It is not a fast or easy process, and the value of cooperation must be affirmed continuously. CA A task force of 28 residents, agency heads, officials, students, and faculty meet, visit community leaders, and travel to other communities for ideas and training. One project was to work with a neighborhood association in an area troubled by gang violence, drugs, graffiti, and a decline in vital community. The task force set up a Neighborhood Watch, organized clean-up teams, and established youth programs. Now gang violence has ended, the neighborhood is cleaner, and the association is continuing to work with community police and schools.
Institutions can change.
This project not only increased the confidence of these high school students to define and change their conditions, but it also proved to be both a practical and political lesson for families. The youth and adults built a community of interest that wasn't there before. In a big community meeting attended by more than 200 people, students presented their video and proposed solutions to school board officials and their principal. Communities can change. Without a large setting for the sharing of community values, the common sense of purpose that gives people the courage they may need to be creative will not be fostered.