SUN VALLEY : Program Helps Turn Around Young Lives

About eight miles into the rugged canyon, on the winding Little Tujunga Canyon Road, Baldemar Hernandez and a handful of his homeboys from Sun Valley are trying to turn their lives around.

As part of an annual summer program for at-risk or troubled youth, Hernandez, 22, a member of the Vineland Boys gang, clears tumbleweed and brush from the precipitous roadside with seven former or current gang members from the northeast Valley.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Community Youth Gang Services teamed up seven years ago to provide summer job opportunities to people like Hernandez.

This summer, the Public Works Department will spend $425,000 for 15 crews of nine workers throughout Los Angeles County, who will spend two months trimming trees, pulling weeds and clearing debris along roads.

A spokeswoman for the Public Works Department said the program is a success both for the department, which gets needed work completed, and for the youths, who gain self-esteem along with their wages.

Hernandez said he recently served 22 months in prison for assault with a deadly weapon and has been arrested for gang-related offenses many times since he was 15 years old.

“I could be home and be getting into trouble,” Hernandez said. “This program keeps me away and gives me a job.”

Manuel Velasquez, a counselor for Community Youth Gang Services, recruited two crews of workers from northeast Valley gangs. Velasquez said the program is the only opportunity that some of the youths--especially those with police records--have to work.

“It’s hard for them to find a job,” Velasquez said. “If they are honest about (prior convictions) on the application, they don’t get the job. If they lie on the application, then the employer will find out and they will lose the job.”

The youngest worker in the Sun Valley crew, Victor Ascencio, 16, said working during the summer is part of his plan to avoid trouble, which includes getting good grades.

“Mostly everybody I know is in a gang,” Ascencio said. “I’m trying to stay out of all that.”