Southside Activist Deserves to be Heard
TeamWork LA may help …

by Everett Littlefield

Maria Perez, a single parent of two children who resides in the Southside of Los Angeles, is a true community activist and volunteer. She's incredibly involved in her neighborhood, working in a church, in the schools and in an afternoon school program at a nearby parish.

Someday, she dreams, she'll have her own home -- for foster children or to use as a day care center.

As she encounters a local problem she communicates her concerns to the various city agencies. But there's been a lack of response from them, and she is having a difficult time in getting the cooperation of her fellow community members.

Ms. Perez is hoping that the Mayor's new initiative, TeamWork LA, may help.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: To learn more about TeamWork LA, and to reach your Mayor's Area Representative, please see below)

Perhaps it's her background that keeps her motivated to try to improve the quality of life in her community.

As a youngster Maria was advised by her father to become a lawyer. But on the way she got sidetracked, and came from Texas to Los Angeles in 1997 to work in the AFL-CIO Needle Trade Union as a Quality Control Supervisor at the Guess Gym Co.

She was disheartened with the working conditions at Guess Gym because she had a different vision of what the company and union should be doing for the workers. Their contract was not being enforced. They weren't providing basic rights for wages, working hours and a safe and healthy work environment. The company pushed the employees all the time, and was never satisfied with them.

With the support of her fellow workers Ms. Perez became a union activist, and represented them by presenting a variety of violations to the courts, the union, the Labor Commission and the California Occupational Health and Safety Association (CAL-OSHA).

She was able to improve the working conditions for herself and her fellow workers.

This experience in the work place, having the support of her fellow workers, learning the labor laws and getting results through the union, led her to become involved in the community where she now lives and works.

While working for Guess Gym she'd begun volunteering for the USC Child Development Head Start Program, and she also became an active member in the Episcopal Church of Saint Philip the Evangelist at 801 E-28th St. in South Los Angeles. It's adjacent to the 28th Street Elementary School on Stanford St.

Gaining experience in the USC Head Start Program, and guided by Rev. Altagracia Perez, Maria came highly recommended to the LAUSD Jefferson School Community Adult School where she is now a Supervisor / Coordinator of an Infant Care Aid program for patrons with children who participate in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. On a daily basis, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, she covers some 10 different Jefferson Community Adult School branch locations.

She's also been designated as a Community Representative to liaison with other community members and city agencies.

In addition she assists "The Children's Collective, Inc." in an after school program that offers organized activities and computer classes. It's for children 5 to 12 years old and uses the Parish Hall across the street from the church at 2800 Stanford St. She's there from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. weekdays.

Besides working at these three jobs, Maria has somehow found time to take several training classes with LAPD Operations Central Bureau's Adult Community, become certified with the Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART), and she's currently a member of Newton Division's on Community Police Advisory Board (C-PAB).

As if that wasn't enough, she has also taken a Community Empowerment class with Sister Maribeth Larkin of LA Metro Strategy, and several Criminal Justice classes for credit.

Even with her background as a union activist, and all her other activities, she is having a difficult time in mobilizing local community members. She is trusted and respected by them, but she feels stymied and frustrated.

Maria wonders why more community members will not come forward to participate, as her coworkers did in the union. Residents willing to talk to her say they are afraid to come forward, even to start a Neighborhood Watch or report gang activity and graffiti that is present everywhere.

Though she's largely had to act alone without much support, she's called on her own inner strength and energy not to let aloof community members or unresponsive city agencies discourage her from still trying to improve the quality of life in her community.

She's recently been introduced to the newly formed Mayor's program, TeamWork LA, and hopes that that Willard Sheffield, the South Region's Area Director, will listen to her concerns.

For starters, she'd like his help with removal of the graffiti on The Episcopal Church of St. Philip the Evangelist, and with catching the taggers responsible for doing this tagging.

She thinks this would clearly demonstrate to the community that TeamWork LA is an effective program, that can coordinate the city agencies -- and with better cooperation of community members there's every hope that a healthy partnership can be established to improve quality of life issues in their neighborhoods.

And if the program can be as effective in South Los Angeles as it is on the Eastside, Maria has every reason to be optimistic.

The Eastside Area Director for TeamWork LA, Lupe Franco-Butler, recently coordinated several city agencies.

Together they helped her respond to a community concern related to the infamous "Hyperion Bridge Attacker," a man who'd been accosting and raping young girls on and around the Hyperion Bridge, which crosses the Los Angeles River from Silver Lake to Atwater. Many Marshall High School students use the bridge going to and from school.

Rallied by Ms. Franco-Butler, the LAPD, Street Services and Department of Water, Building and Safety facilitated the efforts, meeting with the community, building a barrier fence next to a walkway, clearing brush and trees and having higher intensity lighting installed near a stairwell.

In an area plagued by a sexual predator for the last 7 years these measures were put in place to help prevent any further attacks -- and now students and their parents can breath a little easier.

Maria Perez understands that without the additional persistent communication of a crime issue from several community members of the Silver Lake and Atwater community, and without with Lupe Franco-Butler, the crime preventive measures would have never been put in place.

Maria hopes that one day soon her neighbors will see some similar results from the efforts of Willard Sheffield, the TeamWork LA South Area Director, and come to understand how important the TeamWork LA program can be in building a meaningful relationship between the residents and the various city agencies.

Meanwhile she'll be doing all she can to create meaningful partnerships with the community in dealing with crime and quality of life issues.

And, she'll tell you, there's a lot that needs to be done.

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To reach your Mayor's Area Representative
and learn more about the program click here:

TeamWork LA

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