Safe Passage is a program through the Thousand Oaks Police Department (TOPD) and Conejo Recreation and Parks District (CRPD) which started in 2014. According to their site, “Safe Passage has been contributing to a positive change in reducing gang activity and violent crime, while improving the quality of life for residents living in the affected multi-family communities in Thousand Oaks.” They are committed to eliminating gang-related crime by stopping gang recruitment among at-risk youth.Â
Throughout the past six months, I have personally worked with first through fifth grade students in one of the neighborhoods here in Thousand Oaks. The kids that I work with live in a low-income neighborhood in Thousand Oaks, which is something that many don’t think about. Thousand Oaks, for the most part is looked at as a wealthy neighborhood where white people are supposed to live; so, most of the time, low-income people of color aren’t taken into account within the city’s population.
Through Safe Passage, the kids have a Homework Club in which tutoring is offered for the first through fifth graders Monday through Thursday and sometimes there are activities for them on Fridays and Saturdays. I attend the Homework Club and volunteer as a tutor two times a week, most of the time helping the first grade students. Working with first graders and helping them with things such as math or learning how to read and sound out words is something that many people don’t realize is important to a child’s development.
Recently, both sites of the Safe Passage Program visited Cal Lutheran on Friday, February 15. There were about ninety kids who came to the university as well as some TOPD Explorers and CRPD workers. The kids arrived at about 9 a.m. and were greeted by Admissions Counselor Diana Hernandez and Campus Experience Coordinator Andrea Delgadillo. Through Admissions, the kids were able to learn a bit about the different majors CLU has to offer and they were also able to talk about their goals and aspirations for the future. From there, they had an engaging conversation with ALLIES in STEM director Lorenzo Ramirez and watched a demonstration that included his dog.Â
The students then went on to have a campus tour/scavenger hunt and despite the rain, were able to see the different buildings and activities CLU has to offer, from seeing the academic buildings to walking into the residence halls. They gathered for lunch afterwards where they interacted with other criminal justice professors including Molly George, Schannae Lucas, Helen Lim, and Robert Meadows as well as the Provost Leanne Neilson and Dean Jessica Lavariega Monforti and the Thousand Oaks Chief of Police, Tim Hagel. After lunch, the kids were able to play different sports, including basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, soccer, etc., with athletes from the teams. Even the professors and student volunteers joined in!
The kids had an amazing experience, from what they told me, and seeing it from my own eyes, I was happy to see them visit a university that they had never been to before, especially when it’s right in their backyards. A lot of the speakers they interacted with as well as the student volunteers are first generation college students, which is what many of the kids will be when they go to college; and I loved seeing them realize that college is an opportunity for them, even if there may not be as many people who look like them in higher education. I hope that by the time the students reach education beyond high school, that statistics such as these will change. Throughout their campus tour, the kids would earn points for each student who would high-five them, which excited them even more and was a way for them to engage with college students, even if it was just asking them for a simple high-five; and I hope that one day when they’re in college, they’ll be the ones high-fiving kids.
Many people continuously say that kids who are prone to gang violence and who live in neighborhoods where this goes on are at-risk of gang membership themselves, but we should try to take a term such as “at-risk” and change it to at-promise. There’s so much hope in these kids and what they want to be when they grow up, whether that be a teacher, police officer, lawyer, doctor, professional soccer player, veterinarian, etc., and they should know that all of the opportunities that middle and upper class people have, they have too and they shouldn’t give up on themselves.
All Photos Courtesy of the Author