Youth Take Flight

The Los Angeles County Development Authority won a 2020 Award of Excellence in Resident and Client Services for their summer program providing youth residing in public housing with a hands-on experience in the aviation industry. Nominated from among the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials Award of Merit winners each year, the Awards of Excellence winners are chosen by national juries and honored at the annual National Conference and Exhibition in November. They represent the very best in innovative programs in assisted housing and community development.     
 
Recognizing the need to offer an after-school program during the summer for high school students most at risk for truancy, poor grades, gang participation, and domestic problems at home, in 2018 LACDA partnered with the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) to provide an educational, innovative, and interactive experience.  

During the summers of 2018 and 2019, LACDA and OBAP hosted a week-long Aerospace Career Education Academy. Each year of the program about 20 to 25 students participated, according to Montaño. LACDA provided a bus to pick up students from the housing sites to transport them to a nearby airport, where the program was held. 

Throughout the course of the academy, students were given self-esteem and goal-setting training, learned how to set goals. They also met with several aviation industry professionals, including as flight attendants, plane machinists, and pilots.  

“You do not know what you do not know. Our kids never thought about the possibility of becoming a flight attendant, working with the Federal Aviation Administration, or training to be a pilot because they’ve never been exposed to any of these careers,” Jeanette Montaño, acting program administrator for LACDA, said. “So just introducing them to these career paths is huge.”  

OBAP facilitated the entire course, from arranging the aviation professionals’ presentations to allowing students to take part in a flight simulator to practice what it would be like to fly as a pilot. Montaño said several of the professionals who came to speak with the kids shared they also grew up in similar situations as the students. She said it was eye-opening for many students to realize people from lower economic backgrounds can still pursue opportunities in aviation and be successful.  

The majority of the students who participated in the program had never stepped foot in an airport before. “This exposed them to all sorts of different experiences,” Montaño said. “It shows them the world is so much bigger than what they know.”  

At the end of the weeklong program, all students received official certificates of completion. LACDA staff continue to track all the graduates of the program to see if they decide to explore careers in aviation. Montaño said she is aware of at least one participant who is now in college pursuing becoming a pilot.  

LACDA hopes to continue the partnership with OBAP and hold more academies, but due to the coronavirus pandemic the summer program did not happen in 2020. Montaño is hopeful once it is safe to do so, the program can continue to serve the younger residents of LACDA.