Sonoma rallies to address gang issue

On Tuesday evening, some 125 Sonoma Valley residents gathered to endorse formation of a grass-roots committee charged with directing the creation of programs for local youth, both intervention and prevention, to deter their involvement with organized gangs.
Held at the Boys & Girls Club and facilitated by its director David Pier, this was to be the concluding event in a series of “community conversations” that a collaborative of local non-profits had organized in response to the killing last October of Luis Miranda. The forums all had been well attended, and carried live on KSVY 91.3 Sonoma, and the interest generated among the broad mix of attendees on Tuesday led to eleven of their number volunteering to help create a vision statement reflecting the views expressed that evening and to design both the programs and their administrative framework.
While other communities have tackled the issue in similar ways, generally they have been organized and/or operated by city or county governments. Not so in Sonoma Valley, where the new community leaders in Sonoma Valley are business people, parents, students, and even a former gang member. They are Mario Castillo, Osías Encarnación, John Garcia, Sebastian Hall, Kenny Johnson, Oscar Montes, Anna Pier, Kenny Ramírez, Martina Schneider, Lisa Simoni and – the first to volunteer – Juan Zaragoza.
The new committee will hold its first meeting next Tuesday, January 22, and hopes to add a Latina student, as well.