Wilmington Middle School is set to get a new after-school youth center through a collaboration between Los Angeles Unified School District and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
Officials from the district and Delgadillo's office are still working out the details of the new center -- what kind of programs it will offer and where on the crowded campus it will operate.
Wilmington is one of five intermediate schools that will get such centers, Delgadillo and Superintendent Ramon Cortines announced this morning an event in Pacoima.
The effort is part of a collaboration between the school district and Delgadillo's office that began last summer with the founding of the City Attorney's School Safety Division. That program was preceded by a plan hatched in 2007 at Markham Middle School in Watts -- where a prosecutor was placed on campus and students were required to wear (donated) uniforms.
The program was expanded to nine middle schools, including Wilmington, where Deputy City Attorney June Magilnick is seeking to reduce gang inductions and violence around the campus.
The new youth center will be jointly funded by the school district, the City Attorney's office and private entities such as nonprofit groups, Delgadillo spokesman Frank Mateljan said.
Officials hope to open the Wilmington center before the end of the academic year.
A joint press release from LAUSD and Delgadillo's people follows.

