lectures or abstract concepts, the sessions encouraged fellows to ask questions, engage the presenters, and debrief the presentations in post-lecture small groups. The sessions brought public officials, scholars, gang interventionists, civic engagement specialists, community practitioners, and law enforcement agencies to spark new ideas. Equally important, the fellows were exposed to civic leaders and experts and were given the opportunity to enter into new partnerships and coalitions. IVP was further supported by a partnership with CLUE, which harnessed their expertise in mentoring pastors and linking them with ongoing work bridging the divides between Latino and African American faith leaders.

The community profiles developed in partnership with Health City were distributed to IVP fellows and were also made available on the Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s website. CRCC also arranged for Healthy City to provide hands on training for IVP participants. This training gave participants an opportunity to work directly with the Healthy City datasets and mapping capabilities and to develop skills to enhance their own community work. The community profiles included population characteristics (age, ethnicity, school population characteristics, median income, employment status, health conditions), public safety information, and community assets, such as congregations, parks, nonprofit organizations, and city resources. These profiles were then used in the classroom training of IVP participants as they developed gang-related programs and ministries, created public policies in various practicum exercises, and learned how to use data to develop strategic plans for their organizations.

For many leaders engaged in community violence interventions, the struggle of program implementation and responding to daily emergencies limits their ability to incorporate new models into their programs. Thus, the Institute for Violence Prevention developed classroom sessions to expose fellows to new modes of thought as well as to help them think about ways to create space to adopt new practices into their daily activities. In addition to the classroom sessions, IVP fellows also participated in site visits to area programs with effective service delivery models, such as SNL, Watts-Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club, and the Los Angeles Dream Center.

In order to create a positive learning environment, the training sessions began with a shared meal and an icebreaker activity. Formal and informal opportunities for peer bonding were a necessity in a setting with geographic, denominational, gender, and ethnic diversity. Small group activities also created opportunities to identify fellows with similar goals and values and expand opportunities for collaboration.

The Institute for Violence Prevention included presentations from national and local experts on topics such as:

• Violence Prevention through Civic Engagement (Alexia Salvatierra, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice)
• National Models of Gang Intervention and Prevention (Ray Hammond, Boston Ten Point Coalition)
• Successful Models of Police Partnerships (LAPD Deputy Chief Craig Hunter, Lt. Ben Hittlesdorf)
• Best Practice Sessions (Including Jeff Carr, City of Los Angeles, Gang Reduction and Youth Development; James Harris, Community Coalition of South Los Angeles; Bill Martinez, Violence Prevention Coalition; Brian Centers, Better LA; Alex Sanchez, Homies Unidos, et al.)
• Mental Health and Violence Prevention (Sharon Rabb, Center for the Empowerment of Families)
• Communications and Media Relations (Edina Lekovic, Muslim Public Affairs Council; Kerman Maddox, Dakota Communications)
• Policy Analysis (Mary Lee, PolicyLink; Rick Jacobs, the Courage Campaign)

From March to June 2010, the fellows in the advanced session participated in a public policy practicum that included placements with three organizations with expertise in civic engagement, community organizing, and public policy work: Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Regional Congregations and Neighborhood Organizations, and Faith Communities for Families and Children.

The practicum included classroom training on the steps to civic engagement, fundraising, and community organizing, and each fellow chose one of the three organizations to work alongside during the phase. Fellows attended public actions on violence, a Black/Brown unity service, and participated in training sessions. Many who participated in the IVP program were profoundly affected by the new relationships they formed and the networks they were connected to, especially those that emphasized multicultural alliance building.

