UCLA Luskin Salutes the Class of 2015

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UCLA Luskin celebrated the graduating class of 2015 Friday, welcoming 68 students in urban planning, 56 students in public policy and 101 students in social welfare to the ranks of its alumni.

“This is how change is made,” Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., said in his opening remarks. “It starts with a small group of people who believe.”

His words resonated with the audience of faculty, family and friends, who have watched UCLA Luskin’s graduate students develop as change agents over the course of their education.

Three students addressed the crowd during the ceremony. Ana Tapia, who graduated with a master of urban and regional planning and who came to UCLA as an undocumented student after her family emigrated to the U.S. in 1994, spoke of how her degree encouraged her to follow her dreams. Urban planners, she said, “are people who turn dreams into reality. We not only dream and plan, but make things happen.” She urged her fellow students to “go dream, go plan and go on to do great things.”

Public Policy graduate CC Song cast her cohort as the “architects of the future,” devising and deploying policies to help build equity and create a better world. She spoke of being ready to take on life after graduate school, asking her fellow students to “find the courage to seek what makes you curious, fulfilled and challenged.”

Jennifer Chou, a graduate of UCLA Luskin’s Master of Social Welfare program, spoke about the “acceptance of not knowing” when confronted with an uncertain future. Her heartfelt speech included a rendition of a verse from the Louis Armstrong classic “What a Wonderful World.”

The invited speaker, newly installed Uber public relations executive Rachel Whetstone, brought in the perspective of a group not often mentioned on Commencement day — those who “don’t dream well.” Whetstone put herself in that category, and told the story of a career that proceeded not by some overarching grand scheme but instead progressed as a series of steps from college to internships to opportunities at various organizations.

She said her experience had taught her that hard work helps make up for the absence of a dream. “Pour yourself into your job,” she said, “even if it seems like a chore.” As she acknowledged and embraced the persona of the stereotypical overworked Silicon Valley executive, she relayed a story of a visit with a psychiastrist friend, who said something that stuck with her: “Has it ever occurred to you, Rachel, that hard work is what makes you happy?” Hard work can open up new horizons, she said, and she urged the graduating students to apply themselves to their work, “because if you don’t try, you will never, ever know.”

The ceremony was a mix of pomp and celebration, with a sense of impending change on the horizon. Dean Gilliam summed up the mood best through his quotation of, as he described it, a “classic of American Cinema,” the movie Friday.

“For most people, Friday’s just the day before the weekend,” he said. “But after this Friday, the neighborhood will never be the same.”

Counterpoint: Alumni Perspective on ‘Informal Cities’ As a planner for Los Angeles County, Jonathan P. Bell MA UP 05 has a different view of "informal" activities like street vending and unpermitted housing.

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Jonathan P. Bell

Jonathan P. Bell

By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

Last year, urban planning professors Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Vinit Mukhija published their book “The Informal American City,” exploring informal activities such as unpermitted housing and street vending across the country. To the authors, informal activities require understanding and potentially legitimization, to improve living and working conditions for citizens.

But having experienced the effects of informal housing firsthand through his work as a zoning enforcement planner, Jonathan P. Bell MA UP ’05 brings a different perspective to the debate of informal housing.

In his role at the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, Bell says informal housing complaints are common, leading him to investigate activities such as illegal street vending, yard sales and unpermitted home-based businesses, and even conversion of garden sheds into housing. But Bell finds the term “informality” itself to be a problem because he thinks it is a euphemism used by urban planners to mean ‘illegal.’

“The problem with the term ‘informal’ is that it softens reality of what’s actually happening with so called informal housing,” Bell says. “There’s nothing benign about uninspected and poorly built housing that’s frequently the cause of injuries or deaths. That is what’s happening in Los Angeles.”

Though he has worked closely with both Loukaitou-Sideris and Mukhija, as they both served on his capstone project committee while he attended UCLA, Bell has several critiques for the views expressed in their book. Bell says he thinks the depiction of informal housing as tidy, informal garage apartments are deceiving and make it easy to call for legalization of unpermitted dwelling units.

