Other Highlights
MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA
City of Los Angeles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2009
CONTACT:
David Beltran
(213) 978-0741
MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA NAMES GUILLERMO CESPEDES NEW DIRECTOR OF GANG REDUCTION AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
With over 25 years of social work experience, Mr. Cespedes will oversee the City’s gang prevention, intervention and re-entry programs.
LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, joined by Chief William Bratton, Councilmember Janice Hahn, Reverend Jeff Carr and the city’s gang reduction and youth development workers, today named Guillermo Cespedes as the City’s new gang reduction and youth development director.
“Guillermo Cespedes has dedicated his entire life to helping those disenfranchised among us by working with innovative ideas that have brought communities together,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “I’m investing my full trust and confidence in Guillermo to bring the success of Summer Night Lights to our broader gang reduction efforts”
As the city’s new gang reduction director, Guillermo Cespedes will oversee and advance all aspects of the City’s efforts to reduce gang violence through enhanced opportunities for youth, as well as oversee all of the City’s gang prevention, intervention and re-entry programs in the Mayor’s gang reduction strategy.
Mr. Cespedes has over 25 years of experience in the design, implementation and supervision of the delivery of services to disadvantaged and at risk youth. He brings to the Office of Gang Reduction & Youth Development an expertise in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships between law enforcement, gang interventionist and the community that are crucial to addressing the root causes of gang crime.
Mr. Cespedes was the architect of the City’s successful gang reduction program, SUMMER NIGHT LIGHTS, playing a critical role in the expansion of the program to 16 sites in its second year. In this capacity, Mr. Cespedes was responsible for the overall implementation of the summer-long gang reduction program, which, in its first year, helped to record the City’s safest summer in more than 30 years.
In July of 2008, the Mayor and the City Council established the new Gang Reduction and Youth Development office under the Mayor’s authority to establish greater coordination, oversight, and accountability within the City’s gang reduction efforts.
In an effort to more effectively reduce and prevent gang crime, Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief William Bratton and other City leaders sought a major reorganization of the City’s gang prevention and intervention programs to compliment enhanced suppression efforts by the Los Angeles Police Department.
As part of the Mayor’s consolidated plan, the City’s LA Bridges gang prevention and intervention programs were discontinued, and the $13 million in city funds were redirected through a rigorous data-based process which targeted services in the twelve neighborhoods with the highest levels of gang violence.
After appointing the Reverend Jeff Carr to lead the new gang reduction effort, the Mayor’s office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development completed three rounds of funding of gang prevention and intervention organizations in all 12 of City’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones. The chosen organizations were awarded contracts, after going through a rigorous evaluations process-intended to attract organizations with proven and successful programs that address a full range of individual, family, peer, school and community factors contributing to high levels of juvenile delinquency and gang activity.
In an effort to reach youth most at risk of gang activity, the office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development, in partnership with gang researchers, have developed an assessment tool aimed at assisting community agencies identify youth most of need of gang prevention programming. The first of its kind in the country, the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET) is required to be implemented by all gang prevention and intervention providers in all 12 of the City’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones-with a contract with the city.
In the summer of 2008, the gang reduction office raised private funds to keep City parks open until midnight - helping to record the City’s safest summer in more than 30 years. In its second year of programming, the intervention program is building on its success by expanding to 16 sites in the Mayor’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development zones.
The new gang reduction director will replace Rev. Jeff Carr, who on September 18 will become the mayor’s new chief of staff.