On August 15, the City Council authorized the City Manager to enter into a two-year contract with Ricky Pickens and approved two purchase orders to implement the work of a four-member gang interventionist team, to provide gang outreach and violence interruption services.
The contract included an option of an additional one-year extension at the sole discretion of the City Manager.
The scope of work for the contract included oversight of the gang interventionist team and the cost of service for Pickens and one directly hired gang interventionist.
Purchase orders were issued to two additional individuals to serve on the gang interventionist team, each in the amount of $60,000 for two years with the option of an additional one-year extension.
The contract was originally administered by the Office of the City Manager and has since been transferred to the Public Health Department.
The City’s Public Health Department will provide oversight of the Gang Violence Outreach and Interruption Services team to facilitate the integration of the services with the PIPP program.
The City Manager’s Office will continue to play an active role in monitoring the team’s efforts.
“I’m privileged to do this work in the city I grew up in and I am fortunate to have these relationships,” Pickens told Pasadena Now Monday in August. “The most important thing now is we are in a position to start to address the root causes of violence through the CalVIP grant.”
The contract called for Pickens to provide periodic reports to the City and Public Safety Committee.
Between 2019 and 2021, Pasadena experienced a rise in gang violence which has resulted in a 125% increase in confirmed shootings. In response to the increase in violence, the City Manager’s Officer retained Pickens.
Pickens’s team remained active even after the spike in shooting subsided. Although things have calmed down since the spike.
Growing up, Pickens saw family and friends join gangs, but he avoided the violent lifestyle due to what he calls “good mentors.” He said he began his work to help his friends.
The CalVIP grant mentioned by Pickens is a three-year grant from July 2022 to June 2025, awarded to the Pasadena Public Health Department (PPHD) by the California Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC).
Worth $2,510,394, the grant is meant to support violence reduction initiatives, particularly those targeting group member-involved homicides, shootings, and aggravated assaults.
The public health department aims to use the grant to address underlying risk factors for youth in Pasadena and protect them from involvement in gangs and other pathways to violence.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
