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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 3, 2001
VIOLENCE PREVENTION LEADERS RECEIVE
THE 2001 CALIFORNIA PEACE PRIZE AWARD
Brian Contreras, Joan Cuadra and Constance Rice
are Awarded $25,000 Each for Their Violence Prevention Work
Los Angeles – The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF)
presented its ninth annual California Peace Prize Award to three dedicated
violence prevention advocates. The honorees are Brian Contreras of Salinas, Joan
Cuadra of Visalia and Constance Rice of Los Angeles. Each received $25,000 in
recognition of their work and achievements at a ceremony in Santa Monica on
Friday, December 7.
“Violent incidents like shootings at schools always make the
headlines, but we should also
recognize that there are individuals who demonstrate remarkable leadership,
working day by day to develop effective strategies to prevent violence in their
communities. They are heroes who deserve our acknowledgement,” said Gary Yates,
TCWF president and CEO. Each of this
year’s awardees employs innovative approaches to prevent violence and promote
peace in their community. Contreras, through his 2nd Chance organization,
developed school-based and outreach programs to lead youth away from
gang-related activities and inspire them to lead healthy, peaceful lives. Cuadra,
through Proteus, Inc., designed a culturally sensitive and low-literacy
curriculum to raise awareness of domestic violence for Spanish-speaking
immigrant farmworkers. Rice facilitated gang truces and has founded the Urban
Peace Award to acknowledge the heroes of urban peace efforts in Los Angeles.
Brian Contreras
Growing up in Modesto, a town similar in size and demographics to his current
home of Salinas, Brian Contreras experienced firsthand the effects of gang
violence. After spending a short time in prison, Contreras decided to turn his
life around. Relocating to Salinas, he noticed the escalating gang violence in
his new town. Frustrated with what he thought were inadequate prevention efforts
from local agencies and organizations, Contreras founded his own program, 2nd
Chance Youth & Family Services, to help youth who were entering the juvenile
system in 1989.
In the beginning, 2nd Chance was primarily an outreach program
to gang members. Contreras and his staff worked to redirect youth, encouraging
them to take alternative paths. In 1993, Contreras decided to bring the program
to North Salinas High School, which had experienced some of the most severe
fights in the areas, including one incident in which a teacher was shot.
Contreras and his staff worked to build relationships with the rivaling gangs in
the school. By the end of the school year, they were able to bring 175 students
to a conflict mediation meeting. By its third year in North Salinas High, 2nd
Chance brought a 95 percent reduction in weapons incidents, 65 percent reduction in gang
fights, and the number of expulsions dropped from 22 to three.
2nd Chance now serves seven schools throughout Salinas and North
Monterey County. Over the past decade, the program has given second chances to
more than 3000 youth. They range from age 11 to 18.
“The rewards of my work are seeing those I knew would have died
otherwise actually becoming self-sustaining and good community-minded
individuals. I want to try to get this [gang violence] turned around before it
gets too late.”
Joan Cuadra
Raised by a pacifist family, Joan Cuadra has always valued peace. Now she helps
bring peace to immigrant farmworking communities throughout the Central Valley
by developing culturally sensitive and low-literacy materials and services on
the effects of domestic violence and substance abuse on families.
At Proteus, Inc., Cuadra was responsible for coordinating
community education programs on pesticide safety and domestic violence among
immigrant farmworkers. Proteus’ Americorps members conducted educational
workshops in the fields and community gathering places of immigrant farmworkers.
However, Cuadra and her fellow trainers quickly discovered that there was a lack
of appropriate materials for the population they were targeting, largely
monolingual Spanish-speakers who possessed low reading skills in their native
language.
In response to the scarcity of linguistically and culturally
appropriate training materials, Cuadra and her colleagues developed their own.
Most recently, Cuadra participated in the design of a low-literacy domestic
violence curriculum, which incorporates the use of visual aids and interactive
exercises for audience participation. Because of the effectiveness of their
curriculum, Cuadra and her colleagues have been asked to conduct trainings
throughout the state.
Outside of Proteus, Inc., Cuadra extends her peace efforts
through participation with the Tulare County Hispanic Commission on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Services, Inc. “We can’t just
treat battering without also treating the alcohol and the drug problems," she
says. "A large
part of verbal and physical violence is committed when people are under the
influence.”
Despite spending many years working on preventing violence and
promoting peace, Cuadra thinks little of the time she devotes. “I look at it as
all of us trying to make our lives a little better. I guess peace is pretty
simple. It’s just that we complicate it.”
Constance Rice
As a litigator who believes that peace is central to any form of civic
democracy, Constance Rice has worked to advance peace efforts in underserved Los
Angeles communities. Through The Advancement Project, a public policy and legal
action group she co-founded, Rice spearheads coalitions that tackle community
problems such as crowded and failing schools, broken bus systems and other
barriers to becoming healthier communities.
Her efforts in violence prevention started in 1992, when gang
leaders throughout Los Angeles were launching a remarkable set of ceasefire
agreements and truces in communities ravaged by relentless gun fire and other
violence fueled by crack-cocaine wars. Rice supported efforts in Watts by
raising funds for truce programs and raising allies from Hollywood, the world of
lawyers, and the ranks of law enforcement. She facilitated dialogue between
truce leaders and police, an effort that defused several flashpoints and reduced
friction that threatened truce enforcement. These efforts have continued as some
of the truces survive and as the Los Angeles Sheriffs’ Department works to
reduce prison violence with other urban peace leaders.
In honor of the truce movement, Rice and The Advancement Project
are co-launching the first Los Angeles Urban Peace Prize in April 2002 with
actor Harry Belafonte, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and Los Angeles County Sheriff
Lee Baca. Like the California Peace Prize, the award will be presented to
champions of urban peace dedicated to ending violence, reclaiming personal
responsibility and restoring community. “I’ve been working with extraordinary
men and women in violence-plagued communities who are finding ways to dampen it,
lessen it, defuse it. We need to celebrate that kind of spirit and reward it,”
said Rice.
“These leaders have made a positive difference in the lives of
Californians confronted by violence,” Yates said. “Their efforts to prevent
violence and promote peace made a real difference in people’s lives. We at The
California Wellness Foundation hope others take note of their methods and follow
their lead to make our communities safer for all of us.”
About the Foundation
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 provides funding in eight priority areas: 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 health-related funding through its Special Projects Fund. The
Foundation has awarded 2,414 grants totaling more than $335 million since 1992.
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Note to reporters & editors: "The" in The California Wellness
Foundation name is part of the Foundation’s legal name. Please do not drop or put the
"T" in lowercase.
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