The practicum module also exposed IVP fellows to the issue of incarcerated youth. Fellows were deeply moved by their experience visiting a youth detention facility with Javier Stauring, a lay chaplain for the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese and policy director of Faith Communities for Families and Children (FCFC), which works to address the issue of juvenile incarceration and improving outcomes for those who enter the juvenile justice system. Working with FCFC exposed fellows to interfaith and multicultural coalition building, systemic reform through legislation, restorative justice as a better alternative to a punitive model of justice, direct ministry to incarcerated youth, and development of a faith based educational campaign on juvenile justice. In addition, fellows participated in the Juvenile Justice Week of Faith, an interfaith effort to raise awareness to the needs of children and families impacted by violent crime and society’s systemic response to crime.

The other two practicum settings were equally instructive. Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) is a faith-rooted organization that links clergy with low-income wage earners in order to seek economic justice. CLUE worked with fellows on an effort to create partnerships between black and Latino faith leaders around issues of violence and economic issues that affect both communities. Fellows participated in meetings with Los Angeles City Council members and participated in a Black/Brown Summit in South Los Angeles.

Regional Congregations and Neighborhood Organizations (RCNO) seeks to establish opportunities for communities to address statewide issues related to high levels of incarceration and recidivism rates that impact many GRYD zone communities in Los Angeles. RCNO provided training on community organizing, including how to build alliances and relationships to impact policy and attended a Select Committee on Prisoner Reentry meeting to discuss how reentry issues adversely affect low-income and minority communities.

Later, when research team interviewers asked participants what they benefitted most from in the program, more often than not it was the expansion of their networks and the exposure to program models they gained through their participation in the program. In response to a question about how one would apply lessons from IVP, Bryan Jones of the HOOP Foundation said: “Well, definitely the networks of the other programs. I’ll be able to collaborate with other agencies in making a bigger network of violence prevention as opposed to one agency just trying to do it in my area, as well as the fundamental techniques that are working. For instance, the last program we had with the Boston 10 [Point Coalition] principles, that was very helpful in understanding pilot programs that have worked or could be used to build upon.”

Technical Assistance

Through the process of interacting with pastors and ministry leaders around the issue of gang violence, we realized that technical assistance relating to organizational capacity issues was an important aspect of increasing the effectiveness of faith-based organizations, whether on gang violence or any other issue area. While some individuals and organizations simply required inspiration, others were experiencing pracitical organizational challenges that discouraged them from engaging in the issue of community violence.

For example, many small and midsize congregations do not have full time clergy and staff. Thus, their capacity to take on social programs is limited. Furthermore, these organizations are often out of compliance with state and federal nonprofit regulations and municipal codes. And very few of them have a strategic plan for developing their programs or even know the basics of how to create such a plan. Indeed, some congregations we surveyed were reluctant to share organizational information for fear of revealing their issues to public scrutiny.

Moreover, while organizational inertia is common to all organizations, it is particularly true for religious organizations. One reason for this is that theology and congregational authority are bound together. Leaders have enormous power, usually supported by religious teachings that members should respect and follow the directives of their leaders. Making significant changes in the organization, even in the face of major shifts, such as new demographic realities, commuter churches, and other factors, becomes more difficult because of the presence of the pastor in all aspects of congregational life and programming.

Congregations often have big dreams, but as discussed above, they lack the organizational capacity and structure to actualize these dreams. Many times the programs and projects envisioned by congregations are too large for one small congregation with a part time pastor and no staff support. While this can result in program paralysis because of the daunting requirements to get the effort going, it can also function to motivate churches to partner with other organizations in the community. However, an intermediary such as IVP may be necessary to inspire small congregations to pursue partnerships, as well as receive help in getting their organizational structures in order.

In response to these needs, Mark Whitlock, Frank Jackson, and Cecil Murray, provided practical information on a variety of topics to strengthen congregations and nonprofit organizations, such as outreach in transitional communities, legal aspects of establishing a 501(c) (3) organization, and tax workshops for religious and nonprofit organizations. The workshops, which we designed to run as a parallel track with the other IVP training, proved to be highly successful, both in providing tangible skills and for identifying areas for further technical assistance.

