Nonprofits, businesses, partner to feed needy on Thanksgiving

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer Posted: 11/14/2009 06:11:00 AM PST 
 

Last November, more than nearly 500 people showed up for the free Thanksgiving feast provided by Catholic Charities at a San Bernardino nightclub.

This Thanksgiving, at the end of yet another tough year for countless families, the number could easily grow.

So to ensure there is enough turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie to go around, the nonprofit is partnering with other organizations and businesses.

"It takes many entities working together. For example, it's not just Catholic Charities making this happen, it's the community that makes it work," said Beverly Earl, director of the San Bernardino County Family and Community Services Department for the nonprofit.

The organization, that reaches out to the needy in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, is one of many partnering with others to make sure they can provide food and other services during the holiday season.

In the case of Catholic Charities, it is working with nonprofits, including Young Visionaries and Time for Change Foundation. to provide a meal for the needy from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., on Thanksgiving at the Brandin Iron Saloon in San Bernardino.

Bill Thomas, owner of the saloon, said it is a big enough facility to provide the service and he is happy to do it.

"One of our philosophies is to be part of the community, and I couldn't think of anything better to do on Thanksgiving than feed the needy," he said. "It also offers our guests the opportunity to participate in serving the less fortunate."

To ensure everything works out for a Thanksgiving dinner and coat giveaway slated for 4 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 24, at San Bernardino's Family Focus Center, the center has partnered with a nearby high school and a Redlands-based radio station.

"We operate from the perspective that when you bring to gether a number of people who have a passion for the poor and the underserved, you can definitely make a difference," said Linda McDonald, vice president of mission services for St. Bernardine Medical Center, which operates the center.

Athletes from San Bernardino High School will serve food and clean up at the center.

And Redlands-based radio station KSGN, is helping out with the drive to collect gently-used coats, jackets and sweaters, which will be donated to families after the dinner.

People are invited to drop off items at valet parking at the main entrance of St. Bernardine Medical Center, in the week ahead.

"We all have a different role we play, and in our case we use the airwaves to get the message out to the people," said Peggy Stapleton, account executive for the radio station.

Another long existing partnership is between Inland Empire Job Corps culinary students and the Salvation Army's Hospitality House shelter on Fifth Street in San Bernardino.

The culinary students typically bake hundreds of pies for the annual Thanksgiving feast, which has brought as many as 800 people to the Salvation Army.

This time around they will donate, 300 cherry, apple and pumpkin pies to the shelter for the dinner at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving.

The students then stick around to volunteer.

"They are a joy to work with," said Roosevelt Carroll, director of the Hospitality House shelter. "And by doing this together, we touch everyone not just one or two people."

San Bernardino Community Police Academy aims to improve communication, trust between police, residents

"We need to get some sensitivity in there, put together small events so we can both better understand each other," said Stone, who is president of the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy. "Then regular folk might have a different idea when there's a police shooting or other incident."

The Police Department's first Community Police Academy concluded last week and about 30 residents who varied in age, ethnicity and neighborhood graduated from the six-week class.

Out on patrol Friday, San Bernardino police Officer Jose Loera, left, updates Westside Food & Liquor employee Bassem Hassanieh about a recent burglary. (Al Cuizon / Staff Photographer)

They got crash courses in crime analysis, SWAT training, graffiti investigations, traffic laws and how Internal Affairs processes complaints of police misconduct.

Karla Miles, a teacher at Riley Elementary, brought a dozen sets of parents to class with her to ease their uncertainty about police. She was delighted that the department provided a Spanish translator so the parents could fully understand.

Thomas McCaa, 65, is a former taxi cab driver and said he joined the academy to enhance "situational awareness" in his neighborhood and better learn how to lower crime in San Bernardino.

"There's a lot more people than there are police. We can't leave it all to them," he said. "I think most of the problem is the fear of the unknown. A little understanding on both sides can do a lot of good."

Police instructors said they also learned and appreciated the questions asked by attendees because it gave them insight into community concerns.

Homicide Sgt. Dave Dillon knows people are afraid of being labeled a snitch. He is no longer surprised when a witness refuses to identify a killer or even give a statement.

"People are afraid. They're scared to death to come forward," Dillon said. "But if they're not willing to cooperate, there's not much we can do."

