A Conversation with Steve Kim and Samuel Lazalde - The Fernando Deveras Show

For decades, families here in Orange County -- particularly low income families and communities of color -- have been impacted by struggles such as gang violence, substance abuse, and a broken criminal justice system. And the proposed solution to these problems often came down to more police on our streets, harsher sentencing in the courts, and more jails to keep people locked away.

But a lot has changed since the days of "tough-on-crime" solutions, and today we are fortunate to have organizations like Project Kinship and Neutral Ground doing the work that they do. PK and NG -- two organizations based here in Santa Ana, CA -- help people who have been impacted by these systems and to get the support they need. They provide job opportunities to people who have been formerly incarcerated, they offer youth mentoring in our local schools, and more importantly, they are proof that there is another way to tackle the violence that we see in our communities: through love, compassion, healing, and the gift of hope.

I sat down with Steve Kim, the Executive Director of Project Kinship, and Samuel Lazalde, Programs Director for Neutral Ground, to talk about what we can do collectively to help our communities heal.