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• June 30, 2010

• Office of the Governor; June 30, 2010

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:

Thank you very much. Thank you. Great, great success story. And there are many, like I said; out of the 60 kids that were picked 51 are doing unbelievable, so I'm really proud of that.

 And because we talk about after-school programs, you also should know that we have two of the after-school programs -- there are several in the Los Angeles Area -- but LA's Best is here and After-School All-Stars is here. Carla Sanger, who started the whole After-School Program movement, who is sitting right out here, let's give her a big hand. (Applause)

You should know that when they started LA's Best and did an extraordinary job in expanding, I got together with her 20 years already and I said, "I want to go and get involved in that." And she encouraged me and so since then we have the After-School All-Stars, which is, of course, for middle schools and for high schools; hers is more for elementary schools. And we have been working together and she has been an unbelievable jewel and helped me also with passing Proposition 49, which was in 2002, which gives $500 million more to after-school programs. So it's an initiative that we passed then already in 2002. (Applause)

Then we have -- where are Carlos and Diego? Are they here from the After-School All-Stars? Oh yeah, right there. Hey, good to see you. Good to see you. So let's give him a big hand also, because he's the leader. (Applause)So anyway, so the bottom line is we've got to give our kids opportunities, we've got to give them jobs, we've got to

give them more money, we've got to give them more hugs and more love and attention and pump them up and tell them that they can do it. This is what this is all about.

And with that, now I want to bring out the next speaker. Here is someone that I have been working closely together with in order to help our kids, not only in the Los Angeles area but all over the state of California and that is Paul Seave. Please welcome Paul Seave. (Applause)

DIRECTOR SEAVE:

Well, good afternoon, everyone and it's really an honor and it is a pleasure to be here today. As the Governor mentioned, he appointed me three years ago to be director of his Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy, so let me talk about that about for a moment.

California cannot arrest its way out its gang problem. Enforcement is very important -- as I'm sure the sheriff will attest to -- but so is prevention, intervention and, perhaps most important in the long run, education and job training. When Governor Schwarzenegger created his Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Initiative, which we call CalGRIP, three years ago to address gang violence that afflicts so many cities, suburbs, rural areas throughout our state and when he created my office to direct the effort, he left no doubt that one area of attention that we had to focus on was education and job training.

So we are here today -- and you heard what the Governor said -- to celebrate the award of 16 CalGRIP grants, totaling more than $7 million, to help a number of California's state universities, community colleges and local organizations help our youth obtain the education, the training and the skills that they need to avoid or to escape lives with little hope and instead to lead meaningful and productive lives.

I am really excited by the grants to the six teacher career pathway partnerships. Each is made up, as the Governor mentioned, of a community college, a CSU and After-School Program and service providers, that will take gang-involved youth who did not graduate from high school or who graduated but with few prospects and provide them with education, services, part-time employment, with the goal of achieving their associate's degrees, their college degrees and then becoming teachers.

When I first heard about this strategy several years ago, candidly, I didn't believe it was possible. But as you heard the Governor recount and the president recount, the project that we helped -- the pilot project that we helped fund in fact has achieved precisely those results. The lesson is if we have high expectations and we provide appropriate support, our kids will soar.

Congratulations to those of you who will be receiving those grants and the best of luck. You have taken on a great responsibility and with it an extraordinary opportunity.

I would now like to introduce our next speaker, King Alexander, president of CSU, Long Beach. Thank you. (Applause)

PRESIDENT ALEXANDER:

Thank you all. And on behalf of the CSU -- there are six important CSU institutions that are very engaged in this grant; San Francisco State, San Diego State, Cal State East Bay, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Dominguez Hills with the partnership right here and Cal State Long Beach. And we're working with President Farmer at Cerritos College.

Many people think that when -- the gang problem is only a problem by keeping people out of gangs. Really, the problem is just beginning. Our job is to create pathways and we're not going to rest until we see these students walk across a stage and end up with pathways that will provide productive living, a productive economic living for each and every one of these citizens and these young, talented people. If we forget about them and their educational process they'll be back on the streets in no time and then we'll just be repeating the same things that we've been saying for years and years.

So I'd like to thank the Governor for his recognition and understanding that the problem is just beginning, by keeping them out of gangs. The most important thing we can do is give them pathways to finish high school, pathways to go into our great community college system, then pathways to finish college and go on CSU institutions -- at which many of their peers, their classmates, already are residing, because at CSU about 40 percent of our students are first-generation students.

We're committed in so many ways in the CSU to making sure that these students go on to productive citizenry in California that we're reserving spots in our colleges of education, just waiting for you guys, just waiting for each and every one of you students to finish here, to finish at Cerritos College, to finish at the many colleges. So you can just come to our campuses and enter our colleges of education, because we certainly need you. We need your experiences but, more importantly, we need your talent in our public schools. Our children of the future need your talent. And that's what this program is all about.

And I'd like to thank Packard for having the foresight to put this whole idea to work and Linda and President Spink here for making it and showing everybody else in the state that it can work for so many students. And we look forward to having hundreds and hundreds of our talented young people off the streets, in our colleges and in our universities in the years to come because of this grant.