We provided each participant in the institute with the opportunity to receive a technical assistance assessment in the area of corporate governance. The assessment included a review of the organization’s corporate minute book, including but not limited to its articles of incorporation, bylaws, Secretary of State and Internal Revenue Service compliance status, and procedures and policies. Based on the results of the assessment, IVP staff established an action list to address non-compliant items and, in most instances, designated a staff member to follow-up with completion. In instances where legal representation was required, the Institute for Violence Prevention received assistance through a pro-bono referral arrangement with O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s corporate transactions practice group. Through this arrangement, OMM entered into pro-bono engagement agreements with two organizations led by alumni of the Institute for Violence Prevention.

The IVP staff provided the following technical assistance support:

• Information on the formation of an organization (drafting of articles, bylaws, review and comments to IRS regarding nonprofit status, tax exemption application) and reviewed and commented on a business plans for several organizations, including the HOOPS Foundation (Rev. Bryan Jones, executive director), Joy Youth Foundation, (Dr. Gloria Mitchell, president), and Prevention Alternatives for Neighborhood Empowerment Inc., (Darrell Glover, president).
• Reviews of state and federal compliance and reports delineating the necessary steps required for reinstatement as entities in good standing with the California Secretary of State to three organizations.
• Conducting a retreat for several organizations affiliated with inner city youth mentoring programs affiliated with Falcon Youth and Family Services (Rev. Keith Johnson, president).
  This training extended the impact of the Institute for Violence Prevention beyond the 65 participants. In addition, Mark Whitlock provided introductions to funders, which resulted in an infusion of new grants.
• Planning support related to the formation of new community development entities for two organizations: Church of God Prophecy (Rev. Peter Ortiz, pastor) and Victory Outreach Church–El Sereno (Rev. Rey Rodriquez, pastor).

Funding is another major issue that limited the effectiveness of the congregations and organizations. Pastor T. Marvene Wright put it this way: “We’ve got the ideas. We’ve got the motivation. We’ve got the people who are interested, but our limitation is resources.” Not only are congregations limited in how they can fund community oriented programs, they are often limited in supporting the basic costs of running a church. For example, a recent survey conducted with a similar cohort of African American pastors in southern California found that pastors have limited support from their churches, and have little or no paid staff support. A survey of IVP fellows prior to the practicum phase of the program found that 95 percent reported that their organizations lacked funding, and that 77 percent had never written a grant proposal. Moreover, prior to IVP, 81 percent of participants did not feel competent when it came to applying for grant-based funding. Thus, without external support of some sort, it is difficult to imagine how these congregations can develop significant and effective community programming.

IVP provided training in fundraising during workshops designed to build organizational capacity. Rev. Whitlock conducted a grant-writing seminar that, combined with instruction throughout the IVP program, produced encouraging results. After the conclusion of the program, half of the IVP participants indicated that they were “equipped and knowledgeable” about applying for federal or private funding, representing a significant step toward surmounting the funding barrier. Clearly, though, this area is one that will require ongoing training and development.

Even after completing the institute, fellows have continued to seek ongoing technical assistance from staff, which is one reason we established the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement; CMCCE is briefly described in the Postscript to this report. “IVP established an ongoing partnership with various churches and nonprofits,” said Rev. Mark Whitlock. “Their desire for support hasn’t gone away.”

Going Beyond the Walls

Many participants in the program commented on the role of the church in the community. While some churches are inspired to work on issues such as gang violence due to their faith commitments, many others are not engaged in confronting the issue or other social problems within their community. Some church doors are closed to outsiders and members do not seek to extend services beyond their gates. The IVP program served to re-inspire faith leaders to use their leadership role and pulpit to effect change in their communities. This comment from Pastor Luis Orellana of Faro de Luz was typical: “For many years I have been a church pastor, but what happened is there are a lot of people not reached from the pulpit. So I decided to do more outreach for youth and teenagers.”

