Southwest L.A. Group Gets Job-Training Grant

A Hyde Park community organization has won a $1.4-million federal grant to transform a blighted property into a training center that will channel residents into lucrative jobs in the commercial transportation industry.

The HERD Community Development Corp.’s Community Transportation & Education Center eventually will train more than 100 participants a year for jobs as bus drivers, mechanics, dispatch operators, safety training coordinators and in related public and private sector occupations.

The project prepares residents for jobs and careers in a labor-hungry industry known for providing benefits and decent wages, with starting salaries estimated at $8 to $15 an hour, said HERD Executive Director and former Inglewood City Councilman Curren Price.

The grant was announced last week by the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

The project is bordered by Crenshaw Boulevard, Victoria Avenue and 67th and 71st streets. It will include classrooms, a computer lab, a multimedia library and two vehicle repair and maintenance yards. An on-site 24-hour child-care facility will enable women--including those leaving the welfare rolls--to participate. And a small-business incubator is planned for those who wish to launch their own enterprises, Price said.

The center will occupy a now-vacant building burned in the 1992 riots.

“It’s a chance to really impact an area,” Price said. “As soon as people get trained they get scooped up by larger companies.”

The HERD (Health, Education & Real Estate Development) Community Development Corp. is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve economic and social conditions in Hyde Park, a once-thriving Southwest Los Angeles community plagued by high levels of unemployment. The area--now 50% Latino and 47% African American--lost 20,000 jobs between 1980 and 1990, while gaining 200,000 residents, Price said.

It is among the areas slated for improvement by Mayor Richard Riordan’s Targeted Neighborhood Initiative.