By Melonie Magruder
Special to The Lookout News

August 24, 2010 – When turf wars claimed the lives of five young men in the Pico Neighborhood - all within five days - back in 1998, residents and youth advocates marched in the streets to demonstrate against neighborhood violence and demand public action.

Out of such community organizing rose the Pico Youth and Family Center, founded largely by SMMUSD board member Oscar de la Torre, with the goal of providing outreach and tutoring opportunities to disenfranchised and at-risk neighborhood youth.

(Right to left: Oscar de la Torres, Santa Monica Police Captain Al Venegas and
wife, Rita Hernandez Venegas. Photos by Melonie Magruder for the Lookout)

Saturday night, PYFC celebrated its third annual Hope and Unity Awards Banquet at Santa Monica’s Double Tree Inn, recognizing a group of local individuals who exemplify, as de la Torre said, “people who inspire us to do better.”

The banquet kicked off by lauding17-year-old award recipient Joey Bravo, whom de la Torre, a lifelong Pico Neighborhood resident, said, “gives you an idea of what can happen when a community provides fertile ground for transformation.”

The appropriately named Bravo was a promising student at Santa Monica High when street influences started to turn him in the wrong direction. He hung out on park benches and was arrested. He was transferred to Olympic High and found PYFC with its programs for SAT prep tutoring, free counseling from St. John’s Hospital therapists and mentors to encourage him to a leap of faith.

Bravo turned his life around. He focused on the challenge of going to college and, by the end of his junior year, he carried a 4.0 G.P.A.

(JOEY BRAVO and friend, Vanessa Wilson)

“I want to thank my mom,” Joey said while accepting his award, admitting he was not used to speaking before a crowd. “It’s been a long journey and we’ve been through a lot. But it’s been more positive than negative.”

Launched in 2002 with sponsorship from the city and support from local stakeholders like St. John’s Hospital, PYFC has served thousands of local youth through tutoring programs, leadership missions and violence prevention initiatives. One of their great strengths is the cross-support network established between the center, local schools, the police department and the city.

“We’ve had 40 young people killed in that eight-block radius between 16th and 23rd since 1989,” de la Torre said before the banquet. “Think of how many families that has impacted, how many have been traumatized by violence. Our work is so relevant because we are serving a part of the population that have been completely marginalized by poverty.”

That this “pocket of poverty” could exist so close to socially upper strata typical of Santa Monica is one of the city’s conundrums. Recognition of the seriousness of gang violence shook up the city council and, between 1996 and 2002, gang-related crime dropped 66 percent.

But challenges remain and PYFC’s programs steer local youth to music, digital filmmaking and job development goals, working closely with schools to keep the teens and young adults academically inspired.

De la Torre was particularly proud of Olympic High School, which, after 40 years, finally received formal accreditation this year.

“Now, when you take a diploma from Olympic, it really means something,” de la Torre said. “But you also have to ask yourself, why would it take a school forty years to achieve that accreditation? Well, we’re finally investing more money in the south-side schools.”

One of the award recipients Saturday night was the principal of Olympic High School, Janie Yuguchi Gates, largely responsible for the successful accreditation bid.

City Councilman Kevin McKeown has been a supporter of PYFC since its inception. He said that the five murders within a five-day period rattled him so thoroughly, he made a commitment then to do everything possible to stop the violence.

“The Pico Youth Center is about building self-esteem and showing these kids that they have a stake in this community,” McKeown said. “It’s our job to support it and we do. We fund it. We work cooperatively with them to help develop career paths. And we make sure that every new business in the city is aware of the tax advantages in creating real jobs for these youth - not just entry level work.”

Much of the center’s success lies in the program managers who come from similar backgrounds to the youth they serve. Johnny Ramirez grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and was graduating from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in history and Chicano studies when he met up with de la Torre at the 1998 peace march.

“Oscar had some flip charts and we sat down with some Coronas and talked about gang reduction,” Ramirez said. “I was into grass roots youth empowerment and we just clicked. Because we really do believe transformative change is possible.”

Ramirez has been with PYFC for five years, developing a music curriculum that teaches students not just the nuts and bolts of music production (a viable jobs skill), but the power of individual expression, framed in the voice of their communal consciousness.

“We get probation kids back on track with this,” Ramirez said. “Hip hop can bring out some of the deepest emotion. And at the same time, they’re learning rhythm, phonics, how to build a production team. The self-esteem they develop is what it’s about.”

Alex Kizu, another PYFC honoree, is an artist who has developed art programs for local youth. Their mural work can be seen at the recycling center across from Bergamont Station and at the Virginia Avenue Park center.

(Iyde and Mayaluna Munoz, wife and daughter of Award winner,
Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez)

Also honored was artist Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez, who has worked with Homeboy Industries to develop a program for “spontaneous murals,” otherwise known as graffiti art; and Michelle Castillo, a Santa Monica native, who has participated in PYFC’s “Girl Empowerment Circle” and is determined to become a psychologist and practice in her community.

PYFC’s film making classes put together two videos to screen for the banquet attendees. One highlighted the work of their Environmental Justice Campaign, established to protest construction of a train maintenance facility in the neighborhood and to bring awareness of the environmental toxicity under Stewart Park.

Another profiled the neighborhood’s efforts to raise $7000 for the family of Richie Juarez, a 19-year-old local youth who was shot to death last November.

De la Torre presented each awardee with a certificate signed by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (41st district), thanking them for the leadership and commitment they have shown their community.

“The Hope and Unity Awards really are about those who are role models for social equality and empowerment,” de la Torre said. “And if you want peace, there must be social justice.”