As director of prevention services for Social Model Recovery Systems, Inc., a human services organization based in Covina, Zelenne Cárdenas works tirelessly on behalf of people who are barely surviving in a disenfranchised community. Cárdenas directs the United Coalition East Prevention Project in collaboration with SRO Housing Corp. The community-based program is dedicated to preventing alcohol- and drug-related problems in the eastern area of Downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row.

 


Patricia Giggans serves as executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (LACAAW), where she works to end sexual and domestic violence against women, youth and children through education, prevention and intervention. Under Giggans’ leadership, LACAAW has become one of the leading domestic violence prevention agencies in the U.S., with a service base that extends from metro Los Angeles to the West San Gabriel Valley and the mid-San Fernando Valley.

 

An ex-gang member and ordained minister, the Rev. Anthony Ortiz has been using his firsthand knowledge of gang life for more than 20 years to end the cycle of violence against youth. In 1980, Ortiz began ministering to young men and women in prisons who had fallen prey to gangs and drugs. The organization he founded, Breakout Prison Outreach—later renamed California Youth Outreach—continues to provide direct services to state prisons and California Youth Authority camps across the state.