Jeff Carr on Summer Night Lights program in Los Angeles

By Alex Alonso for StreetGangs.com
July 25, 2009

Summer Nights Lights is a pilot intervention / prevention gang program designed to keep kids occupied during the summer in the evening hours til midnight. Jeff Carr, the director of the Gang Reduction and Youth development for the City of Los Angeles, raised nearly 1 million dollars in private money to kick off this program in the summer of 2008.

Former Los Angeles councilman, Martin Ludlow used a similar program in 2003/04 in the Baldwin Village (The Jungles) area called Summer of Success and it was consider an effective and successful gang intervention tool that resulted in zero murders during the program. Carr wanted to build off of that success and implement the program in 8 Los Angeles parks that had the resources of providing adequate services to the community. The program was extremely successful in 2008, seeing a significant reduction in crime in all eight areas, and because of that success it is being replicated in the summer of 2009 in 16 Los Angeles parks.

1. Baldwin Village/Southwest – Jim Gilliam Park
2. Southwest II – Denker Park
3. Boyle Heights/ Hollenbeck – Ramon Garcia Park
4. Northeast – Cypress Park
5. Northeast – Glassell Park
6. Florence-Graham/ 77th Division – Mount Carmel Park
7. 77th Division II – Harvard Park
8. Newton – Ross Snyder Park
9. Pacoima/ Foothill – Hubert Humphrey Park
10. Panorama City – Sepulveda Park
11. Ramona Gardens/ Hollenbeck – Ramona Gardens Recreation Center
12. Watts/Southeast – Nickerson Gardens Housing Development
13. Watts/Southeast – Jordan Downs Housing Development
14. Watts/Southeast – Imperial Courts Housing Development
15. Rampart – Edward R. Roybal Learning Center
16. Hollywood – Lemon Grove Park