Complex Life

Tookie Williams was certainly a controversial figure in life and in death. This review of his memoirs touches on the question of how much his upbringing in South Central affected him. And the question for us is how much the violence that exists in South Central today will impact on future generations?

The impact of Peacejam

Here's some more coverage about Peacejam, the International Conference on Peace that our young people took part in recently

How Gang violence impacts High School Football

It is tragic when one of the LA Times lead stories is about how two High School Football Teams are each playing without a player that had been killed through Gang Violence. Sad too that the article finishes talking about the need for increased security at LA Unified High School Football Games. But this is the reality in the Community that our young people face, and why now more than ever we need to provide more resources and more places for young people to be safe, away from the deadly streets.

Shout! Factory Closure

Middle School Poetry

Peacejam - What our amazing young people thought of the experience!!!

I would like to start by saying that participating in Peace Jam was one of the best experiences I ever had. Participating in the service learning project was the best part of the whole experience. Not only did this experience help me get closer to my peers but I saw how every single one of us learned really valuable organizing skills. This experience helped me figure out a hidden part of me. Through the learning service project we provided to our community I was able to take an important role in one of the workshops. By being one the facilitators in the poetry workshop I was able to communicate the importance of words through poetry and at the same time I was able to share my experience with people from different backgrounds. I got to admit that at first I was scare and I doubted myself. I didn’t know if I would be able to facilitate the workshop in front of 20 people four times through out the day. But I did it with the support of all my peers. There is nothing that I would change about how my peers and I facilitated the service learning project. But there is something I would have loved to seen different. I got to admit I was a bit disappointed about the fact that no noble peace winner at our location. We worked really hard to achieve our goal and a lot of the inspiration we got it from many of the noble peace winners.
I am very thankful I was able to assist the conference because I feel I was exposed to issues around the world that I had no idea were happening. As a conscious individual I always feel like there is so much to do towards improving people’s lives but at times I don’t know how to approach certain issues. Being part of the conference definitely helped me see how all these noble peace winners deal with the issues affecting their countries and how powerful they are as human beings. I was really inspired about the work these people do this is why some of my peers and I decided that every time we meet we will donated a dollar to a cause affecting people. We still have a lot to do but by doing this we feel we can start helping someone. Hearing the noble peace winners speak and the time spend withy my peers is something that I would not trade for anything. But if I could change something from the conference I would definitely change the food. I just feel we spend really long days and the food was not enough to nourish our bodies. I also feel that the family groups could have been more interactive. I felt like I got stuck with a bunch of grownups and the conversations were dried. Overall the conference was great and the whole experience irreplaceable.


Griselda Diaz

Charities, donors, advisers turn to planned giving

Rachel sent us in a great article about how Planned Giving is becoming more prominent on the Philanthropic Landscape

Rhino Bowling