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PROJECTS
Welcome to the American Center for Religious Freedom (ACRF) Religious Projects. We are dedicated to intercultural dialogue forums, research, and writing, and we implement joint projects and activities with academic institutions, faith leaders, community leaders, and other centers around the world. Our Religious Blog is the place where we share insights, stories, and perspectives on religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity. Join us in exploring the various dimensions of faith and spirituality and how they intersect with contemporary issues.
Family & Community Working Together for Successful Engagement in Global Society: A Case Study
By: Dr. Jannah Scott – CEO, American Center for Religious Freedom; Former Deputy Director, Obama Administration
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Research Problem/Question: Can the state, faith organizations, and civil society institutions work together to provide protective factors for families and strengthen civil society? Families play a critical role in multi-generational protection, legacy, wealth transfer, and genetic resilience and are the building blocks of civil society. In this age of global society, collaboration across sectors is critical to successful multi-generational engagement and protection of families. Children live what they learn. However, violence is a significant adverse childhood factor. It negatively impacts the family structure and overall society. The lack of protective factors against violence has an adverse impact on family structure. In violence-ridden communities, this problem is exacerbated by the impact of fear on self-esteem and a lack of hope for the future. Innovative preparedness efforts can offer a protective factor against trauma and challenges caused by violence and mitigate the impact of violence on the family structure by promoting positive youth development, thus strengthening the family structure and civil society. Research Objective: This presentation highlights a case study that exemplifies family and community working together as a protective factor: CERT: A Vehicle for Harm Reduction, Watts, Los Angeles. Methodology: The methodology comprises ethnographic storytelling, interviews, secondary literature review, and first-person narrative. Expected Findings: This work will exhibit the success of cross-sector, multi-faith, multi-generational community emergency preparedness efforts as a long-term protective factor against difficult issues of family and community, thereby strengthening civil society.
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Dr. Jannah Scott is the CEO of the American Center for Religious Freedom. She works in the US and abroad to connect people groups across generations, demography, geography, and sectors. She aims to increase understanding, convene dialogues and exchanges, and actively work toward tangible, sustainable solutions to problems. She is also an expert consultant in strategic planning, organizational capacity building, and leadership development. Jannah has served with US presidents, state governors, local elected officials, and community leaders. But she is most privileged to walk with and among the poor, the hurting, and those who are looking for hope. Jannah is known as a passionate servant leader with a compassionate, loving heart. Jannah has published extensively in journal articles, periodicals, and technical writings. Her latest work, Pursuing Religious Freedom: A Call to All, is currently underway.
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Introduction: Family & Community Working Together for Successful Engagement in Global Society: A Case Study
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Through a series of interviews, literature review, and first-person narrative account, we tell the story of a community coming together around an urgent desire to quell the violence—or at least give young people tools to cope and protect themselves in the midst. This story started by engaging young people and their families in an emergency preparedness program in Watts, Los Angeles, CA, USA. It evolved into a community-wide effort to give young people and their families hope, security, and the ability to protect themselves until a violence-free community can be achieved.
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Some might ask, how is this important or innovative? Every jurisdiction has an emergency preparedness and response capability.” But we learned during the Obama Administration working on all hazards—whether a flood or power outage, earthquake or active shooter—that the children and families in local communities are often the real “first responders”; that is, they are on the scene first. In such cases, minutes can mean the difference between life and death while waiting for the “official” emergency personnel to arrive (Pham, H. et al., page 2). But what we also learned is that violence can have serious and lasting effects on young people’s physical, mental, and social health. It can harm development, impair decision-making and learning challenges, decrease connections to peers and adults, and cause trouble coping with stress. (David-Ferdon, Clayton, et al., page 168) So, this was a nontraditional, innovative approach to utilize disaster preparedness in a violent context to mitigate the impact of violence on family structure, thus strengthening the community.