“People are getting hurt or killed in unpermitted housing far too often,” Bell said.“Yet the dangers of unpermitted housing are rarely discussed in the informality literature.”

A common argument for informal housing is that it provides affordable housing in Los Angeles for those who live below the poverty line or in low-income situations. According to Bell, the areas remain a poor housing option because they are unsafe and uninspected, often being priced at near market value.

Bell says he has a ‘boots on the ground’ zoning enforcement perspective, visiting local communities on a daily basis and talking to community members about their concerns and problems.

“Experiencing [informal activities] firsthand, [we] are much better prepared to propose solutions,” Bell says. “This helps us explain the gravity of the problem and the need for property owners to take responsibility to find safe and workable solutions through permitting the unsafe dwelling units.”

Finding a solution to the puzzle of informal housing demands the work of enforcement and urban planners as well as potential changes in policy. Though Bell says he thinks municipal codes and policies should be followed to ensure residents’ safety, he says one option would be to re-examine and change some municipal codes to support the development of safe and affordable housing options.

“For example, removing requirements for on-site covered parking facilities at residences could enable more legal garage conversions…along with the necessary environmental analyses and outreach strategies to explain these changes to weary communities,” he said. “But until then, we have municipal codes in place that are rooted in community health and safety. ”

Bell has written several articles and continues to write about the subject of Informal housing in the online magazine, UrbDeZine, including an interview with a UC Berkeley PhD student and his responses to counter arguments on the matter.

 

New Magazine Adds to LA’s Policy Conversation UCLA Blueprint, a new magazine bringing together policy research and civic leadership, debuted at a Wednesday event

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By Cynthia Lee
UCLA Newsroom

UCLA has launched a new magazine that aims to inform ongoing conversations on major public policy issues facing Los Angeles and California, serve as a public resource and highlight relevant campus research.

UCLA Blueprint — written and edited by veteran journalists and astute observers of local and state government — debuted this week with an issue focused on public safety and criminal justice. The magazine is a partnership between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and UCLA External Affairs, whose public outreach programs facilitate the campus’s role in addressing societal challenges.

At a Wednesday night event marking the magazine’s inaugural issue, Chancellor Gene Block said civic engagement has been one of his top priorities since the beginning of his administration. “UCLA engages with the greater Los Angeles community in myriad ways. And I am delighted to say that the launch of UCLA Blueprint is very much in keeping with our ongoing civic engagement efforts…. It’s dazzling in every way.”

Among the guests celebrating the launch of Blueprint was former California Gov. Gray Davis (left), standing with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Blueprint Editor-in-Chief Newton.

About 125 guests attended the event at the Chancellor’s Residence, including community and business leaders, UCLA administrators and faculty, journalists and government officials. Among them were Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former California Gov. Gray Davis, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, City Controller Ron Galperin and Los Angeles City Councilmembers Gil Cedillo, Paul Krekorian and Bernard Parks.

The event featured a wide-ranging conversation between Garcetti and Blueprint Editor-in-Chief Jim Newton, covering crime, the mayor’s extensive use of real-time data and metrics to monitor the pulse of the city, Los Angeles’ booming tech sector, the recent minimum-wage increase and other topics in the news.

Newton is a former Los Angeles Times writer and editor of 25 years, the author of biographies on Earl Warren and Dwight Eisenhower, and a co-author of a memoir with Leon Panetta.  He said before the event that the magazine is intended to strengthen UCLA’s ties to civic life and share faculty expertise in a way that serves the greater good.

“Much of the work of city, county and state government in California is now done without the benefit of serious research,” said Newton, a senior fellow at the Luskin School and lecturer in communication studies, where he teaches courses on journalism ethics and writing. “Largely, that’s a product of budgets — governments just don’t have the kind of research capacity they used to have. By bringing UCLA research to the attention of policymakers, better policy can be made.”

