Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties

SAN BERNARDINO, CA – Opening the eyes of inner city youth to the possibilities outside their neighborhood has been a major life changing event for 250 youth in the San Bernardino Metropolitan Area. Twice-a-week participants of the CalGRIP program get a chance to expand their horizons by attending Life Skills classes offered by Catholic Charities and by receiving work experience through the Urban Conservation Corps of the Inland Empire. CalGRIP stands for California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention and is an outgrowth of Operation Phoenix, a gang prevention initiative developed through the Office of Mayor Pat Morris. CalGRIP works with boys and girls ages 13 through 17 in three different neighborhoods of San Bernardino: Delman Heights, Waterman Gardens, and Medical Center.

“What we have are some kids who have never been out of the City of San Bernardino their entire lives! These are kids who have no after-school programs because they have been cut. These are kids who are out on the streets, because they have no other place to go,” said David Lee, Coordinator of the CalGRIP Lifeskills Program for Catholic Charities. “But they have every desire to better their lives, every desire to get jobs, and every desire to experience a world outside of gang life.”

Catholic Charities’ role in CalGRIP is to provide the youth with life skills to help them function in the areas of goal setting, problem solving, and stress management. Typically, the youth and their families receive comprehensive case management to help facilitate family harmony by providing food, utility assistance, transportation, or a number of other necessary services. A key component of the program is drug prevention through educational awareness and support.

“Community partnerships like CalGRIP have a huge impact on the community,” said Catholic Charities CEO Ken F. Sawa. “For every youth who participates in this program the neighborhood is lifted up. The neighborhood will now have kids moving in a positive direction: going after high school diplomas, securing new employment, and enrolling in higher education programs. Their focus is shifted toward productive achievements.”

An informal approach is taken when recruiting youth for the program. Typically, a neighborhood barbeque is arranged during which time a case-worker at Catholic Charities provides an orientation of the program. The orientation is a chance for the youth and their parents to discuss the program. The goal of the orientation is to get as many youth as possible interested in the program.

Once the youth are signed up, they are given an opportunity to change their lives by getting practical experience involving life skill and job skill training while performing forest work and city park maintenance.

“We begin to train them on how to work at a job, work as a team, how to keep a job; and the San Bernardino National Forest a tremendous setting for these kids to get those skills,” said Sandy Bonilla, Director of the Urban Conservation Corps of the Inland Empire. “We know through previous data that once they complete the program and expand their horizon in so many ways, they no longer see gangs as a viable way of life. Instead they see gang life as an impediment on their future income potential and ultimately a dead-end for their future.”

For more information please call David Lee at Catholic Charities office at (909) 388-1239.