6 NEW PROGRAMS TO GET ANTI-GANG FUNDS EVALUATION: PROGRAMS MUST KEEP AT-RISK YOUNGSTERS SAFE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh

Staff Writer

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday proposed hiring six contractors to manage gang-prevention programs in the city's hardest-hit areas -- a move designed to reinvent L.A.'s gang strategy, but one sure to upset nonprofits that had relied on city contracts for years.

The annual $500,000 contracts would be the first awarded since the mayor announced in April that he would end the L.A. Bridges gang-prevention program for lack of accountability and oversight.

Instead, the mayor pledged to reallocate the money to new contractors through a competitive bidding process that he says better ensures that the money leads to reduced gang membership.

Some 46 nonprofits applied for funding. Six were selected, including a church and a hospital, by the Mayor's Office. The City Council still must approve the contracts.

"I feel really, really good about this process and it's in line with what we've been saying from the beginning," said the Rev. Jeff Carr, director of the mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development.

"By doing this in the Mayor's Office, we can do this in a very deliberate, transparent way, and that's what is needed on this issue."

Some 20 nonprofit groups that had received funding under the Bridges program were rejected this time around, disappointing some longtime community leaders.

"We were very much surprised. We've had a number of evaluations done and we've met and exceeded every contract evaluation," said Bobby Arias, president of Communities In Schools, which applied unsuccessfully for funding in the Pacoima Gang Reduction Zone.

His group hopes to apply for future prevention and intervention contracts, as well as to partner with the grant recipient in the Pacoima area.

The Mayor's Office recommended funding El Nido Family Centers, which runs a parent and teen-parent education program in Pacoima. Executive Director Liz Herrera refused to comment on the group's gang-prevention proposal.

Some groups that lost funding have already begun to lobby City Council members, who must approve the contracts.

Councilman Bernard Parks, who heads the council's budget committee, said he expects losing bidders will appeal to the council because of the amount of time some of these groups have invested in the community and how much money is at stake.

"You can be sure we'll get calls because some of these people have had these programs for years," he said.

Carr said he hopes the City Council will support the Mayor's Office recommendations.

"I believe the City Council knows the importance of the moment we're in," Carr said.

"The constituents and taxpayers are looking for us to do things differently. I think this process that we've outlined today represents the first step in a new way of doing things."

The nonprofits selected will work in one of six gang-reduction zones. They include:

El Nido Family Centers in the Pacoima/Foothill zone.

Community Build in the Baldwin Village/Southwest zone.

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles in the Cypress Park/Northeast zone.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches in the Florence-Graham/77th zone.

People Coordinated Services in the Newton zone.

Violence Intervention Program in the Ramona Gardens/Hollenbeck zone.

With the $3 million in funding, the contractors are supposed to screen kids from 10 through 15 for certain risk factors that make a juvenile more vulnerable to joining a gang, such as antisocial behavior, aggression and lack of parental supervision.

Each contractor must select a minimum of 100 kids considered most at-risk and begin an intensive intervention, meaning face-to-face meetings at least three times a week with the juvenile and once a month with a parent.

During the year, caseworkers are supposed to provide mentoring, counseling, parental training, after-school activities and any other service that can keep that child from joining a gang. And the programs are expected to be evaluated for success after six months, and again after a year.

This is a big change from the Bridges program, the Mayor's Office said.

Previously, Bridges required only two contacts a year with most kids in the program. And the city didn't establish clear expectations with contractors and didn't measure whether the work was preventing kids from joining gangs.

While it's hard to deny funding to good organizations, Councilman Tony Cardenas said, the city has to deliver on its promise to reform the gang-prevention and -intervention system.

"In the past, everybody would shrug their shoulders and say, it looks like they're doing good work," said Cardenas, who heads the council's ad hoc committee on gang violence and youth development.

"There's nothing wrong with having these tangible, workable measures in place."

These six contracts are the first round of funding. The mayor has about $24 million this year for his gang strategy, and his office will seek proposals this fall for similar gang-prevention programs in the six remaining gang-reduction zones, and for gang-intervention efforts.

Staff Writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.

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