In the editor’s note in the first issue, Newton wrote that he spent more than two decades “watching sausage being made in city, county and state government (and occasionally the school board), often baffled by the basis for decisions. Why doesn’t the subway go to the airport? Why does the region capture so little rainwater? Why do some drug offenders spend more time in prison than those convicted of violent crimes? The poison in each case is politics. The antidote is research.”

Newton emphasized before Wednesday’s event that Blueprint is not an academic journal. “We’re striving to make it serious and journalistic, a general-interest magazine that’s accessible to people beyond the core policy community,” he said. “This is a region that is famously disengaged on matters of serious government policy, and this magazine is intended to draw people into those conversations and give them the information they need to help them participate.”

Replete with bold, attention-getting graphics, the first issue of Blueprint takes a sweeping look at criminal justice and public safety from a variety of entry points. Beck, the LAPD’s top cop, talks about how policing has changed. UCLA Luskin researcher Michael Stoll reveals what’s behind the surge in the U.S. prison population. UCLA psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff explains how he measures hidden racial bias in law enforcement. And in a Q&A, California Attorney General Kamala Harris talks about the biggest challenge she has faced in fixing the state criminal justice system.

There’s also a profile of a community activist whose call for reform of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been transformed into a rallying cry among protesters nationwide — “Black lives matter.”

Newton said the debut issue addresses criminal justice and public safety because police use of force is increasingly in the headlines and because the topics are familiar to him — he covered the LAPD as a reporter for five years.

In the discussion Wednesday, Garcetti reflected on the recent unrest in Baltimore and L.A.’s own problems.

“We had Rodney King.… We had the consent decree. We had Ramparts,” he said. “It is through the trauma that we went through that Los Angeles is a more resilient city and [has] a more resilient [police] department.… What a police chief says, what a mayor does, who we collectively are as a city in moments of potential trauma is, first and foremost, what good policing — good public safety — is all about.”

Blueprint’s second issue, due out this fall, will focus on economic and social inequality and include an interview with Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, a Columbia University economist and respected author. Newton said he hopes the magazine will grow into a quarterly publication, and he plans to hold public events to extend the discourse around each new issue.

“Not only are we trying to create a conversation online and in print,” Newton said, “but a literal conversation where we will gather together policymakers, journalists, academics and other thoughtful people and hope that they learn from each other.”

 

Shawn Landres Named Civil Society Fellow The cofounder of Jumpstart Labs will work with students and researchers to better understand giving and civic well-being.

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Social and civic entrepreneur Shawn Landres is serving as Civil Society Fellow in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs for the spring and fall quarters, 2015. He is advising The Center for Civil Society on research, meeting with students and guest lecturing in classes, participating in outreach, and working with the Luskin Center for Innovation to develop a civic innovation summit during the 2015-16 academic year.

Dr. Landres cofounded Jumpstart Labs, a Los Angeles-based think tank and infrastructure support organization known for its applied research on faith-based social innovation, and chairs the board of Hub Los Angeles, a social enterprise development center in Los Angeles’s Arts District. A member of the Los Angeles County Quality and Productivity Commission, he chairs its Strategic Foresight Working Group.  Dr. Landres also co-chairs the Santa Monica Public Library’s Innovation Technology Task Force.

“Shawn Landres is a dynamic player in the Los Angeles nonprofit and philanthropic community and beyond,” said Bill Parent, acting director of the Luskin Center for Civil Society. “He is accomplished in solution-oriented leadership, innovation, and research. It is great to have him with us at UCLA.”

Dr. Landres co-conceived and led Jumpstart’s six-part Connected to Give series, a nationally representative study of religion and American household charitable giving. He will be working with the CCS and the California Community Foundation on a study and forecast of giving and civic well-being across Los Angeles to be conducted during the summer of 2015.

