One Square Mile: Oak View Parents Become Heroes for Positive Change
One Square Mile-A Journey of Community Empowerment
By Jack Shaw
Reviewed by C. MacDonald
A fascinating book by Jack Shaw, a longtime management consultant and former Dean of the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, is about the incredible effort of empowerment and renewal in an Hispanic neighborhood in Southern California. Oak View, a one square mile area, is home to 10,000 people, nearly all Hispanic/Latino, with more than 5 individuals in each household. Most rent apartments and about 32% live below the poverty line. Once perceived as an unsafe place, Oak View is surrounded by expensive Huntington Beach homes, including mansions and estates that can sell for $3 million or more–a mere two miles away!
Shaw’s “guidebook” is an interesting story about rich & poor people working together to build credibility, trust, community involvement and safety. Among many heroes, the most important ones are Oak View parents and kids who are taking responsibility for changing their community by becoming actively involved in helping make it a better place to live. Read book review>
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