"It's a shame. We have hundreds of unsolved cases that we can't solve because people won't talk to us."

stacia.glenn@inlandnewspapers.com, (909) 386-3887

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer Posted: 11/08/2009 06:02:38 AM PST

To ensure students at San Bernardino High School do not experience gang violence or other negative influences as they walk to and from school, an area nonprofit is working with the school on a new safety program.

Young Visionaries, a nonprofit that helps youth stay on the right path, the mayor's office and high school staff are behind an effort to get Operation Safe Passage up and running.

"We know we live in a city that has its challenges, so this is a way to be proactive, to put eyes and ears in the community to keep students safe," said principal Sandra Rodriguez.

There have not been specific problems at the high school, but it is on the border of one of the city's most crime-ridden areas, where there were 65 felony arrests in October.

And incidents near the school have included a jogger targeting young women and students getting their pockets checked for cash, iPods and cell phones, said Roberto Martinez, program coordinator for Young Visionaries.

To make students feel safe the program will entail placing easily identifiable volunteers, wearing orange vests with the Operate Safe Passage logo, at locations near the school as students walk to and from school.

If the monitors see any signs of trouble they will use two-way radios to contact school police.

The high school and Young Visionaries had hoped to get the program under way in October.

But it needs volunteers, preferably people who live near the high school, to get off the ground.

The volunteers will need to go through background checks to ensure they do not have a history of violence or a criminal background.

So far, steps taken to start up Operation Safe Passage include creating a logo for the program.

The artwork, a large hand clasping a small hand in front of a backdrop of buildings, a city street and mountains, was created by San Bernardino High School student Fernando Sosa, before he recently graduated.

In addition to appearing on vests worn by monitors, the logo will be posted on some business and nonprofit windows in San Bernardino to let students know they can enter the offices, if they run into trouble.

Safe passage programs have meet with success in the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Moreno Valley Unified School District, said Martinez.

Khalid Shah, board member of the Regional Violence Prevention Coalition in Moreno Valley, said Safe Passage was created in the school district there after a fight at a middle school in 2007, that led to a parent being pulled from a car and knocked unconscious.

It has proven to be successful, with teachers reporting no major outbursts since, he said.

Eventually, organizers hope to see Operation Safe Passage implemented at other San Bernardino district schools.

"A safe community is a community where residents are actively engaged in keeping it safe," said San Bernardino City Unified School District Police Chief Gary Underwood. "So we hope to get this running by the end of this month."

Program urges youth to become advocates for social change

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer Posted: 10/25/2009 07:02:32 AM PDT 

 Young Visionaries  a program that gives kids and parents more individualized attention in areas like anger and stress management and building potential that has had an impact on youth in the community," she said. "So we felt how can we get youth to be empowered to make changes in their own community."

Around 30 teens and their parents showed up at Friday night's orientation at the Young Visionaries office.

Parent Pete Hernandez, who was there with his son Sammy Hernandez, 12, said he came because it sounded like a good project for teens.

"I used to be involved with gangs and drugs myself, when I was around his age," he said. "So I want to see my son take the right path."

Teens who attended the orientation and enrolled in the project will attend an annual youth violence prevention/intervention leaders training retreat, help establish a youth and parent violence prevention council and attend community organizing and advocacy training with Congregrations Organized for Prophet Engagement, C.O.P.E.

In addition, they will attend creative writing workshops through The Let's Write Out Loud Program and develop a Pistols 2 Pencils online newsletter and a public television talk show, as well as participate in showcases, radio shows and concerts.

"I want my son to get involved in writing and other activities to utilize his hands in a better way," said Delita Woods, who attended with her son Chris Campbell, 15. "I really hope it is a life changing experience for him."

deborah.pfeiffer@inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 386-3879

YOUNG VISONARIES AWARDED $79,755 FROM CALIFORNIA ENDOWMENT FOR YOUTH ACTION CORE AGAINST VIOLENCE

  Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy has received an award from the California Endowment in the amount of $79,755 to target issues of gun violence. The award provides funding for the Youth Action Core Against Violence advocacy group, which is a youth led project that will advocate against issues of gun violence. The project will train local youth leaders on how make social changes in their local community. They will learn how to conduct community organizing activities, implement local advocacy strategies, and how to garner community support. Ultimately they want to impact political power bases to promote an awareness of and education centering on the issues of gun violence, illegal access to weapons, community risk factors, and resulting impacts. The group will use four key strategies:

·         Hosting an annual Youth Violence Prevention/Intervention Leaders training retreat

·         Establishing a Youth and Parent Violence Prevention Council that will work in conjunction with a project youth organizer to identify and develop outreach and education activities

·         Provide community organizing and advocacy training through a partnership with Congregations Organized for Prophet Engagement (COPE), Minister Sam Casey

·         Provide stipends to youth team leaders that assume leadership roles and make a significant contribution to the project

Young Visionaries Youth Organizer, Monette Miles will recruit youth and coordinate youth services with the support of a project advisory team. The grant proposal was inspired by the California 13 Cities Gang Prevention Network, which the City of San Bernardino is involved with. Young Visionaries CEO Terrance Stone and the San Bernardino Countywide Gangs and Drugs Task Force Coordinator Kimberly Epps are members of the City of San Bernardino network panel, and both wanted to initiate a project that empowered youth through skill building and training to be local leaders.  Terrance Stone noted, “This is an important issue that needs to be on the minds of everyone-youth, parents, politicians, you name it.”  His sentiments were echoed by Kimberly Epps who added, “Gun violence is a very real issue. As a Probation Officer I taught court ordered Weapons Diversion classes for ten years. Probation recognized this issue early on, and we were the first to offer local classes that informed youth and parents about the civil, social, and legal consequences of youth possessing guns, accessing guns within the home, and safe storage laws. This project will take the issue to a different level that will hopefully garner local system changes through youth action.”

###

Press release

Terrance Stone CEO

Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy

(909) 881-3382

April 24, 2009

Young Visionaries is the $7,500 recipient of a 2009 Community Impact Fund grant from The Community Foundation Serving Riverside & San Bernardino Counties. The From Corners to College (FCTC) Program will focus on youth who reside in the County of San Bernardino , who are between the ages of 14-18, are gang associated, and desire to participate in the program. The project goal is to assist high risk gang associated youth to find a way to receive the support that they and their families need to refrain from gang involvement and graduate from high school. This program will utilize several strategies to support the youth in the community. Each youth will be assessed for unmet needs, they will be assigned a volunteer mentor who will commit their time to each youth, each youth will be scheduled to meet and design an educational plan that reviews strategies to assist the youth in getting to the goal of graduation from high school, each youth will meet weekly for gang intervention and tutoring services, each youth will be required to complete 20 hours of community service yearly, and each family will be engaged in the process. The assumption is that if youth are engaged and supported in their environment the likelihood of graduation from high school increases and the likelihood of repeated criminal (gang) activity decreases.

These services also include access to a therapist, crisis intervention as a means of support for the family, and case management. Once the youth has been able to achieve positive outcomes they will be assigned a summer internship in the community. This program is unique in that its focus is on high risk gang associated youth who are often overlooked and underserved. There are a few programs that attempt to complete the same goals, but none that exist in the County of San Bernardino at this time. This program also utilizes summer internships in the community and emphasizes community service as a means towards pro-social ideology.

For more information Contact,

Terrance L. Stone
President/CEO
Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy
office (909) 881-3382

Actor Inspires Murphy Students With Real Story

Students at Bob Murphy County Community Day School could relate to Jason Finn as an actor watching the movie "Freedom Writers" on March 4. They embraced his message personally when he showed up to their campus following the screening.

"I went to a school like this," Finn told about 150 Murphy students in their packed multipurpose room. "I was 18 and basically had my last chance to get it right before I went off the deep end.

"I actually do care about you, because I've been in the same position you are right now."

Finn was brought to Murphy by Terrance Stone, president of the Young Visionairies Youth Leadership Academy in San Bernardino.

Stone said he felt that Finn's message and story, not to mention his role in the "Freedom Writers," would resonate with the Murphy students.

He was right. Following the movie, the students gave the movie rousing applause. The movie portrayed the true story of high school students in Long Beach who overcame tough circumstances to flourish academically because of a teacher and graduate from high school.

After Finn spoke to the students, most stayed after the presentation to have him sign autographs and meet him. "He gets paid a lot of money and yet he wanted to come and share his story with you," Principal George Bowser told his students. "Give him a round of applause."