The research shows that violence also increases the risk of behavioral and mental health difficulties. These can include future violence perpetration and victimization, smoking, substance use, obesity, high-risk sexual behavior, depression, academic difficulties, school dropout, and suicide. Further, violence increases health care costs, decreases property value, negatively impacts school attendance, and decreases access to community support services. (Dinkins, page 14)
Community emergency response has been around in America since 1975, but because of socioeconomic, cultural, and racial barriers, by 2012, it barely reached African Americans. (US DHS FEMA, Page 2) By teaching diverse young people how to mitigate injury and save lives in a violence-ridden area, families and communities experience the development of new perspectives and partnerships of family and community working together.
This paper captures certain key religious themes manifested through concerted action among individuals, families, communities, and the state:
• Understanding challenges, gaining partners, and promoting innovation
• Concept of “fruitfulness” and human “multiplication” 2 Timothy 2:2 (Martincic, online)
• The protective factor of family and community, Ephesians 6: 1-3 (Strong’s online)
• Family and generational blessings (Proverbs 22:6)
• Faith and civil society engaged: opportunities for the future.
Community Emergency Response Training—A Vehicle for Harm Reduction: Case Study
“Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. Further, it confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their immediate needs. CERT became a national program in 1993 (US Department of Homeland Security, Page 1)
Understanding Challenges, Gaining Partners, and Promoting Innovation
Although the program started in Los Angeles in 1985, Watts was not seen as a viable location for the program because of poverty and violence. Watts had been the location of several riots dating back to 1965, and more recently, gang violence plagues the area. For generations in South Los Angeles, home to some of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods, poorly-treated chronic illness— like heart disease, high blood pressure, lung cancer, diabetes, and depression — has been rampant. Sorrow is so ingrained in the psyche that children in Imperial Courts joke that the word Watts is an acronym: We Are Trained To Survive. (Dixon, Page 2). This was not the typical community that emergency managers would approach to suggest CERT training: there was no evident stability, resources, or leadership support, single-parent families, gangs, fatherlessness, and young people who had been dispossessed of hope for a future. This was similar to what the Prophet Nehemiah must have thought when he looked out over the burned city (Gideons International Holy Bible NIV, Nehemiah Chapter 1). So, how did we get there?
In September 2012, National Preparedness Month, I was deployed to Los Angeles to help the Emergency Management, Fire, and First Responder community engage with the unreached. As a result of this deployment, FEMA colleagues in Los Angeles shared about the dire conditions in Watts. We attended a Watts Gang Task Force meeting, where we were met with unadulterated angst, range,r, and grief rampant in the community. In the heat of a community uproar, my colleague asked me: “What in the world are we doing here?”
He, too, had come to wonder if there was any hope for Watts. But it only took two brave souls to get us entrée and trust in the community: Dr Cynthia Mendenhall, a resident of Imperial Courts (known as Big Mama), and Shamika Ossey, a Public Health Nurse assigned to that area. Dr. Mendenhall, a resident of the area for over 30 years now, had lost 2 sons to gang violence,e and she was a former gang member herself. In a speech in 2021, Mendenhall said: “I lost to sons, I don’t want to lose another child, …. So let’s support one another …. And let’s make it like a family. (Mendenhall, Page 1)”
Our first gathering was hosted by Dr. Mendenhall, a group of young single mothers, the Red Cross, and me at Imperial Courts. Mothers learned the basics of clearing airways and resuscitation for their children. After our first gathering, word got around, and more community members wanted to join.
The expression of the CERT program in Watts took on an interesting collaborative form, and CERT as a Vehicle for Harm Reduction was born:
• Watts Gang Task Force Members (multi-sector coalition)
• King Center for Public Health, led by LA County Public Health Nurses
• Council of Pakistan/ Southern California 7-11 Association
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• American Red Cross, Los Angeles Region Faith Ambassadors
• Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum• Watts Labor Community Action Committee
• City of Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino/ East Side Riders
• City of Los Angeles Cadets
• City of Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD)
• Los Angeles County Fire
• Office of US Congresswoman Maxine Waters
• US DHS FEMA Center for Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships
Overcoming Challenges, Leading to Fruitfulness and Replication
Initially, traditional fire department personnel could not see CERT as a vehicle for harm reduction. In its purest form, they saw it as only a preparedness tool, not the transformative, mitigating impact it can have on communities in response to and recovery from turbulent situations.
