What started as a compelled feeling to lend our (young professionals) knowledge and wisdom to tomorrow’s leaders, turned to be a great inaugural program for the CLIMB Youth Leadership Institute.

In CLIMB’s journey of service, there are simultaneous efforts that occur during the various activities and operations: efforts to showcase what we do, efforts to seek out more volunteers, efforts to attract funders, etc.

With that said, after being introduced to Ira McAliley (Tight Spots Media) through Curtis Jewell (President & CEO of MyCypher.com), we were excited to finally capture [through video form] a portion of our work and be able to show our many supporters/potential funders a glimpse of CLIMB in action.

Lastly, I ask that you please help spread the word and efforts of CLIMB, by simply reposting the video link (here), adding to your facebook profile, or any other form of broadcasting. We thank you in advance and always encourage you to get involved, join the CLIMB.

pictured above: Students learn in a cheerful room, part of a campus that sits in an area of seafood and produce wholesalers, social service agencies, single-room-occupancy hotels and auto-parts shops.

A downtown arts center signals constancy and community.

By Christopher Hawthorne / Architecture Critic (LA Times)

“In this neighborhood the most radical thing you could do was make a white building,” architect Michael Maltzan told me on a recent afternoon as we toured the campus of Inner-City Arts, where his firm completed an $8.5-million expansion earlier this fall.

The ICA complex — which indeed has the surprising brightness of a soap-opera actor’s teeth seen up close, or the pages deep inside a newspaper that has yellowed on top — offers classes in the arts to students bused in from a number of public-school campuses. Its 1-acre site, at 7th and Kohler streets near the edge of downtown’s skid row, is surrounded by seafood and produce wholesalers, social service agencies, single-room-occupancy hotels and auto-parts shops. Bunker Hill’s gleaming, mirrored-glass towers loom quite visibly to the northwest, but at ground level these blocks are dominated by roll-down security doors and loops of razor wire.

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pictured above: Students line up Saturday before the start of the Operation Graduation Winter Commencement Ceremony at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. The ceremony presented at-risk teens with high school diplomas and GEDs from alternative education programs run by the Los Angeles County Office of Education.

At USC on Saturday, 170 at-risk teens — young mothers, juvenile camp inmates, troubled students — are awarded their high school diplomas and congratulated by keynote speaker Magic Johnson.

By Seema Mehta (LA Times)

Tevin Bradley ran with the wrong crowd, started doing drugs when he was 14 and picked fights so frequently that he was kicked out of a continuation school for troubled teens. So when the 17-year-old received his high school diploma Saturday, it symbolized not only academic achievement but also a radical life change.

“I didn’t see myself getting here,” said the Bellflower teen, clad in a burgundy cap and gown. If not for a dedicated teacher and his parents, he figures, he would have ended up “in jail or on the streets. Not here.”

Bradley was among more than 170 teenagers who completed their high school education through alternative programs run by the Los Angeles County Office of Education. They were honored at an afternoon commencement ceremony Saturday at USC’s Bovard Auditorium with parents, siblings and friends cheering as they crossed the stage to the familiar strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.” 

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As I continue to navigate down the path of community change through the vehicle of CLIMB, we constantly partner and build relationships with like-agencies as well as individuals/companies looking to be a part of the solution.

I recall in 2005 when I first set out to start the organization and began constructing the strategy/vision, I had a short-list of individuals, companies, and organizations that I reached out to with intentions of creating youth programs and sustaining relationships that will position CLIMB as a part of the “solution”. On this list, there was a particular organization spearheaded by the USC Football Coach Pete Carroll: A Better LA. Impressed by his community awareness and action, I have since then developed a relationship that in due time will reflect a shared interest in community service.

Just recently, Pete Carroll was featured on 60 Minutes (CBS): highlighting not only his success on the field, but also his involvment in the surrounding South LA community. 

pictured above (nphocus photography): Eze Burts, volunteer Youth Basketball Instructor, leads program participants through pushups during routine health exercises for the CLIMB Youth Basketball Camp

Only about a third are in the ‘healthy zone.’ L.A. Unified’s scores also edged up but are below the state average.

By Corina Knoll (LA Times)

When it comes to their physical fitness, students are taking baby steps toward better health, according to results from the 2008 California Physical Fitness Test released Tuesday.

The annual public school test measures six areas, including cardiovascular endurance, body fat percentage and strength and flexibility. Every spring, students in grades five, seven and nine run a mile, among other activities. They are scored on whether their performance falls in the “healthy fitness zone,” a term used to reflect a reasonable level of fitness. 

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