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LBCC, USC receive nearly $1 million to partner on helping ‘gang-associated’ youth pursue college

Daily News - 1/27/2022

Long Beach City College and USC recently received nearly $1 million in federal funds to support a program focused on helping gang-associated youth in the Long Beach area get to college.

Money for the program, called LBCC Phoenix Scholars, comes from a U.S. Department of Education fund meant to improve higher education, an LBCC statement said. LBCC Phoenix Scholars seeks to help youth involved in gangs pursue opportunities in higher education.

The federal department will dole out the $990,000 across three years.

USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education will work with LBCC to create social systems for Long Beach youth to help them pursue college and eventually employment opportunities.

“Together, LBCC and USC will change the narrative for gang-affiliated youth who otherwise hadn’t considered a college education as part of their future,” said Uduak-Joe Ntuk, Board of Trustees president for the Long Beach Community College District. “Studies indicate bleak numbers for gang youth to attend college — often due to high school experiences that foster a school-to-prison-pipeline. This new program is going to expand the high school-to-college mentality across Long Beach.”

This is the first partnerhip between LBCC and USC.

The program, an LBCC statement said, will help create different support systems with the community college and the greater Long Beach area to create a successful post-gang life for youth and adults ages 16 to 24.

Some of the systems the LBCC Phoenix Scholar program will create include those for early college experiences and LBCC enrollment assistance. It will also help youth find mentors, internships, specialized counseling and other supports designed to help gang-associated youth, the LBCC statement said.

LBCC will work with Adrian Huerta, of USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education, who is an expert on college access, equity and gang-associated youth.

“This is a holistic, asset-based approach to gang-involved youth,” Huerta said in a statement. “LBCC Phoenix Scholars aims to contribute to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, provide a pathway for jobs and a college education, and support for families of the youth impacted by gangs.”

Participants will be referred to the program by local education and nonprofit agencies, the LBBC statement said.

Future components of the program will include the introduction of a community advisory council, assistance with transferring to universities and post-graduate employment, the statement said.

“It is time to create positive opportunities and trustful relationships for those youth who have been ignored and marginalized in the past by our systems,” said LBCC Superintendent-President Mike Muñoz. “There are young people out there who have been criminalized and stigmatized prematurely.

“The Phoenix Scholars program,” he added, “will create an experience that will establish a college-going identity for those that didn’t think their future was safe, all the way to them obtaining employment.”

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