“Across the private, public, and charitable sectors, successful innovation is rooted in listening, whether to the data that informs the challenges at hand or to the people closest to them, who are best positioned to lead sustainable change,” said Dr. Landres. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to work with the insightful research team at UCLA Luskin to help advance effective evidence-based policymaking.”

Dr. Landres holds degrees in religious studies and social anthropology from Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned his doctorate. He is a member of the board of directors of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. Dr. Landres has co-edited four books and published award-winning articles and essays that advance intergroup understanding. He has more than two decades of experience in academic, nonprofit, and philanthropic leadership, social entrepreneurship, network building, and organizational development.  In 2009, The Forward named Dr. Landres one of America’s 50 most influential Jewish leaders. In 2012, the White House featured him as a “spotlight innovator” at its Faith-Based Social Innovation Conference and in 2013, the Liberty Hill Foundation honored him with its NextGen Leadership Award.

Fellowship Donor’s Life is a Window on History With her support of an endowed fellowship for urban planning students focusing on transportation, Pat Shoup hopes to demonstrate the power of education

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By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

“I have very happy memories of my childhood in Northern Ireland,” Pat Shoup says. “The way I think of my life is before the U.S. and after I came to the U.S., in two distinct parts.”

Though she remembers her childhood fondly, playing field hockey, becoming head girl of her high school, and obtaining the highest honor as a Queen’s Guide in the equivalent of Girl Scouts, her environment had always been sensitive to the history of the “troubles” that partitioned Ireland in 1921. Although she loved Northern Ireland, which was peaceful when she grew up there, she chose to go to the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and remembers feeling lucky to study in such a beautiful medieval town.

A year after graduating, Pat met a young American named Donald Shoup when her brother invited him to their parents’ house in Northern Ireland. The whole family fell in love with Donald, including Pat. After he returned to the U.S., she and Donald wrote to each other for two years. In 1964 they arranged to meet again in Heidelberg, Germany, where she was teaching English at a Berlitz School. That summer they became engaged, and in 1965 she emigrated to the United States, a journey that would mark a turning point in her life and career.

When she landed in New York, Pat Shoup was 25 years old and excited to embark on a new journey, a journey that began with a Humber bicycle constructed for her by Donald from a kit.

Having left everything behind, Shoup said she was in need of a job and attempted to continue her teaching career by taking a summer MAT course at Yale. After struggling through a temporary job trying to teach American history, she realized teaching was not for her.

In 1968, Shoup and her husband moved to California when when he won a postdoctoral appointment at UCLA, and she began her career as an editor for academic journals by working freelance for Sage Publications. When the University of Michigan appointed her husband an assistant professor, she worked for the university press in Ann Arbor and was the editor for the 1970 Survey of Consumer Finances. When the couple moved back to Los Angeles, Pat worked on campus for various journals, including Law & Society Review at the UCLA Law School and The Journal of Symbolic Logic, as well as doing freelance jobs for the university press.

Though she has edited numerous academic journals, Shoup’s passion for writing lies in fiction and poetry. Some of her poetry has been published, and one of her poems was published in a collection of works selected by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.

“Writing is the thread that seems to run through my life,” Shoup says. “I wrote letters every week to my parents (when I came to the U.S.). You couldn’t just phone somebody. My life has been strung along the line of writing letters to people who mattered most to me or my own ambition to be a writer.”

Despite veering away from her own ambition of becoming an author, Shoup remains interested in writing fiction and a memoir. She took a UCLA extension course on memoir writing and says she has written fragments of a memoir that she wants to complete one day. “I want to remember what it was like in Northern Ireland when I was young because it was such a happy place then, not as the media later represented it. I was terribly upset by what happened,” she says. “I would like to let people know that it wasn’t always like that.”