For many congregations, their theology is a significant barrier to community engagement. Some congregations simply spiritualize issues and believe the answers can only be found in praying, Bible reading and relying on “God’s will.” For other congregations, the internally focused and purely spiritual nature of their religious belief limits their activity. Still others remain focused on material gain, spreading the “prosperity gospel” that inspires many to view economic gain as a sign of God’s blessing. To these people, Rev. Cecil Murray offers this advice: “I would admonish those who preach prosperity to remember that the one who founded the Christian church had just one pair of sandals for his feet.”

Other leaders must be shown that congregations have an important role to play in the public sphere, whether within their immediate neighborhoods or in the larger community. Understandably, congregations prioritize spirituality, but this can constrain them from addressing social problems. They may fear the possibility of gang members disrupting the status quo of the church or may be unsure of adapting church programs to meet the needs of a new group of members. Marco Antonio Martinez of Milo Terrace Baptist Church said, “I see some churches around the area that are dying out, sometimes [because] the pastor has lost his vision to go out there and make an impact.”

IVP introduced congregational leaders to theological models that expanded their more narrow understandings of how churches should function within communities, without giving up their spiritual commitments. A continuing emphasis in the program was reflected by the approach of Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray and Rev. Mark Whitlock. Murray and Whitlock drew upon their experience of First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME), one of the most successful and visible congregations in Los Angeles during the period of Pastor Murray’s tenure. After the 1992 civil unrest, the church created FAME Renaissance, which Mark Whitlock directed, and in subsequent years was the vehicle for $400 million of investment channeled into low-income neighborhoods in South LA. Similarly, Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, former executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), presented their model of “faith-rooted” community organizing where people are brought together to create change, but are guided and shaped at every step by their faith commitment and a confidence in God’s intervention in human history.

These models and others presented during IVP helped inspire Rev. Alan Wright and his wife Rev. T. Marvene Wright of Word Center Church of Los Angeles. Like many faith leaders, they hoped to influence young men and women in their neighborhood. They also recognized that their desire to help the community required a concrete expression, so they decided to join the Institute for Violence Prevention. Early in the program, after a field trip to the Los Angeles Summer Night Lights program, the Wrights began to realize that their church was an important community asset that could help in the battle against community violence.

For the Wrights, the simple action of letting young men play basketball on the church playground changed their perspective on community outreach and engagement for the Word Center Church of Los Angeles. Previously, they had looked at the young men clamoring to play and thought that it would take time and be a “bother.” Despite their apprehensions, they let the youth in and were immediately impressed by the respect that the youth showed. Soon, Marvene expanded a simple basketball game into “BBB,” basketball, Bible, and a bag of snacks. “If I hadn’t been part of the [IVP] program, I wouldn’t be thinking of it,” she said.

Bridging Divides and Creating Multicultural Partnerships

An additional community issue that limits the role of congregations is the tension in the community around the issue of ethnic and cultural differences, especially between Latinos and African Americans. The churches mirror these tensions. Despite the demographic shift that has taken place, there are few multi-ethnic congregations within these neighborhoods. While this is not necessarily a surprising result—multi-ethnic congregations are inherently fragile organizations—faith leaders in these communities need to understand the potential that their respective congregations represent if they can figure out ways to work together, if not worship together.

By design, the Institute for Violence Prevention included African American and Latino participants. The program also emphasized developing coalitions that bridge denominational and racial divides. The classroom settings encouraged cross-fertilization through group interaction where relationships could deepen.

According to a survey we administered at the beginning of the program, participants demonstrated a strong understanding of the importance of coalition-building but needed more information regarding how to build strong coalitions. A number of participants said that they were participating in multi-cultural coalitions, but only a limited number could provide examples. After the program, participants said they had gained a more nuanced understanding of the role and place of multi-cultural partnerships, increased their involvement in multi-cultural coalitions and campaigns, and had a deeper understanding of how to make such efforts successful.

