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Thanks to your support, we've been able to raise over
$150,000 (100% of our goal) through our 15 Years, 15 Voices campaign!
Together we are providing youth with a voice and creative outlet.
Please join US
in inspiring lives through theatre.
This year The Unusual Suspects (US)
celebrates its birthday by spotlighting 15 voices
from the last 15 years. These voices represent the
community of youth, artists, staff, volunteers,
funders and partners that have been such an
important of our history. Keep your eyes open for
the next 15 Years, 15 Voices and make the next 15
years as transformative as the last by helping us
reach our goal of raising $150,000 the next 15
months!
The Students of Pacoima Charter Elementary
A crime-ridden neighborhood sees its youth turn to
theater rather than gangs for support as audience
members and performers alike discover the power of
creativity.
 Last
year, in response to the findings of a report on Los
Angeles gang crime and violence, Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa called for increased anti-gang
programming in the Pacoima-Foothill area. The report,
which was commissioned by Villaraigosa and The Office
of Gang Reduction and Youth Development, revealed
Pacoima to be an impoverished neighborhood where
children, living often with a single working parent,
can be recruited into gangs at eight or nine years
old. Villaraigosa saw the need to prevent these youth
from “falling through the cracks.”
Read the Mayor's report!
The report attributed Pacoima’s gang violence largely
to poverty and a feeling among youth of being without
a true family. Due to the lack of available jobs in
the area, the city faces a poverty rate of 21%, and
the declining number of job training or career
development opportunities does nothing to help the
situation. According to the report, Pacoima is home
to at least twelve gangs, whose members view gang
involvement as a career alternative.
Living in a poor neighborhood with a parent working
two or even three jobs, Pacoima youth crave a stable
family, or at least something like it. This desire
often leads them to join gangs, which offer
opportunities for rituals and bonding. “The problem
we’re seeing is that kids need something to belong
to,” said an informant quoted in the report.
But the desire for belonging does not have to be a
problem, and rather than lead to gang involvement, it
can in fact bring about the opposite: a child’s
rescue. In November 2007, The Unusual Suspects
offered a creative solution to this desire when they
completed their first program at Pacoima Charter
Elementary School. Over the course of ten weeks, boys
and girls in fifth grade participated in an
after-school playwriting and acting program, the
result of which was three fully staged performances
of three original one-act plays. The students' hard
work and dedication received standing ovations from
over 500 family members, peers, neighbors, teachers,
friends and other audience members.
 Jackie
Barajas, a fifth grader at Pacoima Charter Elementary
School, was the narrator in a play inspired by the
proverb, “one bee does not make a hive”. She said
that even though she wasn’t scared about performing,
she did learn a lot of things from US, such as “how
to stay still” and “how to speak loud.” Jackie
realized that being in US programs helps kids at her
school because, “it gives them something else to do
besides get into trouble.”
Jackie’s mother, Maria Vallesceros, also noticed the
positive effect that US had on the youth
participants.
"The program was very interesting. There were many
kids and we, the parents and community, got to see
them in a different light. These types of programs
are good because the kids get involved in doing
something different, something new that they might
not typically do. It helps the kids to stay away from
drugs and to stay away from bad things on the
streets. The kids did a good job using their
creativity to write the plays and it was good to be
there on performance day with other parents
supporting our kids. If there were more programs like
this, there would be fewer problems in our
community."
By working with students in fifth grade, US aims to
provide supportive services to youth that make up the
youngest group currently being targeted in gang
recruitment.
Early and effective programming is vital for gang
prevention, according to the city’s report.
Consistency is also important, which is why in the
future US hopes to offer programming to youth in
Pacoima middle and high schools in addition to
elementary schools. With constructive enrichment
programs, youth will be deterred from gang
involvement and will instead find support and
direction through theatre. Their caring new family of
teachers, mentors, and volunteers will help them on
their journey.
Jackie Barajas, for one, can’t wait to see US come
back to her school.
“I really want to be in more plays!” she said.
-Written by volunteer, Kristen Scott
-Edits by US Intern, Will Alden
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