Some of her work, including a published short story “Times of Trouble,” has been inspired by her feelings of displacement after the Northern Ireland “troubles” reignited in 1969. Shoup remembers being shocked to learn that one place she remembered fondly from her childhood was later the scene of Lord Louis Mountbatten’s assassination. “During the Second World War, my parents would take us for summer holidays to the west of Ireland to Mullaghmore, where I learned to swim in the harbor,” Shoup says. “Years later, that was the place where Mountbatten (Prince Philip’s uncle), who owned a castle there, was blown up by an IRA bomb planted in his boat. I heard the news in 1979 on the radio here in Los Angeles. I felt as if someone had hit me with lightning.”

Shoup said she and her husband share a passion for writing and editing to produce the best possible work. “You need a lot of things to keep you together and interested in each other,” she said. “I’m very proud of him and we have worked together on his writing because it’s so important to both of us.”

Pat and Donald Shoup edited The High Cost of Free Parking together and she has played a key role in its success. She has also played a role in funding the Donald and Pat Shoup Endowed Fellowship in Urban Planning.

“I care about how students can be helped because we both believe that education is the most important thing that young people can get,” she said. “We decided a long time ago we’d like to leave some money to help future students, and Donald’s retirement seems like a good time to do that. What amazes me is how many other people have contributed so generously to the fellowship, and we are both extremely grateful to them all.”

Students Reflect on Experiences From Japan Yearly visits to Japan provide insight on reconstruction, education, and transportation

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By Angel Ibañez
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

For the fourth consecutive year UCLA Luskin students visited Japan to learn about its unique culture and public policy perspective. The trip was organized by UCLA Luskin students and consisted of three groups that visited cities within three policy areas in Japan: reconstruction, education, and transportation & economy.

The 2015 Luskin Japan Trip Report collects the stories and experiences from thirty-nine students across the Public Policy, Social Welfare and Urban Planning departments that traveled to the region earlier this year. In the trip over Spring Break, groups of students toured the National Diet of Japan—the home of the Japanese legislature—ministries, and local schools. The trip spanned five days and covered six different cities and areas including Fukushima, Kyoto and Yamanashi.

 

Luskin Students and Professors Tackle the “Silver Tsumani” of Aging America The economics and logistics of an aging population presents one of the greatest challenges to social welfare

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By Adeney Zo
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

Gerontology and social welfare go hand in hand, and the intersection of these two fields may be the key to solving America’s future. As the largest living generation in America (the “Baby Boomers”) enters retirement age, there is a growing demand for professionals trained to work with the elderly.

“Many researchers are calling the aging of America’s population the “silver tsunami” because the demographics of the country are so dramatically shifting in the direction of 65+ age group,” said social welfare student and researcher Hayley Schleifstein.

At the Luskin School, student organizations like the Gerontology & Geriatrics Interest Group (GIG) and the Social Welfare Gerontology Caucus work to raise awareness and interest in working with the aged population. “My research interest is getting young people involved,” said Lia Marshall, a social welfare doctoral student. “I want to introduce them to this idea when they’re young and maybe 10 years from now, it might be their career.”

But the Baby Boomer generation is not the only large population in America – the current generation of Millenials (ages 18-34) are about to surpass the Baby Boomers in population size.

“This will be the first time in 150 years where there are as many individuals, 80 million, in Millenials as Baby Boomers,” said Social Welfare and Public Policy professor Fernando Torres-Gil.

For America, this statistic means that the same number of people will be simultaneously entering the work force and retiring – and that the Millenials will be funding social benefits (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) for the Baby Boomers while carrying the knowledge that those benefits may well be gone by their own retirement.

Professor Torres-Gil’s research tackles these difficult policy issues along with the political implications of aging. His work is aimed towards finding policy solutions for a large aging population and creating new structures of support for future generations. “There is no consensus about how to provide reasonable quality of life for the elderly,” said Torres-Gil. “These [issues] go right into the heart of policy, politics, and visceral concerns. People wonder: Who will take care of me when I’m old? Congress is divided because the public is divided.”

