MAKING A DIFFERENCE : To Fight Drugs, Guard a Crosswalk and Plant a Garden : Alliance for a Drug Free Community

If oppressive environments make people more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, why not help those residents create a safe and more pleasant community as a form of prevention? That’s the philosophy of the Los Angeles Alliance for a Drug Free Community.

Founded in 1992 with funds from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the alliance’s concentrates on grass- roots solutions. Since then, its community relations coordinators have worked with neighbors around 16 elementary schools in four Los Angeles communities- Pico Union, Westlake, Echo Park / Highland Park and Wilmington. The goal of the New City / Pueblo Nuevo Prevention Projects is to train families to become vocal activists and visible deterrants to unsafe conditions they identify in their communities.

“These are parent- driven projects,” says coordinator Gloria Lockhart. “We train parents to conduct meetings, to develop their own strategies, to work with each other and with city, school or any other bureaucracy. The bottom line is that we want to leave people with concrete organizing experience and techniques. They know their communities better than you or I; they know the changes they’d like to make. Our job is to show them resources available and help them tap into their capabilities.”

GETTING RESULTS

Monte Vista Elementary School Highland Park

Organized: October, 1992

Active membership: 15-30 parents, meeting weekly

Safety Concerns:

* hold-ups, drive-by shootings, prostitution and drug dealing near school

* children stranded in intersections because of improperly timed traffic lights

* no crosswalk sign or lines painted at intersection across from the school; traffic signs obstructed by trees and absent from nearby streets

Parents’ Response:

* organize a parent corps of crossing guards who also keep an eye out for criminal activity

* conduct meetings with city council representative on speeding, signage and crosswalk concerns

Official Action:

* speed humps installed and speed limit signs approved for streets surrounding school

* traffic signals changed to allow children more crossing time; signs moved out of greenery; crosswalk painting authorized

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Esperanza Elementary School in Westlake

Organized: June, 1993

Active membership: 30 parents, meeting monthly

Safety Concerns:

* drug trafficking, prostitutionn, violent crime on the streets near and alley beside the school

* presence of more than 40 bars, pool halls, liquor outlets and liquor billboards within half-mile radius of the school

* speed signs indicating 30 mph, instead of 25 mph on streets around the school

* used condoms, syringes and other drug paraphenalia around the school’s unfinished, makeshift landscaping and fencing*

Parents’ Response:

* plot specific routes that children can use to avoid some of the advertisements and establishments that sell alcohol and cigarettes

* build and maintain a family garden at the school to beautify area; pick up litter around the school monthly; circulate petition to notify school and city officials about litter and incomplete fencing

* conduct meetings with city council field deputy, police, school and transportation officials to discuss solutions to safety concerns

* meet monthly with neighborhood and business watch groups to broaden community awareness about safety issues

* design and distribute to parents of school children 1,000 English/Spanish directories of city and school resources to use in their organizing efforts

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Official Action:

* locked gate installed to restrict access to alley near school

* speed limit on streets adjacent to school lowered

TO GET INVOLVED

Call (213) 625-7557.

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Parents of Esperanza Elementary School students made a “safe passages” map to help their children avoid liquor outlets, bars and liquor billboards on their way home.