LAFD leaders were initially unable to think that a program in violence-ridden Watts would meet the CERT profile and requirements in disaster preparedness. Effective public relations for the program masterminds, with the goal of marketing the program, was essential for growth and future development.
Over the eight years prior to the pandemic, over 20 trainings, hosting over 300 young people, were held. Several years later, the 2020-2022 pandemic forced a pause in the CERT training due to a lack of space. Since 2023, training has resumed.
Inaugural CERT Class
The Protective Factor of Family and Community
In his research on the building blocks of human conscience, Dr. Agorom Dike paraphrases Paulo Frere's work: “Conscientization is the process of educating and mobilizing people to take action to transform their reality” (Freire,109 ). We are, therefore, challenged to mobilize our society's transformation by creating opportunities for awareness through conscientization. A healthy and active conscience is an antidote for negative influences, actions, and the bad spirits that generate corruption, violence, injustice, and wars that are shattering the hopes, dreams, and possibilities of the people who are living within our communities and nations throughout our world. Our conscience is that internal sense and reservoir of wisdom that guides us in deciding what is right or wrong. It is that spiritual bridge that connects all positive values and energies to act in the interest of truth, justice, and goodness, especially when we are faced with ethical dilemmas. (Dike, Page 3)
The formation of our “conscience" throughout the ages is the highest spiritual characteristic of human beings. Within the Christian Bible, the concept of free will was given to mankind to either “eat of the tree of life or the tree of good and evil” (Grove Press, Gen. Chapter 2). This is closely connected to the concept of conscience or moral responsibility. Conscience is sharing moral knowledge with oneself and others, shaped or formed by the family, religious and educational institutions, and our communities. (Dike, Page 3)
We deeply understood the powerful effect of conscience and the shaping thereof on the potential positive outcomes for young people and their families. CERT, as an institutional and educational tool with an indirect focus on the spiritual nature of young people, was our method for shaping potentially positive outcomes. We looked at this with a potential impact on the participants and their families. However, we did not realize the positive impact our engagement with this community would have on our lives and futures.
Family and Generational Blessings:
Demonstrated Impact on Families and Community
Our partnership with LAPD Cadet Program proved to be the most productive. Nurse trainers have continued to engage youth and their siblings, family members, and some who have since become law enforcement officers. They have also been ranked Cadet program trainers, CERT ambassadors, and advocates for training among new recruits. Based on feedback from cadets in South Los Angeles, two other precincts (Hollenbeck and Southeast precincts) requested to be trained. Families that have been trained have become ambassadors for CERT among monolingual Spanish-speaking families in their local communities.
Several partners tell the stories of demonstrated family impact:
“Several years after being out of the program, I was approached at an entirely different kind of event at Venice Beach by a parent of one of the TEEN CERT Program participants. She said that the program positively impacted her daughter and her friend, especially with self-esteem. “-LA Fire Captain.
“My daughter is on the board of the American Red Cross today because she witnessed our work. It is a lifestyle of preparedness that led us to live and promote. Our children and youth are engaged in a positive, life-giving way. It was truly a protective factor--They were not out there using drugs, destroying lives and properties, or being sex-trafficked. We, too, were changed.” Former American Red Cross Official
“It exposed the young people to adult role models they would not have had the opportunity to engage with (business, medical, first responders). The children/youth who participated benefited from exposure to better. Still, others who heard about it and others who came to celebrate with them (parents, siblings, family, friends) were impacted to make positive choices in their communities as well.” Public Health Nurse.
As community partners, churches and nonprofits hosted CERT trainings in other parts of the Valley and invited other community members, families, and partners to participate. As of 2024, over 300 young people have been CERT-trained in the Watts area; local, national, and international presentations have been made on how such preparedness efforts can increase self-esteem, skills, and life opportunities for young people in distressed areas; lives have been transformed by the power of shaping the human conscience through faith, family and faith-based, secular and government institutions working together to strengthen communities.