However, there may be hope for the future brewing at UCLA. “The good news is that UCLA has very active young people and clubs volunteering for senior programs. We even have an undergraduate minor in gerontology,” said Torres-Gil. “Once we educate people, they are much more open and interested.”

On April 9, the Luskin School hosted its first Careers in Aging Week event to highlight professional opportunities in gerontology as well as its importance to this generation. “Careers in Aging Week” is an annual, nationwide movement sponsored by the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) that draws attention to growing career opportunities with the aging population.

Valerie Coleman, an organizer for the Luskin Careers in Aging Week, entered Urban Planning with a distinct interest in working with the aging population. “When I came into the Luskin, my classmates were surprised at my interest,” said Coleman. “So last year, I coordinated an event with Luskin students about working with the aging population and how it will affect all our careers.”

This year, Coleman teamed up with Zoe Koehler, co-chair for the Gerontology Caucus, and Lia Marshall, co-coordinator for GIG, to coordinate an official Careers in Aging Week event.

“I was especially impressed at the varied turnout at our Networking event, in which a few business and economics students showed up,” said Koehler. “This goes to show that the issue of our aging society is and will be relevant to students of all disciplines.”

The UCLA event featured an afternoon panel with a multidisciplinary array of leaders in the field of aging and aging research, including Professor Torres-Gil. The panel was followed by a networking event that allowed for participants to interact with professionals from the field and discover the variety of opportunities connected to the aging population.

“Careers in Aging is an important event right now because by 2050, 1 out of 5 people will be over the age of 65,” said Koehler. “Whether UCLA students intentionally choose to go specifically into work with seniors or not, they will be working with seniors. We want to help prepare students for the reality of our rapidly shifting and aging demographic in this country.”

 

To learn more about gerontology at Luskin, visit the GIG website at:

http://uclagig.weebly.com/

 

 

 

Uber’s Whetstone to Speak at Commencement Rachel Whetstone, senior vice president of policy and communications for ride-sharing service Uber, will give the 2015 Commencement address

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By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

As the digital age continues to advance with implications across all areas of public life, UCLA Luskin searches for ways to increasingly integrate technology in its students’ understanding of policy, planning and social work.

Rachel Whetstone, senior vice president of policy and communications at Uber, will give her insight as a woman with experience in technology, communications and public policy during the 2015 Commencement Ceremony at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Prior to her appointment at Uber this year, Rachel Whetstone served as senior vice president of communications and policy at Google since 2005. Formerly, Whetstone held posts in government in the United Kingdom, including service as Michael Howard’s chief of staff following his election to leadership of the conservative party.

In 2013, Whetstone was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by “Woman’s Hour” on BBC radio.

When she joined Google in 2005, she became an advisor to CEO Larry Page and handled many of the company’s biggest policy issues including the recent anti-trust charges in Europe, according to Business Insider.

At Uber she will face similar challenges related to policy and public relations, including challenges to Uber’s business model from taxi companies and aggressive expansion plans, according to Re/Code.

The UCLA Luskin commencement ceremony will be held in Royce Hall on Friday, June 12, at 9 am.

 

Leap Honors Dads in ‘Project Fatherhood’ In her new book, Social Welfare professor Jorja Leap tells stories of former gang members who have decided to commit to their roles as fathers

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By Adeney Zo
UCLA Luskin Student Writer

In her first book, Jumped In, Social Welfare professor Jorja Leap told the story of her life as a “ganster anthropologist,” and an observer and advocate for the young men and women caught up in the life of gangs. Her new book, Project Fatherhood, is about the life that some of these men have chosen to live after leaving the streets—as fathers to their sons. In an environment where involved fathers were hard to find, these men are committed to changing the dynamic for their children.

Leap sat down for this Q&A in advance of the book’s release party on Thursday, June 4.

How did you first become involved with Project Fatherhood?

I’ve known Mike Cummings [co-facilitator of Project Fatherhood] for 15 years. I wrote about him in my first book, and he called me about this group he was starting  with the Children’s Institute. They needed a social worker to co-lead the group, so I literally jumped at the chance. I have been actively involved as a social worker and researcher, trying to help people all of my life.

