vision 20/20

Vision 20/20 is a collaborative initiative led by Pasadena Councilmember Jacque Robinson. It was formed in 2007 after a series of gang-related shootings took the lives of ten local young people. Vision 20/20 focuses on working with high-risk, high-need and gang-impacted youth in Pasadena and Altadena with the purpose of creating and supporting solution strategies that prevent and reduce community, gang and other forms of violence.

Flintridge serves on the Organizing Team that develops the agenda for Vision 20/20’s collaborative efforts and provides overall coordination and fiscal management for the alliance. Flintridge also participates in the Youth Development/Mental Health Work Group, which is working to ensure that all students in the Pasadena Unified School District have access to mental health services and to quality programs that help them successfully transition from middle to high school.

Flintridge was instrumental in the creation of an Apprenticeship Preparation Program as a strategy to deter gang involvement. The program prepares high-risk and former gang-affiliated young adults for paid apprenticeships and careers in the construction trades.

In addition, Flintridge participates in a planning team that is developing an Intervention Institute. The Institute will train former gang members to become outreach workers. These are street level practitioners with highly specialized skills. They are trained to go into difficult neighborhoods and to reach out to gang members who want to turn their lives around. The outreach workers also learn mediation techniques to help defuse situations of tension and conflict.

The Los Angeles County Office of the Human Relations Commission has facilitated the process of designing a pilot course that will launch this summer for up to a dozen students. Potential candidates for the training will be recruited by the Institute’s steering committee members. Taught by community gang experts, the 8- to 10- week course will lay the groundwork for the Institute’s future development and growth.

Photo: Brian Biery