Family Impact
“I was very involved in my church where one evening at Bible study, one of my family members had a medical emergency and was not responsive and not breathing. I was able to provide CPR and first aid to that family member until the EMTs arrived. It resulted in saving that family member’s life.” East Side Rider Bike Club Member:
“I was driving to the shopping mall and saw a person collapsed on the sidewalk. I made a U-turn and provided the 3 steps. The EMTs thanked me, saying, if you had not stopped and done what you did, the person may have died.” Public Health Nurse/CERT Trainer
One of the most compelling statements of impact came from one of the partners who spent a lot of time speaking with the students outside of the training classes:
“I heard from the young people that this experience was family building, giving hope and vision for a successful future. The CERT program gave young people the minds to think about a profession to choose (nurse, firefighter, police officer, armed forces). Girls who had been in the gangs were asking questions of the women in the training about what they do. They were paying attention to a different kind of lifestyle than what they had seen. Young men, who had been afraid to walk 2 blocks into their neighborhoods for fear of gang violence, were now joining police and fire training programs. Surrogate fathers and mothers were provided by this training team.” Sponsor and businessman
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Faith and civil society engaged: opportunities for the future.
Many opportunities remain in this effort to continue to collaborate, promote, and encourage the participation of people of all ages. As a sign of its recognized success in transforming lives and communities, the Watts CERT Program has now been individually certified through the federal government and added new partners with the Compton Fire Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department to train all residents.
Another success was the opportunity to engage our facilities and those who work there in the CERT training program.
Through the ingenuity of the public health nurses, a partnership was developed with the Public Health Nurse Alliance in the state to facilitate CERT training for nurses within the largest county in the nation (by population). Nurses can now receive continuing education credits to take the training and are then ready to assist in training others in their community. The Watts CERT Program is the only CERT program in the nation to accomplish this (SEIU, Page 1)
SEIU Nurses Alliance Recognition
In the coming months, they will implement an innovative CERT training model for Los Angeles County Public Health Department clinical (medical and ancillary) staff.
Many recognitions were received throughout this effort, and many opportunities to share the model and strategies for success were offered locally, nationally, and internationally.
Recognitions were received from:
• Los Angeles City Council
• Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
• National Nurses Alliance
• National Preparedness Summit
Top of Page: City of LA Council recognition. Middle of Page: LA Police Cadet Program Recognition. Bottom Left and Right: National Preparedness Summit Recognition.
However, the most notable recognition, highlighting the nationally recognized innovative nature of the effort, came from the Obama White House in 2016. The Watts CERT Program Team received the John D. Solomon Preparedness Award Commendation (the highest preparedness honor in the United States). Through this recognition, emergency management and fire departments across the country were influenced as to how the CERT tool can be used to build community resilience in the most violence-distressed areas and give young people hope for a future and self-esteem.
Several opportunities lay before us in the future of this initiative. Through the diligence of the Public Health Nurse, graduates, and numerous volunteers and supporters, this innovative model of CERT as a Vehicle of Harm Reduction can be replicated in communities where violence has been destructive to young people, families, and society (Ossey, Page 609). Partly because of lessons learned from this initiative and research with diverse communities (Scott, J., Coleman. M, 2016), the US Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Preparedness now provides advanced, all-hazards training to numerous entities, including civil society and faith groups, to help build critical skills needed to function effectively and recover quickly in targeted violence or terrorism events in partnership with local first responders.
Our desire is to see this model used in difficult environments across the globe. Young people need protective factors to survive and recover from violent events. Helping them develop such skills can not only save lives and give them hope for a future, but it can also strengthen the fabric of society.
Obama White House Recognition Ceremony
Air Support Training with young pilots at Today’s Aeronautical
Museum, Compton, CA Photo by Shamika Ossey/ Public Health
Nurse & Certified CERT Trainer
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We had great success with the young people in disaster simulation exercises. The young participants got hands-on experience in useful safety skills, such as stop-the-bleed, set-the-break, and douse-the-fire. Some even learned aerial surveillance for situational analysis purposes.
