"BRIDGES" REINFORCES

It’s commonly known as the "City of Angels," but for those residing in South Central Los Angeles, the translation sounds more like an oxymoron than it does a blessing. Today, 400 gangs with more than 60,000 members rule the streets of this city. Those continuing to drive the numbers upward are youths between 10 and 14 years of age.

Located in South Central L.A., John Adams Middle School has 2,228 students on its roll books, 96.2 percent of whom are Latino. The residents of the John Adams community, much like other inner-cities where a high concentration of people of color reside, grapple with high poverty rates, low educational attainment, transiency complications, linguistic isolation and social dislocation. The area is further affected by an active gang presence that involves 64 different Latino urban street gangs. Understandably, these issues have proven detrimental to the learning process of some John Adams’ students as demonstrated by 794 suspensions and 38 student dropouts in 1997 alone.

Building "L.A. Bridges"

The John Adams community, and others like it, are the target of a fledgling program called "L.A. Bridges." Effecting positive change in the core areas of gang prevention and student academic achievement, while encouraging parents to lead more productive and balanced lives by taking advantage of an array of social services, is the program’s primary mission. In essence, L.A. Bridges provides inner-city residents with a "bridge" to a healthier lifestyle by giving them easy access to helpful resources.

Already, 26 middle schools throughout Los Angeles are benefiting from the program’s comprehensive services. Each school offers students and their families a plethora of services, coordinated through a lead agency, thanks to a collaboration of multiple human service providers located in the school’s geographic community.

The All Peoples Christian Center (APCC), the lead agency for the John Adams Middle School, is in its first year of operating an L.A. Bridges program and is already seeing remarkable successes. APCC coordinates the services of 19 community-based organizations including guidance clinics, medical centers, performing arts organizations, and police and probation departments.

Before launching L.A. Bridges, APCC conducted a community-engaging needs assessment, surveying approximately 150 youths, parents, school personnel and human service providers in the John Adams catchment area. The assessment showed staff the community’s strengths and needs. From there they prioritized the items identified and used the information as a guide for determining strengths that residents could draw upon and delineated appropriate programs and services to best serve the community’s needs.

Determining Who is Eligible for Services

To participate in the array of programs and services offered by L.A. Bridges, candidates must first meet specific criteria based on a complete psychosocial assessment that identifies the following characteristics exhibited by the family and student. Some of the criteria include the following:

Benefits to Students

Referrals to L.A. Bridges are made by teachers, parents, school administrators and the community at-large. So far, 259 John Adams students and their families are involved with APCC’s L.A. Bridges collaboration. These students take advantage of several on-site after school services including homework assistance, tutorial services and computer instruction; conflict resolution and mediation; and student focus groups dealing with complex social phenomena like race and ethnicity. Other programs and services center around developing and improving student interpersonal communication and leadership skills through cultural-community field trips among other program opportunities.

Benefits to Family Members

L.A. Bridges doesn’t serve just the student in trouble, it also helps strengthen his or her family unit by providing opportunities to improve parent education and literacy through ESL classes, citizenship courses and legal assistance. Furthermore, the collaboration provides services to enhance parent-student communication through individual and family counseling, in addition to many other human service efforts aimed at fostering academic excellence and assisting high-risk families.

Although APCC’s L.A. Bridges collaboration, as well as others in Los Angeles, continues to develop, the program’s services already appear to be making quite an impact. "The L.A. Bridges program is a positive step toward integrating family and community systems, both of which play significant roles in a student’s educational attainment," says Maria Ochoa, principal at John Adams Middle School. "As a result of the program’s case management component, I have witnessed profound changes in some of our students’ behaviors. Students are motivated; they are taking on more of a leadership role at home and school, and communication lines between students and parents have improved tremendously." Alan Scher, Assistant principal and Los Angeles Unified School District Bridges Site-Coordinator agrees. "Our at-risk students now seem to have a greater desire to attend school because they have been able to take advantage of a variety of after-school activities that are specifically tailored to meet their particular needs," he says. "Thus far, we have noticed improvement in students’ attitudes and behaviors, attendance and academic performance."

Changing Lives: A Profile

Miguel (not the student’s real name) consistently displayed inappropriate classroom behavior and was suspended on numerous occasions as a result. When conducting an assessment of the student and his family, L.A. Bridges’ staff discovered that Miguel’s father had recently died, causing the family financial hardship. As a surrogate support system, Miguel became involved with a gang.

Miguel was given a choice: he could join a gang and rely on his "homies," or seek support and direction through L.A. Bridges. Fortunately, Miguel chose L.A. Bridges. Artistically inclined, Miguel took advantage of several after school services, including that of Inside Out Community Arts, Inc. A performing arts company, Inside-Out provided Miguel with legal channels, such as art workshops, through which he could showcase his "graffiti talents." His participation in the organization’s drama classes was not only fun for Miguel, but actually helped him improve his communication skills, resulting in more productive and enjoyable relationships with peers, teachers and family members. Miguel no longer "hangs out" in the dean’s office or on the street, but he does regularly participate in L.A. Bridges, finding through it the support he needs to build a successful future.

Students like Miguel who attend John Adams Middle School and participate in the L.A. Bridge’s program are closely monitored by a case-review team that meets weekly. The team is composed of a dean and counselors, in addition to Assistant principal Scher and L.A. Bridges personnel. This multidisciplinary team continually updates and modifies student treatment plans and selects potential L.A. Bridges candidates who could benefit from the services provided.