AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY LEADERS RECEIVE THE CALIFORNIAWELLNESS FOUNDATION’S 2003 CALIFORNIA PEACE PRIZE

Karen Bass & Bo Taylor Will Each Receive $25,000 for Their Violence Prevention Work

Los Angeles – Karen Bass helped transform former liquor store sites in South Los Angeles into grocery stores, Laundromats and counseling centers. Bo Taylor, a former gang member, helps maintain cease-fire agreements in more than 30 gang-ridden Los Angeles neighborhoods.

The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) will present these violence prevention advocates with its 11th annual California Peace Prize. The honorees are two of three recipients who will each receive a cash award of $25,000 in recognition of their efforts to prevent violence and promote peace at a daylong conference on violence prevention in Costa Mesa on Thursday, November 20, 2003.

“Although many communities in California have been devastated by an epidemic of violence, these dedicated activists have confronted the root causes to create effective prevention strategies,” said Gary L. Yates, TCWF president and CEO. “Their stories and accomplishments are truly remarkable.”

This year’s honorees have influenced thousands of lives through their work to promote violence prevention strategies.

Bass, founder and executive director of the Community Coalition of South Los Angeles, has been instrumental in re-framing the issues of crime, violence and poverty as public health issues. A lifelong resident of South Los Angeles, Bass said she has dedicated her life and work to social justice and improving the quality of life in her community. She believes that real change requires addressing the root causes of violence and crime and involving community residents.

In 1990, Bass founded the Community Coalition. As executive director for 13 years, Bass has led community-based campaigns that have demonstrated significant results. After the 1992 civil unrest, the coalition prevented the rebuilding of 150 liquor stores, which research shows the higher density of alcohol outlets the higher the risk of violence. She also worked with business owners to transform more than 40 of these sites into grocery stores, Laundromats, family counseling centers and other businesses that benefit the community. The coalition helped local high school students in South Los Angeles secure $153 million for repairs to their schools. Bass worked with the City Council to drastically reduce violence in the 10th District by providing local youth with summer recreation and short-term employment opportunities. She also helped establish the 8th District Empowerment Congress, a model for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council program.

“The challenge is always that there are so many issues, so many things to get involved in,” said Bass. “ What is not a challenge is apathy. I think apathy is a myth.”

Bass works to train the next generation of leaders to continue the work of the coalition. She pays particular attention to developing leadership and unity among African-Americans, Latinos and Koreans, who collectively seek community solutions beneficial to all.

Taylor, founder of Los Angeles-based Unity One, works with gangs to negotiate truces and maintain cease-fire agreements and to prevent violence by offering positive alternative activities and job opportunities. Once an active gang member involved in criminal activities on the Westside of Los Angeles, Taylor is now dedicated to saving lives through negotiated gang truces, cease-fire agreements, and training programs for young people.

Taylor founded Unity One in 1992 after the civil uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Unity One is a street ministry based on Taylor’s own personal experience: youthful involvement in gang activity; inability to find employment after his honorable discharge from military service; a life of crime on the streets of Los Angeles; and, finding what he describes as his true calling through Unity One. Taylor works on the front-line in more than 30 Los Angeles neighborhoods to maintain cease-fire agreements and to provide gang members with alternative activities and job opportunities.

“I've been to over 200 funerals, so it hurts,” said Taylor. “For me, the biggest reward of this work is knowing that somebody's life may be saved.”

Taylor’s commitment to violence prevention does not end with his work on the streets. Understanding how easy it is to fall back into gang life, Taylor, in partnership with Amer-I-Can, focuses on teaching life-management skills to youths that return to their communities. During the last four years, Unity One has helped more than 1,900 inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center in the city of Castaic to develop the skills that allow them to interact in a humane way with other inmates of different backgrounds and gang affiliations.

“These are extraordinary individuals who commit themselves heart-and-soul to promoting peace,” said Nicole J. Jones, TCWF program director. “Their work creates healthier communities and inspires other communities searching for new approaches to preventing violence."

The California Wellness Foundation is an independent, private foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention.

The Foundation prioritizes eight issues for funding: diversity in the health professions, environmental health, healthy aging, mental health, teenage pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, women's health, and work and health. It also provides funding for special projects that fall outside the eight health issue areas. Since its first year of operation, TCWF has awarded 3,313 grants totaling more than $400 million. In violence prevention, the Foundation has funded nearly $90 million in the last 10 years across the state. It is one of the state's largest private foundations, making an average of $40 million in grants each year in pursuit of its mission.

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