The students did.

What turned Finn's life around, ironically, was getting shot, he said. He had been kicked out of his L.A. high school and had attended a continuation school. Finn said he realized he needed to stop living for himself and started living for his family, his little sister, his nephew, his mom.

It was soon after being shot that Finn was able to land a role in the movie, "Freedom Writers," in 2006. It was a video where his comments about being shot were seen that landed him an audition to play in the movie.

Finn told the Murphy students that they needed to have a vision of what they could become, develop a plan to make that vision possible and foster hope to make sure it happened.

"Don't be stupid," he said. "Y'all know the right way. Do it the right way."

Keeping children safe

Juvenile justice officials honor those helping kids Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Article Launched: 10/08/2008 09:51:52 PM PDT
counseling for victims.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, which offers educational programs about reproductive health, body image, nutrition and domestic violence.

Youth Alternative Solutions Program, which aids teenagers arrested on drug and alcohol-related offenses.

Individual award recipients were:

Karen Bell, chief deputy district attorney for the juvenile division, who has worked to stop truancy.

Martin Chavez, who distributes food at Adelanto-based Community Tool Box, runs the Adelanto Youth Connection and Adelanto Youth Leadership programs.

Malcolm Driggs of the County Schools Alliance for Education, who works with business, labor and other community leaders so students can learn about various professions.

G. Christopher Gardner, chief deputy public defender, who has worked on various juvenile delinquency issues and other youth-related ventures.

Rich Randolph, a Colton police officer, who started the Cops `N' Jocks program, which works to bring high school students together with police officers.

Terrance Stone, founder of the nonprofit Young Visionaries, which runs anti-gang programs.

Awards fete service to youth

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Article Launched: 10/08/2008 08:54:45 PM PDT
counseling for victims.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, which offers educational programs about reproductive health, body image, nutrition and domestic violence.

Youth Alternative Solutions Program, which aids teenagers arrested on drug and alcohol-related offenses.

Individual award recipients were:

Karen Bell, chief deputy district attorney for the juvenile division, who has worked to stop truancy.

Martin Chavez, who distributes food at Adelanto-based Community Tool Box, runs the Adelanto Youth Connection and Adelanto Youth Leadership programs.

Malcolm Driggs of the County Schools Alliance for Education, who works with business, labor and other community leaders so students can learn about various professions.

G. Christopher Gardner, chief deputy public defender, who has worked on various juvenile delinquency issues and other youth-related ventures.

Rich Randolph, a Colton police officer, who started the Cops `N' Jocks program, which works to bring high school students together with police officers.

Terrance Stone, founder of the nonprofit Young Visionaries, which runs anti-gang programs.

jason.pesick@inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 386-3861.

August 12, 2008

Rest in Peace Bo Taylor

The late "Bo" Taylor (left) with Terrance Stone

Among those mourning Monday's death of Darren "Bo" Taylor is Terrance Stone of Young Visionaries Youth Ministries in San Bernardino.
"Man, that was a good dude," Stone told me this afternoon. "He was my mentor. He was the one I called for advice whenever I needed it."
Taylor gained fame as a former Los Angeles gang member turned interventionist. He crusaded against gang violence, working the streets, hosting a radio show and helping to organize, with USC's Pete Carroll, UNITY One, which focuses on intervention and prevention.
He died of cancer.
"I remember when I was still in gang, and he had this intervention thing going, and it helped convince me to turn things around," Stone said.
Today, Young Visionaries is among the most respected gang intervention efforts in the San Bernardino area. When Stone and his group held the first Mynisha's Circle awards ceremony at Cal State San Bernardino in May 2007, Taylor made sure he attended. He also paid Stone's tuition at Cal State LA.
"His personal honesty, his opinion, meant so much to me and others."

Posted by Steve Lambert at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anti-gang activist Bo Taylor dies of cancer

Staff Reports Article Launched: 08/12/2008 09:39:25 PM PDT
The death of Darren "Bo" Taylor won't mean an end to his grass-roots war on gangs.

In San Bernardino, Taylor's protege Terrance Stone said the fight goes on.

"Man, that was a good dude," said Stone, who runs Young Visionaries Youth Ministries. "He was my mentor. He was the one I called for advice whenever I needed it."