Participants learn to stop the bleeding in a small child
Participants learn the hands-on CPR method.
References
David-Ferdon C, Clayton HB, Dahlberg LL, et al.Vital Signs: Prevalence of Multiple Forms of Violence and Increased Health Risk Behaviors and Conditions Among Youths — United States, 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:167–173. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7005a4Dike, Agorom, The Importance of Conscience for A Better World, Speech to
World Leaders’ Summit of Love and Peace Caribbean & African Faith-Based Leadership Conference, April 6, 2024,.Los Angeles CADinkins, T. (2022, April 2). “Train up a child” in the way he should go |Tim Dinkins. Hanford Sentinel. https://hanfordsentinel.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/religion/train-up-a-child-in-the-way-he-should-go-tim-dinkins/article_c4ef86a3-4292-5696-8a95-76a461f828ef.html#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20quotedDixon, B. (2023, August 24). In a Watts housing project, “a death angel” kept knocking this summer. Los Angeles Times.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-24/in-a-watts-deaths-shootings-griefFreire, P. (1970). The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Groups, Inc.Gideons International. (2012). The Holy Bible : new international version. The Gideons International In The British Isles.Grove Press. (1999). The first book of Moses, called Genesis, Chapter 2 verse 17 : authorized King James version. Grove Press.Martincic, T. (1995, October 10). 2 Timothy 2 :: King James Version (KJV).
https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/2ti/2/1/s_1127001Mendenhall, C. (2022, July 12). Watts Chosen Angel, Cynthia “Big Mama” Mendenhall. https://www.therams.com/news/watts-chosen-angels-cynthia-big-mama-mendenhall-is-rams-fifth-playmaker-honoreeOssey, S., Sylvers, S., Oksuzyan, S., Smith, L. V., Frye, D., Family, L., Scott, J., & King, J. B. (2017). Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training of High-Risk Teens in the Community of Watts, South Los Angeles, 2013–2014. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 11(5), 605–609.Pham, H., Puckett, Y., & Dissanaike, S. (2017). Faster on-scene times are associated with decreased mortality in helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS), which transport trauma patients. Trauma Surgery &Acute Care Open, 2(1), e000122. https://doi.org/10.1136/tsaco-2017-000122Scott, J., & Coleman, M. (2016).
Reaching the unreached: Building resilience through engagement with diverse communities. PubMed, 9(4), 359–374.SEIU Nurses Alliance of California. (2024, January 26). NA of CA Education | SEIU Nurse Alliance of California. Nurses Alliance of California Education. http://www.nurseallianceca.org/category/events/naca-education/Strong's Concordance. (1981, January 22). Ephesians 6:1-3 NIV - - Bible Gateway. Www.biblegateway.com. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%206%3A1-3&version=NIVUS DHS FEMA Public Affairs. (2022, September 1). New Campaign by FEMA and the Ad Council Encourages Black Community to “Create a Lasting Legacy” by Preparing for Disasters | FEMA.gov. Www.fema.gov. https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20220901/new-campaign-fema-and-ad-council-encourages-black-community-create-lastingUS Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Office of Preparedness. (2022, August 29).
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) | FEMA.gov. Www.fema.gov. https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communities/preparedness-activities-webinars/community-emergency-response-team#:~:text=History%20of%20CERTAcknowledgmentsThe author is grateful for the narrative storytelling contributions of the following partners:Shamika Ossey, RN, MPH, Los Angeles County Public Health Nurse and Primary CERT TrainerSharon Sylvers, RN, MPH, Los Angeles County Public Health Nurse and Primary CERT TrainerMr. Adnan Khan, Chairman, Council Of Pakistan, Businessman, Sponsor, and Secondary CERT Trainer/ObserverBishop Osas Otasowie, former official, American Red Cross, Los Angeles Region, Los Angeles Faith Leader, and Secondary CERT TrainerCaptain Chris Cooper (retired) Los Angeles Fire Department, Primary CERT TrainerPhoto Credits: Shamika Ossey and Adnan Khan, AI-generated