Former Cal State Dominguez Hills teacher named L.A.'s new anti-gang czar

By CHRISTINA VILLACORTE
City News Service
The architect of the successful Summer Night Lights program was named today as Los Angeles' new anti-gang czar, tasked with overseeing the city's gang prevention and intervention programs.

Guillermo Cespedes will take over the mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth
Development, replacing the Rev. Jeff Carr, who will become Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's chief of staff effective Sept. 19.

Cespedes is credited with developing the Summer Night Lights program, which in its
first year helped the city record its safest summer in more than 30 years. The program kept 16 parks across the city open until midnight, providing at-risk youths with organized activities aimed at keeping them out of gangs.

Those organized activities included basketball and soccer tournaments; workshops in
acting, dance, hip-hop, fashion, T-shirt printing, music and make- up design; and film screenings. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has praised the program as an "innovative approach to crime fighting."

According to the mayor's office, Cespedes' career in community service spans three decades. During the 1970s, he worked with various agencies helping low-income families and disenfranchised youth in Connecticut. He moved to California in 1981, and over the years has worked with agencies such as Clinica de la Raza, Oakland Children's Hospital, the East Bay Agency for Children and CalWorks.

In 2003, Cespedes served as the deputy director of the Summer of Success Baldwin Village, keeping Jim Gilliam Park busy with sports tournaments and family activities until 2 a.m. during the summer months. It became the model for the Summer Night Lights program.
From 2005 through 2007, Cespedes taught in the African Studies Department at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Cespedes has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sacred Heart University and a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University. He also received post- graduate training from the Nathan Akerman Family Institute, Bronx State Hospital Family Studies Unit and Bristol Hospital Family Unit.

A native of Cuba, Cespedes has lived in South Los Angeles since 1999.