FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2003
LEADERS RECEIVE THE CALIFORNIA WELLNESS FOUNDATION'S 2003 CALIFORNIA
PEACE PRIZE
Founders of Three Grassroots Organizations Will Each Receive $25,000
for Their Violence Prevention Work
Los Angeles -- Karen Bass helped transform former liquor store sites in
South Los Angeles into grocery stores, Laundromats and counseling
centers. Azim Khamisa joined with the guardian of his son's murderer to
bring anti-violence programs to schools in San Diego and around the
country. Bo Taylor, a former gang member, helps maintain cease-fire
agreements in more than 30 gang-ridden Los Angeles neighborhoods.
The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) will present three violence
prevention advocates with its 11th annual California Peace Prize. The
honorees will each receive a cash award of $25,000 in recognition of
their efforts to prevent violence and promote peace. They will receive
their awards at a daylong conference on violence prevention in Costa
Mesa on Thursday, November 20, 2003. [For more information and photos of
this year's honorees, visit www.tcwf.org]
"Although many communities in California have been devastated by an
epidemic of violence, these dedicated activists have confronted the root
causes to create effective prevention strategies," said Gary L. Yates,
TCWF president and CEO. "Their stories and accomplishments are truly
remarkable."
This year's honorees have influenced thousands of lives through their
work to promote violence prevention strategies.
Karen Bass
Bass, founder and executive director of the Community Coalition of
South Los Angeles, has been instrumental in re-framing the issues of
crime, violence and poverty as public health issues. A lifelong resident
of South Los Angeles, Bass said she has dedicated her life and work to
social justice and improving the quality of life in her community. She
believes that real change requires addressing the root causes of
violence and crime and involving community residents.
In 1990, Bass founded the Community Coalition. As executive director
for 13 years, Bass has led community-based campaigns that have
demonstrated significant results. After the 1992 civil unrest, the
coalition prevented the rebuilding of 150 liquor stores, which research
shows the higher density of alcohol outlets the higher the risk of
violence. She also worked with business owners to transform more than 40
of these sites into grocery stores, Laundromats, family counseling
centers and other businesses that benefit the community. The coalition
helped local high school students in South Los Angeles secure $153
million for repairs to their schools. Bass worked with the City Council
to drastically reduce violence in the 10th District by providing local
youth with summer recreation and short-term employment opportunities.
She also helped establish the 8th District Empowerment Congress, a model
for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council program.
"The challenge is always that there are so many issues, so many things
to get involved in," said Bass. "What is not a challenge is apathy. I
think apathy is a myth."
Bass works to train the next generation of leaders to continue the work
of the coalition. She pays particular attention to developing leadership
and unity among African-Americans, Latinos and Koreans, who collectively
seek community solutions beneficial to all.
Azim Khamisa
Khamisa, founder and president of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation in San
Diego, teaches youth about the consequences of violence and offers tools
for addressing conflict in nonviolent ways. In 1995, faced with the
murder of his beloved 20-year-old son, Tariq, Khamisa chose a path of
forgiveness, rather than retribution. Khamisa has pioneered innovative
ways of breaking the cycle of violence against youth by providing
nonviolent choices.
Believing that there were "victims on both ends of the gun," Khamisa
reached out in forgiveness to Ples Felix, the grandfather and guardian
of his son's assailant. Together, Khamisa and Felix speak publicly about
their experiences in the hope that other families will not have to live
through similar tragedies. Founded in 1995, the Tariq Khamisa Foundation
has developed programs that teach youth about the devastation and
consequences of violence and the realities of guns and gangs. The
foundation has reached out to more than 50,000 students in 115 schools
throughout San Diego County, another 300,000 nationwide via in-school
presentations, and more than eight million students in 12,000 schools
via a Channel One News Documentary.
"When the kids see me standing side by side with the grandfather of my
son's killer, it is the first time in their young lives they have
actually seen an alternative to violence. . . . We shatter the paradigm
of an-eye-for-an-eye," said Khamisa.
An Ismaili Muslim, Khamisa was led by his faith to promote peace and
forgiveness. Born in Kenya, he is an investment banker with more than 29
years of experience in domestic and international finance. He is the
author of the award-winning book: Azim's Bardo: A Father's Journey From
Murder to Forgiveness (1998, Rising Star Press).
Bo Taylor
Taylor, founder of Los Angeles-based Unity One, works with gangs to
negotiate truces and maintain cease-fire agreements and to prevent
violence by offering positive alternative activities and job
opportunities. Once an active gang member involved in criminal
activities on the Westside of Los Angeles, Taylor is now dedicated to
saving lives through negotiated gang truces, cease-fire agreements, and
training programs for young people.
Taylor founded Unity One in 1992 after the civil uprising following the
Rodney King verdict. Unity One is a street ministry based on Taylor's
own personal experience: youthful involvement in gang activity;
inability to find employment after his honorable discharge from military
service; a life of crime on the streets of Los Angeles; and, finding
what he describes as his true calling through Unity One. Taylor works on
the front-line in more than 30 Los Angeles neighborhoods to maintain
cease-fire agreements and to provide gang members with alternative
activities and job opportunities.
"I've been to over 200 funerals, so it hurts," said Taylor. "For me,
the biggest reward of this work is knowing that somebody's life may be
saved."
Taylor's commitment to violence prevention does not end with his work
on the streets. Understanding how easy it is to fall back into gang
life, Taylor, in partnership with Amer-I-Can, focuses on teaching
life-management skills to youths that return to their communities.
During the last four years, Unity One has helped more than 1,900 inmates
at the Pitchess Detention Center in the city of Castaic to develop the
skills that allow them to interact in a humane way with other inmates of
different backgrounds and gang affiliations.
"These are three extraordinary individuals who commit themselves
heart-and-soul to promoting peace,' said Nicole J. Jones, TCWF program
director. 'Their work creates healthier communities and inspires other
communities searching for new approaches to preventing violence."
The California Wellness Foundation is a 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 prioritizes eight issues for funding: 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 funding for special projects that fall
outside the eight priority issues.
Since its first year of operation, TCWF has awarded 3,313 grants
totaling more than $400 million. In violence prevention, the Foundation
has funded nearly $90 million in the last 10 years across the state. It
is one of the state's largest private foundations, making an average of
$40 million in grants each year in pursuit of its mission.
# # #
Julio Marcial, Communications Officer
The California Wellness Foundation
6320 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1700
Woodland Hills, California 91367
Web site: www.tcwf.org
e-mail: jmarcial@tcwf.org
phone: 818.593.6600
fax: 818.593.6614