Taylor, who died Monday of cancer, gained fame as a Los Angeles gang member turned interventionist. He crusaded against gang violence, working the streets, hosting a radio show and organizing UNITY One, which focuses on intervention and prevention.

"I remember when I was still in a gang, and he had this intervention thing going, and it helped convince me to turn things around," Stone said.

Today, Young Visionaries is among the most respected gang-intervention efforts in the San Bernardino area. When Stone and his group held the first Mynisha's Circle awards ceremony at Cal State San Bernardino in May 2007, Taylor made sure he attended. He also paid Stone's tuition at Cal State Los Angeles.

"His personal honesty, his opinion, meant so much to me and others," Stone said.

Youth-cops interplay stands on shaky legs

Robert Rogers, Staff Writer Article Launched: 07/26/2008 11:13:37 PM PDT
personal cars.

The lunches, T-shirts and some equipment is all paid for out of the police union's coffers, and the approved expenditures are nearly gone, Stone said.

On Saturday, a half-dozen off-duty police officers played basketball and lifted weights with the youths, most of whom hail from the Waterman Gardens and West San Bernardino housing projects.

"It's important to keep this going," Stone said. "It's one of the few opportunities these kids have to interact with police in a mentorship role."

Saving young lives

Robert Rogers, Staff Writer Article Launched: 07/27/2008 09:55:04 PM PDT
Photo Gallery: Waterman Gardens

SAN BERNARDINO - Jermontay Belton is a diamond in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods.

The 12-year-old runs faster than all but the fleetest adults. He sprints, flips, and vaults off his hands into mind-bending spins like a gymnast.

Self-taught.

His raw but quick mind picks up board games in a blink. But for all his prodigious talent, Jermontay's future is shrouded in the haze of poverty and gang culture into which he was born.

He's aggressive, and his salty language is already tailored to the streets.

Jermontay stands at the razor's

Jermontay Belton, 12, plays with his brother Darreon Thompson, 6, on Thursday at the youth center at Waterman Gardens in San Bernardino. The center provides games, fun and activities for the children of the housing project despite its meager budget. (Gabriel Luis Acosta/Staff Photographer) edge of his young life - he can go either way.

It's children like Jermontay who Top Flight Education and Sports Organization, a nonprofit organization that serves youths in the Waterman Gardens housing project, is contracted to provide after-school activities.

"We do what we can with what we have," said Jason Williams, 23, a part-time manager for Top Flight who runs the Waterman Gardens Community Center. "These kids need us."

Waterman Gardens, located on the southeast corner of Waterman Avenue and Base Line, is a 252-unit subsidized housing project that has always been poor. In recent years, it has been marred by violence.

In June 2006, a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed on his mother's porch in a dispute over a cell phone. In April 2007, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head and killed on Waterman Avenue, near the complex. The assailants fled into Waterman Gardens.

Both crimes - and boys - are well-remembered by kids here.

Within this grim milieu, nonprofits like Top Flight represent the only safe, constructive community outlet for children whose parents often have neither the time nor means to provide much more than food, shelter and clothing.

And they do the job on the cheap.

Top Flight's contract with the County Housing Authority provides about $53,000 annually, most of which goes to part-time, $8-per-hour employees to monitor the center four hours per day. Two other nonprofits, Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy and the Bobby G. Vega Foundations, have contracts splitting the remaining $37,000 to provide services.

All totaled, there is about $90,000 annually for youth programs, or about $357 per apartment unit, a figure even the Housing Authority itself admits is undesirably low.

And the money hasn't grown with the times.

"There is not much funding for youth programs compared to past years," said Alison Crawford, a County Housing Authority spokeswoman.

Crawford said the Housing Authority hopes the future brings more resources from the federal government and from private sector partners, but says the reduction in funding in recent years has diminished the amount and effectiveness of their youth programs.

In the past five years, the funding the Housing Authority receives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been on the steady decline, Crawford said.

"We used to have basketball, baseball and football leagues," Crawford said.

Will Gray, Top Flight's executive director and himself a former child of urban poverty in South Central Los Angeles, bemoaned the loss of sports programming.

Top Flight and the Housing Authority first partnered in 1999 with the intention of running all-ages youth sports leagues. Meanwhile, Top Flight would run after-school programs in the Waterman Gardens Community Center and Johnson Hall on the Westside.