What made you interested specifically in the Watts community and this project?

I got my MSW at UCLA in 1978 and started working in Watts. I see it as the community I belong to—my parents are from South LA and I was born and raised there for part of  my life. I’m committed to it.

How does Project Fatherhood work differently from other gang intervention programs? What makes it effective?

It’s completely different, especially in its development. Without any organization or guidance, these are former gang members who wanted to reach out [to their children] and be fathers. We all know that the absence of fathers is a huge youth risk factor that leads to a lot of problems in school and community-based activities. It’s a terrible burden for young people that affects them throughout their lives. Project Fatherhood is more like a gang prevention program. Youth with incarcerated fathers find father mentors [through Project Fatherhood], which softens the cycle of life for the next generation. This is also a way for men who were former gang members to father one another. They all grew up without fathers, and now they are helping each other learn to be fathers. It’s so incredible to witness and be part of this for 4 years.

One of the key research findings is the kind of strong leadership that already existed in community. If we are looking at how to rebuild communities in the future, we need leadership that comes from within the community.

How does this book differ from Jumped In?

Jumped In is about what studying gangs taught me. It was very personal. I discussed raising my own child, so it was a memoir as well as a humanizing story of gang members. This book [Project Fatherhood] is about the project—there’s a little about me but mostly it’s about them and the issue of poverty.

Working in the field, teaching at UCLA, and publishing a book each have a different scope of impact. What sort of impact do you hope to make with Project Fatherhood, and what do you hope readers will ultimately take away from the book?

My goal is that the program will be funded and supported. All the proceeds from the book go to Project Fatherhood, the men who really deserve this kind of funding.  I want the stories of these men to be out in the world. We also need to build leadership in the community, and we have to be the support for what exists in that community. UCLA Luskin plays an important role in this—the role of wanting to support and conduct research within these communities. It’s wonderful to be here and be part of a program working to build that kind of community strength.

I want readers to understand what the experience of these men is truly like, who these men are as human beings. I want to show the “new Jim Crow,” this issue of men of color being incarcerated for long periods of time, and what it cost them, their family and community. I also want people to have hope as they read and see how devoted these men are—this is not a problem story, but a hope story. I want to show that strength and dedication is out there.

How did the fathers react to your decision to write a book about them?

I was a little bit worried when I brought it up, but they were very positive, very proud and excited. In the past when I did Jumped In, I worked carefully to disguise the interviewee’s identities. As I interviewed the fathers [from Project Fatherhood] and asked how they felt about being named, they all said, “Don’t worry, you can use our names. Tell the truth.” They were so honest and so open in wanting to share. It was an overwhelming experience, seeing how meaningful their commitment was to the program.

The truth is, I always felt like I belonged in Watts, and this project strengthened my attachment, belief and commitment. People who read the book will understand that we [the fathers and I] had big fights—it was not all sunshine and roses. We really struggled, but we were very open about how we made each other angry. I could have never imagined that through the past four years, this closeness and understanding would develop.

How can the public contribute to a solution for gang violence and poverty in communities like Watts? Do you recommend any programs or resources that offer the chance for people to take action?

I am hoping to bring support for the programs that already exist, that are there and are working. I hope this book will help leadership development and economic development. These are good fathers, good providers who want jobs. They don’t want to raise kids on the county and public support—they want to make a living. It’s quite striking; many people think they want to live on welfare, but that is the farthest thing from the truth.

As part of the UCLA Luskin faculty, I will be sponsoring a book party on June 4. This is an all-day event, and we’re even bringing youth from Watts to tour UCLA and work out with the football team. Copies of the book will be available before the release date on June 9, or Father’s Day. [The event] is really not about me, but the fathers who will be there to speak about their experiences. I really urge the UCLA community to come out and hear their voices.