Playa Vista Program Gives 2nd Chance to Those at Risk

Amber Bias spent Christmas 1998 in custody on drug charges. Allah Watkins spent six years in prison for his involvement in a gang-related murder and attempted murder.

They both left incarceration with few options. They could have continued their troubled lives, risking arrest again or maybe even getting killed--or they could have turned their lives around by going to school or getting jobs.

Both chose the latter option.

Through hard work, dedication and the Playa Vista Job Opportunities and Business Services program, both “have made fundamental differences in their quality of life,” Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said at an awards luncheon Tuesday.

Bias, 21, and Watkins, 27, were honored as Employees of the Year during the “Building Futures” event Tuesday to salute at-risk Angelenos working through the program.

Bustamante also praised the program for giving at-risk youths and adults “a second chance that normally isn’t there.” The job program sets aside 10% of all construction jobs at Playa Vista--a residential and commercial development on the Westside--for at-risk youths and adults.

“It’s gratifying to see at-risk men and women who are courageous enough to take the necessary steps to turn away from gangs, drugs and violence through seeking meaningful careers,” Bustamante said.

The Playa Vista job program provides opportunities to people who have not completed high school or who have histories of substance abuse or involvement in crime or household incomes 50% or more below the median level. Also eligible for the program are people who are homeless, unemployed, on welfare or single parents.

Watkins, a former Crenshaw area gang member, said he loved to fight and got into all sorts of trouble as a youngster. He had been “rolling” with his gang since he was 10, and became more involved as he got older. At 16, he was sentenced to six years in prison for his involvement in a slaying resulting from a gang war.

Watkins said that when he left prison in 1995, he knew he had to change his life. He went to school and worked different jobs, both in construction and in warehouses. His big break came in 1998 when he began working for Iris Construction Co., a contractor at the Playa Vista site.

Now, Watkins, of Gardena, tries to show his friends, family and former gang associates that others can make it out of troubled lives.

“I’ve been trying to give a positive message to the people around me,” he said. His brother heard that message and began working with the Playa Vista group last year.

Bias said she lacked a stable home as a young child. She was abandoned by her mother when she was 16. She was using methamphetamines and turned to selling it to survive, she said.

Facing a lengthy jail sentence, Bias decided to turn herself in to authorities for drug possession. She served two months in jail and said she “really didn’t have any options” when she left.

Her boyfriend helped her get a job and Bias, who lives in the Venice area, hooked up with the Playa Vista job program as an electrician on the construction site.

“I just learned to chase my dreams instead of chasing the high of drugs,” she said.