But money for the sports league dried up by 2004, Gray said, leaving him enough to run the center for four hours per day, and only for children up to age 13.

The other two nonprofits in the gardens focus on older children and offer computer and conservation training.

"With sports, you can change kids," Gray said.

But not all is lost, not by a long shot. On a recent afternoon, Jermontay and about 20 others, a band of scrappy kids like 13-year-olds Cortez Porter (he excels at pingpong) and E.J. Green (rarely without his skateboard) took to the field to play a disorganized game of football under Williams' watchful eye.

Jermontay dominated, as usual, but something happened that was slightly different. When Cortez asked for the ball, the typically bullying Jermontay paused, then flipped it to the smaller boy.

"I promised his family we'd look after Jermontay," Williams said, smiling at the boy's subtle growth.

Teens step up for foster kids

Robert Rogers, Staff Writer Article Launched: 06/25/2008 09:53:41 PM PDT
SAN BERNARDINO - Martin Exposito is small, slight and 15 years old.

But his face wore the hard stare of a world-weary man as he shouldered supply sacks and slung them onto a truck.

Martin helped other kids - kids gripped in hardships he knows all about.

"I used to be in the same situation," Martin said. "It's tough, I know."

Martin lives in a Bloomington group home for troubled teens, but growing up, he bounced between foster homes after his mother died.

Early Wednesday morning, Martin and more than a dozen other teens volunteered to distribute 1,700 bags of blankets, toys, toiletries and other supplies to children in foster care.

The annual event brings together more than a dozen

Kzane Barnes, 14, of Mentone is all smiles with goodies that were handed out to foster-care kids Wednesday at the Children s Fund Warehouse in San Bernardino. (LaFonzo Carter/Staff Photographer) public and private organizations to give out sacks of personal supplies to the county's foster children. The My Stuff Bags Foundation donates bags stocked with various combinations of personals for boys and girls.

Stater Bros. lent a truck to pick up the merchandise in San Diego and haul it to the Children's Fund Warehouse on Arrowhead Avenue, said spokeswoman Heather Lint.

At the warehouse, the teens, who volunteered through the county's Kinship Families program and nonprofit Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, helped load the bags onto the trucks and minivans.

County and private agencies, including the Operation Phoenix Foundation, the Department of Children's Services and the Transitional Age Youth program took the bags Wednesday and today to distribute to the children their programs serve, Lent said.

Amidst the smiles that surrounded the giving of goodies, program leaders acknowledged the state budget crunch weighed heavily on their future.

The Children's Fund is maintained through private donations and administered by county staff, but looming state cuts to health and human services have the county braced for tightening its belts.

"For this year we're looking good," said Assistant County Administrator Linda Haugan. "But beyond that, all my programs are jeopardized in one way or another (by the budget crisis)."

But for the volunteers, Sacramento was no concern.

Clarence Green, 14, lost his mom to a drug overdose when he was 3. Now he lives in the Acts for Children group home and wants to be a social worker when he grows up.

"Being little and picked on and feeling alone," Clarence said, struggling to enunciate through his bulky dental braces. "I know all about how that feels."

The Firm fights with words

Article Launched: 06/16/2008 07:22:03 PM PDT
The Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy hasn't given up the fight against street violence in San Bernardino.

Terrance Stone, Young Visionaries' executive director, is working to build "The Firm," a team of mediators that he says could help prevent gang shootings and other violence.

Stone plans to recruit reformed gang members and others to broker gang cease-fires, watch children walking to and from school and provide the city's roughest neighborhoods with positive role models.

The Firm, or Field Intervention Response Mediators, offers some hope for a city that saw violent crime increase 7 percent in 2007. Though the city's murder rate has fallen the past two years, we know there is still plenty of work to be done to make San Bernardino safer for its youth.

Stone's program surely isn't the solution to reducing crime in San Bernardino - we believe strongly that crime prevention and intervention programs must be backed up by law enforcement.

But the program just as surely has the potential to help diffuse hostility on the streets before it erupts into the kind of retaliatory attacks that have become far too common in the lives of far too many children.

We applaud Stone and Young Visionaries for believing in the power of words. May their message be heard loud and clear.