The Jobs Initiative is designed to create meaningful employment during these tough economic times for City Heights residents, to build capacity for non-profits serving City Heights and to improve the lives of City Heights residents. By the end of 2011, the initiative had created 60 jobs at non-profit agencies working in City Heights, with 50 of the jobs filled by City Heights residents.

Many of the jobs are working to improve the environment including: removing trash and graffiti, restoring natural habitats, and clearing brush and weeds. Other jobs are helping to improve education, public safety, health and social services, and provide job training.

The program will continue to create jobs in the year 2012.

The Safety Initiative is a two year grant to the Consensus Organizing Center at San Diego State University to establish a sustainable community effort to decrease crime and increase resident’s sense of community and safety within the Fairmount Village neighborhood of City Heights, an urban community in San Diego.  

The Safety Initiative incorporates two models. The SafeGrowth program, designed by crime expert Greg Saville, is traditionally used by policymakers to reduce crime through better environmental design. One of the cornerstones of the program is incorporating resident input into community policing strategies. The Consensus Organizing model, designed by Michael Eichler of the Consensus Organizing Center at San Diego State University, teaches community residents to organize themselves, access community resources, and partner with policymakers to improve their living conditions.

Residents, business owners, law enforcement officers and other stakeholders attended workshops and formed into working groups to identify key safety issues, developing projects to address them.

For an update on the progress of the working groups, visit www.safecityheights.org.

The Price Charities Clean and Safe Program is supported by a grant from the Price Family Charitable Fund and administered by the Urban Corps of San Diego County.

The program supports the beautification of four City Heights’ neighborhoods (Corridor, Teralta West, Cherokee Point, Castle) and provides employment to seven City Heights young adults.

Corps members remove litter, graffiti, and illegally dumped items. They also provide landscaping services by pulling weeds, trimming limbs, and mowing grass.

Corps members barricade and report any observed sidewalk hazards and report all street lights and light poles which have been damaged or are malfunctioning.

Participants in the program acquire job skills; learn resume writing, interviewing, and job search; receive educational assistance to obtain their high school diplomas; and receive assistance in acquiring full-time employment or attending post-secondary education.

The Urban Corps of San Diego County is a local, non-profit youth conservation organization.

Graffiti is a community wide problem which degrades the neighborhood and makes people concerned about their safety and surroundings. Price Charities partners with Urban Corps, the City Heights Business Association and Project Clean to remove graffiti.

Quick reporting of graffiti by residents and business owners allows Urban Corps to remove graffiti along the business corridor during business hours. Project Clean and Price Charities work crews paint out graffiti during patrols of “hotspots.” Enforcement of graffiti laws is a priority for the area police department. Monthly briefings keep stakeholders aware of the effort.

Following Price Charities’ philosophy of leveraging community resources and solutions, funding for graffiti abatement comes from a variety of sources. Price Charities provided the funding for a pickup truck, paint and two maintenance staff working on a part-time basis. The City of San Diego provided funding for the creation of the Maintenance Assessment District operated by the City Heights Business Association. The Business Association finances maintenance services, subcontracting the work to Urban Corp. Project Clean is an all volunteer organization comprised of area residents.

For further information about Graffiti Abatement contact Matthew Hervey at mhervey@pricecharities.org.

For information about the City Heights Business Association contact Enrique Gandarilla at (619) 906-4453.

For information about Project Clean contact Linda Pennington at Community Housing Works (619) 282-6647.