Bridge Community Center offers resources to community members in a neighborhood where gun violence is a chronic problem
About 50 congregants at a church in the southeastern San Diego neighborhood of Mountain View were praying midweek in August last year when the sound of gunshots shattered their sense of tranquility. Three months later, it happened again.
Graffiti in the parking lot of Mike’s Market, a convenience store, in the Mountain View neighborhood. “It’s very ugly,” resident Rosa Grijalva said, referring to the gun violence on Ocean View Boulevard.Grijalva, who lives a block away from Ocean View, said she believes policing is important but so are resources to keep youngsters busy.
The church opened the Bridge Community Center in response to the violence and crime, but the inspiration came from Tommy Barnett. Barnett co-founded the Dream Center in Los Angeles, which offers housing, education and other resources. Since its opening, the center has offered a variety of programs, such as CrossFit for teens and adults, mural art classes for children and teens, and marriage and family counseling for couples.Community members line up for a weekly food bank in August.
A group of teens and young adults recently completed a 12-week photography and video production class. The group produced videos about events around San Diego, such as San Diego Pride, collecting stipends of up to $100 for each event they covered.“It’s been great for kids to get hands-on experience,” said Kenny Key, founder of Game Face, a photography and video company that offered the class in partnership with the center.
Playground Preachers has recorded five albums. Its members regularly stand outside of grocery stores, doling out their CDs and asking for donations. The children get to pocket some of the money, and the rest is saved to pay expenses for trips — for performances or just for fun. Celestino Montalvo, who teaches mural painting at the center, said the facility presents an opportunity for him to serve as a change agent. As part of their first project, he and five children painted a simple orange and blue mural on the church grounds that reads, “The Bridge,” and depicts the silhouette of the San Diego-Coronado bridge and a palm tree.He said he was a standout student in middle school, but in high school, he got off track. At 19, he landed in prison for a stabbing.
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