During the course of the Institute for Violence Prevention, the Wrights demonstrated a new openness to engage their neighbors and use the resources of the church to assist neighborhood youth. The Wrights continued to express openness to new levels of partnership and coalition building throughout their IVP experience. At the end of the program, Alan discussed his newfound partnership with the Latino church across the street. Through the program, they discovered the importance of building multicultural alliances and coalitions with neighborhood churches. They looked across the street and realized that the Latino congregation was a potential partner. They opened their doors to Pastor Estrada for special events, such as a quinceñera (15th year birthday party), and shared toys from a Christmas toy drive with the congregation.

Alan even said that when he commented that he wanted to learn Spanish in order to create connections with the Latino congregations, a parishioner purchased Rosetta Stone software for him to learn the language. “The open gate policy…is just a starting point in my thinking. Now I can go out and be an open gate. I can open myself up as a gate and whatever resources I have or whatever I can give, whatever good things I have, I can give them away to other people,” said Alan. The Wrights experienced a change in their view of “church” from an experience on Sundays to a community-wide resource.

Harnessing the Productive Power of Research

The university setting for the Institute for Violence Prevention proved to be an important component of the program’s success. Interdenominational gatherings are rare and such gatherings with both African American and Latino pastors are rarer still. USC provided a neutral space for pastors to engage across these lines to address important issues.

In the course of the our data collection, however, it became apparent that a lack of clarity existed among the participants in the program about the role of research, the university, and academics in their communities. Presenters emphasized that additional training in research methodologies could significantly advance their abilities to create and operate effective programs in their areas of concern. Often those being studied, interviewed, or observed by social scientists feel abused, disempowered, and silenced by the work of the researcher. This phenomenon is most pronounced when the subject of the research is disenfranchised in other ways, including a lower socioeconomic status, underprivileged post in society, marginalized ethnic or racial categorization, and when the research is seen as yet another instance of moneyed interests taking advantage of their communities.

We sometimes encountered this sense of suspicion and anger during the course of our initial data collection with program participants. Those we interviewed often questioned our research motivations, the purpose of the interviews, the reasons this data was being collected, and to what use it was going to be put. One IVP fellow questioned how participating in such data collection exercises would effect any change in his community. “Researchers always come into our communities asking questions, but they just take what they need and never give anything back. They publish what they find but we don’t see any change where we live.” This sense that disadvantaged communities were being further marginalized by the academy was highlighted in this aspect of our work. However, this finding highlights the need for more work to be done in this area, not only to demystify the academy but to make research more accessible to these communities, and to create dialogues between researchers and communities.

Exit surveys administered at the close of Phase I of the IVP program revealed that a large majority of respondents wanted access to information that, with some training, could be reached through research tools, including internet searches, the use of Healthy City’s free mapping and database tool, or a simple web-based literature review. Respondents were looking for information such as the demographic characteristics of their target community, existing programs in their community, dropout rates in their community, homicide rates, income levels, locations of sex offenders in their neighborhood, healthcare resources, and the like. Such information, along with the desire to learn how to perform community assessments, were by far the most needed items listed in the exit survey at the end of the IVP program.

While the IVP program attempted to chip away at this problem by providing training facilitated by Healthy City, which introduced their databases and research platform while exploring the role of community research in their programming and program development, much more is needed to open up the potential that research can provide these programs. As previously stated, in order to address this gap the Center for Religion and Civic Culture contracted with Healthy City (www.healthycity.org) to develop community profiles in the three GRYD zones. Healthy City mapped active congregations, social services, and existing gang intervention assets, creating a resource directory to be used by program partners and participants to promote access, build networks, and identify potential stakeholders and partners. In addition, the resource directory allows partners to assess key gaps in services throughout the area.

