Communities headed toward healing

These two articles in the L.A. Times about the community center ShareFest helped create in Harbor Gateway are examples of the direction ShareFest is nudging neighborhoods.

Both articles discuss the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center that ShareFest volunteers built on the Sixth Annual Workday, but they also show a glimpse of the community it is helping heal.

I accordance with ShareFest’s goals, the center is a step toward diffusing violence, gangs and racial tension in Harbor Gateway, but there is still change to be had in this area and so many others.

Let’s be proud of the work done but remember there is plenty more.

Youth center opens as racial tensions ease in Harbor Gateway

After Cheryl Green, a black teenager, was gunned down, allegedly by Latino gang members, near her house after school, her mother was approached by several African Americans offering to retaliate violently for her daughter’s death.

Earlier this week, Charlene Lovett recalled the moment, looking back on how tense relations between blacks and Latinos had become in the section of Harbor Gateway known as “The Strip.”

That was in December 2006, at a time when blacks said they feared Latino gangs were trying to push them out of the neighborhood. Lovett said retaliation, however, was not the answer.

Full article

Youth center named for victim of ethnic violence

Los Angeles officials on Monday dedicated the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center in Harbor Gateway, named after the African American teenager who was shot to death in 2006 by Latino gang members.

Green, 14, was killed near her home when a 204th Street gang member fired into a group of black youths on Harvard Boulevard, police said. The Latino gang had been preying on and attacking blacks for years.

Full article

Harbor Gateway community center opens

After two years of work, the Cheryl Green Community Youth Center in Harbor Gateway is open and ready to serve the community.

After a huge community push on ShareFest’s Sixth Annual Workday (that you can read about here), the Boys & Girls Club is now running programs after the center’s recent opening.

ShareFest, Janice Hahn, L.A. City officials and the entire Harbor Gateway community came together to unify the neighborhood and create a safe place for kids after the shooting of Cheryl Green more than two years ago. But her memory has caused the community galvanized to create  a safer environment for its youth.

The hand-painted sign outside the center

Here is a piece of an article the Daily Breeze ran about the opening of the center:

Charlene Lovett walked up the ramp Monday, stopped, looked at the lettering on the wall, and began to cry.

Two-and-a-half years after her 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Green, was killed in Harbor Gateway allegedly because of her race, Lovett’s dream of a community center for the neighborhood children had finally arrived.

Lovett took part in the opening of the Boys & Girls Club Harbor Gateway/Torrance Cheryl Green Community Youth Center.

The center at Del Amo Boulevard and Denker Avenue is just blocks from where Cheryl died, and takes the place of a dirt lot.

“Cheryl’s spirit is here,” Lovett said. “I’m looking at all the young kids here. It’s amazing that we are here together – Hispanic and black.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

The press is rolling in

More and more communities are taking notice of what ShareFest is doing, and newspapers from different neighborhoods are spreading the word about the Workday.

This is a bit of an article about Eagle’s Nest Preschool that ran in the Beach Reporter newspaper:

Nonprofit helps beautify El Segundo Preschool ‘Nest’ 

by Jennifer Evans 

Hauling wood chips, building cubbies and painting classrooms was all part of a volunteer effort by the community as well as the nonprofit organization ShareFest, when beautifying El Segundo’s Preschool “Eagle’s Nest” earlier this month.

Kelli Keller, preschool administrator and assistant principal at Center Street Elementary, said she was excited about the turnout of the event held May 2 at the city’s preschool.

“There were so many volunteers present, willingly working toward creating an improved environment for our community’s youth. They really need to be commended for their hard work,” Keller said.

Be sure to see the whole article here or on their Web site at http://www.tbrnews.com/.

This is just one of the many projects receiving attention. Every mural volunteers painted, tree they planted or quarter they deposited had an impact on the local community. These small, community newspapers are a great indicator of a city or neighborhood’s attitude toward the work ShareFest is doing.

See any articles in your local paper? Leave a comment and let us know.

More coverage of Banning High

The Palos Verdes Peninsula News ran an article today about the project that went on at Banning. Here’s a piece:

At Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, there’s a newfound sense of pride — pride in a school and pride in a certain group of students. But that school isn’t on the Hill and those kids aren’t from the Peninsula. It’s Banning High School and its students in Wilmington.

On Saturday, May 2, about 30 members of RHUMC spent the day painting, shoveling and cleaning alongside at least a sixth of Banning’s students.

As the 30 volunteers filtered onto campus, many were met by rap pumping out of a loudspeaker in the middle of campus and at least 550 teenagers and parents ready to serve.

“It was really good for people to see the reality of what life is like at some place outside of PV, and see that there’s pride and that people really care about getting an education,” Jo Hunt, a RHUMC member and Peninsula resident, said.

Be sure to check out the whole article here.