Making A Gritty Urban Neighborhood Safe For Kids

An innovative "kids watch" community development program in downtown Los Angeles has proved highly successful.

1 minute read

May 14, 2001, 6:00 AM PDT

"Under USC's five-year-old Kid Watch program, some 700 neighbors like Mary Wiley have volunteered to stand on their porches and lawns and watch 9,000 children walk to and from school. If they see anything suspicious, they call police. Sounds simple, right? But Kid Watch is credited with making a dramatic change in the area around USC, an area once known as a "move-out community," a blank-faced landscape of barred windows, padlocked fences and snarling dogs that families struggled to escape, not improve."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: The Kids Are All Right

Saturday, May 12, 2001 in USC Trojan Family Magazine

Community / Economic Development California

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