Beyond providing the community profiles we believed that it was essential to train IVP participants in how they could use the online Healthy City resource so that these congregations and faith-based organizations could develop their own source of knowledge about their communities. Healthy City’s community research labs, offered free of charge to community groups, are an easy way to tackle this problem, but more coaching is needed to effectively resolve this gap. This was an important step in providing these leaders with access to information, giving them the tools for how to obtain data about their communities. Making knowledge accessible to those who could most effectively use such information to address root problems is an important goal worth tackling.

While it might be tempting to focus exclusively on the assets of religion in addressing community violence issues, and there are many, we believe that a practical approach of providing training and resources, can match good intentions with positive results. There are theological reasons that churches are not engaging the gang problem in their community; there are organizational reasons related to capacity that block them from this engagement; and many congregations lack fundamental knowledge about their community and its resources that would be helpful in developing funding and program strategies. In even the most crime-stricken neighborhoods, only a few people are actually engaging in violent activities. Consequently, quite a few churches are sheltered locations where people go to escape the problems in their community.

As Karl Marx rightly noted, religion can be an opiate to blunt the pain of everyday existence. However, religion also has the potential to inspire people to transform the conditions that give rise to this pain.

Gang violence can be addressed at several different levels. Homeboy Industries, led by Father Greg Boyle, is a wonderful example of a program that is helping young adults transition out of gangs. His motto that “nothing stops a bullet like a job” is absolutely true. However, there are other sources of community and gang violence besides joblessness. For many youth, gangs function as a surrogate family. A gang is the place where they seek identity and community. Many young people who join gangs have never been deeply loved; they have not been socialized into the values that promote healthy communities; and they have few skills that would enable them to be productive members of society as adults. As a result, it is understandable that they seek identification with a gang and engage in acts of violence that further erode the structures of a healthy community.

We are under no illusion that religion can solve the problem of violence in Los Angeles. However, it can play an important role in partnering with other community resources. Specifically, it can help strengthen family structures; it can provide mentors to youth that lack positive parental role models in their lives; it can create alternative activities to gang-banging, such as after school programs and sports programs; its members can befriend youth who are in the juvenile justice system and help insure that they receive a fair hearing and trial; and it can advocate politically for programs and policies that will challenge the complex factors that make their communities seedbeds of violence. IVP fellows were exposed to model programs that address each of these potential roles that religion can play in their community, although scant attention was paid to the complex problem of building healthy family structures—which, in itself, warrants a separate program.

Congregations and faith-based organizations are poised to do amazing things in their communities, and there are examples of successes particularly among larger congregations and faith-based organizations. However, for many congregations, especially smaller ones, there are many theological and organizational barriers that are problematic. Our experience with the Institute for Violence Prevention shows that many congregations and faith-based organizations have a desire to help, but often that desire is not matched with the necessary knowledge and organizational capacity. After their IVP experience however, many fellows were inspired to expand the scope of their ministries to include people from other ethnic groups, or to develop new recreational and mentoring activities to prevent youth from becoming involved in gangs.

We have discovered that desire alone or good intention is not enough. Stable institutions must be established before any programmatic interventions can be made. Further, developing stable institutions requires ongoing attention, first for basic organizational issues, then technical assistance, and finally strengthening organizations to the point where they can work with others to begin to address policy issues. We believe that ongoing investment into building stable organizations, solid programming, and eventual policy engagement must be a priority if the potential of congregations is to be realized in communities. Without this investment, some outlier successes could result, but real change in local neighborhoods will not occur.

The Institute for Violence Prevention demonstrated that bridging across cultures on issues of importance is an effective way of addressing community concerns and there is an openness and interest in participating in such multi-cultural initiatives. Hands-on training through organizations with proven effectiveness, when combined with classroom experience, is an effective method of engaging communities on issues of importance. The program proved to be successful in helping participants gain crucial skills, such as program development, campaigning, and identifying and targeting policy areas and concerns, while also inspiring leaders to action and generating networks across cultural boundaries amongst equally motivated and like-minded faith leaders.

Download the PDF of the report to read:

Postscript – Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement

Appendix – Method

IVP Organizational Partners