Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD) programs are widespread throughout Los Angeles, but the one housed at the community-based, non-profit organization Legacy LA stands out in Boyle Heights.
GRYD offers youth an alternative to gang involvement and incarceration by providing prevention and intervention services to youth ages 10-15 in 23 zones throughout Los Angeles. With initiatives ranging from art projects to mental health services at Legacy, youth not only access a space where they can feel safe, but also find lifelong mentors.
Francisco Lopez is the Middle School and GRYD Program Manager at Legacy, which serves residents of Ramona Gardens and its surrounding neighborhood. For the last eight years, he’s been in charge of overseeing the implementation, impact, and growth of the program.
Known to all as “Pancho,” he says that his personal experiences with gang culture growing up in South Los Angeles fuel his work.
“I saw how gang culture impacted me, impacted my loved ones, substance abuse, alcoholism, violence…” says Lopez. “It was all a really big deal growing up.”
“I always wanted to provide some type of resources I never had, I never had somebody, a mentor to check in on me besides my Tío or my Pops to check up on me, and I always wanted that.”
The City of Los Angeles first established GRYD in 2007, as a way to reduce youth crime rates.
“People were scared to go outside because of gang activities,” says Lopez, adding that gang violence inflicted a lot of fear in communities, and children were scared to walk in their neighborhoods.
“I always wanted to provide some type of resources I never had, I never had somebody, a mentor to check in on me besides my Tío or my Pops to check up on me, and I always wanted that.”
Francisco ‘pancho’ lopez
Gang reduction is a priority for GRYD and Lopez. According to a California Department of Education report, Latino and Black youth ages 12-16 have a gang involvement rate of 4.5% and 5.9%, respectively. But Lopez argues that the possibility of ending behind bars is even higher.
“The fear [that] a person of color, especially a Black male or Black Latino getting incarcerated is far higher than a Latino joining a gang,” he says. According to the Department of Justice, Latino youth are 4.9 times more likely than white youth to be committed to the California state’s youth correctional system. In contrast, Black youth are 31.3 times more likely to be committed.
According to GRYD’s own statistics, participation in its program decreases the risk of joining a gang by 83.4%.
Teens must qualify to join
At Legacy, the program has two components. One focuses on gang prevention services for kids ages 10-15. The second intervention component is for those 15-24.
To qualify, families have to allow their children to participate. The students fill out the Youth Services Eligible tool with a case manager and an evaluation team decides if they qualify for the program. This survey determines if youth are at risk of dropping out of school or joining a gang. Antisocial tendencies, family gang influence, and substance abuse are considered.
Once they’re in the program, students are involved with mindfulness, art, and physical education programs to help reduce stress.
“I was a graffiti artist growing up, so I always found art as a very powerful tool to be able to express myself,” says Lopez, who co-founded the South Central Art Network. “I wanted to bring that back and give youth exposure to graffiti art right here at Legacy.”
Participants in the program have painted murals at Legacy LA’s headquarters near the USC Health Campus, and in the Ramona Gardens housing development.
“The ultimate goal is for the youth to be able to identify a wall in the community and be able to blast it up and do a huge mural with the significant message that they want to leave behind in the community,” says Lopez. In 2022, he brought in recognized graffiti artist King Create to help youth design the “Believe in Yourself Mural” on the front wall of Nico’s Market in Ramona Gardens.
Images in the ‘Believe in Yourself’ mural include beautiful glistening angels and pretty butterflies, that signify prosperity. At the center is a giant golden compass, to represent the goal that can be reached. The message behind the mural is that people can grow and fly to success, and that no matter the hardships faced, the simple aspect of believing in your own capabilities can help you soar into higher heights.
Lopez wants the program to be able to shed some light on the local culture.
“At the end of the day, it’s a culture that I’m very passionate about, the lowriding culture, the graffiti culture, the tattoo culture, that a lot of times is misunderstood, stigmatized by society,” he says. “[They] don’t understand the history of the people that are doing it and what it means to the community.”
Mindfulness to enjoy
Sunrise hikes and mindfulness help youth clear their minds from stress. Other physical activities that help divert any anger they may feel include baseball, softball, and basketball.
Alejandro Moreno, a second-year student at Los Angeles Trade Tech College and East Los Angeles College, recalls how the program helped him as he was considering possible career choices. He says he especially enjoyed mindfulness.
“My favorite, one of the best things I ever had,” Moreno says. “I didn’t know about controlling your breath and forgetting about the outside. Mindfulness is something that we should use on a daily basis, something that I’ll use in my daily life.”
Moreno says that working on the “Believe in Yourself” mural helped him reaffirm his potential.
“Pancho seemed to like my drawings, telling me [that] if I like working in construction and drawing, why [didn’t I] just insert it into architecture engineering, like blueprints and stuff,” he says. That gave Moreno the confidence he needed to pursue architectural engineering as a major.
“I didn’t know about controlling your breath and forgetting about the outside. Mindfulness is something that we should use on a daily basis, something that I’ll use in my daily life.”
Alejandro Moreno
Lopez says more mental health professionals and therapists are needed in communities like Boyle Heights, plus funding for agencies like Legacy who support GRYD.
At a time when Ramona Gardens and Boyle Heights are still stigmatized as a high-crime ‘hood,’ GRYD dispenses its resources to make sure teens and young adults are able to escape that dark reality and strive for greatness.
GRYD Program at Legacy La
1350 San Pablo St.
For more information: (323) 847-2600 or legacyla.org/gryd
