When Sue Ann Abena was hired last year as executive assistant to the director of the Gang Alternatives Program, she brought her experiences from growing up in a working class family to the job, helping the agency's executive director oversee a program that includes a school-based gang prevention curriculum for 4th and 6th grades, job training and development, case management, a court-approved parent education program, and outreach and referral services.

As regional coordinator for School on Wheels in South Los Angeles, Orenda Warren witnesses the daily struggle of the homeless, including homeless schoolchildren, who can find encouragement, nurturing and a typical setting in which to just be a kid within its walls.