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Near the train tracks on Alhambra Road in El Sereno, Christina Navarro remembers knocking on RVs to ask her neighbors what they needed. That effort led to the inception of Healing Urban Barrios, a nonprofit organization she founded in 2017.
The organization provides services such as gang intervention, violence prevention and food giveaways to residents in Lincoln Heights.
Employees of the nonprofit proactively go out into the community and give out resources to those in need. Instead of waiting for people to come to them looking for support, Healing Urban Barrios identifies clear resources people need and brings these resources to the community.
“The resources should be going out to the street, because that’s where they belong,” said Navarro, who serves as the organization’s executive director.
Healing Urban Barrios also offers prison reentry and violence prevention services, which help people who have recently been released from prison. This program focuses on case management and community service hours to reintegrate formerly incarcerated people into society. Additionally, their services are expanding with one of the newer services they offer, which is a braiding salon called HUB Twist.
Eduardo Cruz has been with the organization since its founding. Cruz took part in the reentry program after spending six years in and out of prison. He now works as an intern for Healing Urban Barrios.
He has seen firsthand how Healing Urban Barrios helps the community.
“They were there for us,” Cruz said. “They were there for me.”
Navarro grew up in El Sereno. She said her grandmother was her biggest role model, instilling values that Navarro carries to this day. A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, Navarro did not pursue college immediately.
At the end of her sophomore year, she became pregnant with her son. “I was blessed to still graduate high school on time,” Navarro said.
Navarro also gravitated back to gang life after high school. She began using drugs and was struggling with addiction. When she had her second child, a daughter, she said she realized she didn’t want to put her through the same thing her son went through, growing up in hardship. Coming from a family of strong women, Navarro decided to go cold turkey.
She said she was tired of disappointing her parents and her family.
“Now they have this daughter that’s supposed to be the smart one, and I was just messing up,” said Navarro.
Navarro later returned to school to get her bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies in Criminal Justice. Her grandmother agreed to watch her children on the condition that she’d work and go to school full-time.
“First, I wanted to be a cop, which is crazy because of all of the bad stuff I did,” Navarro said.
Ultimately, Navarro wanted to help her community and decided to pursue a career in law. Specifically, she wanted to go into criminal law because she thought back on her life.
“We can’t afford lawyers, private lawyers. So I was like, community,” said Navarro
Navarro continues to center her community through Healing Urban Barrios’ initiatives, including workforce development, food giveaways, healing circles focused on relationship building, and disaster preparedness.
Before starting Healing Urban Barrios, Navarro worked in many different nonprofit organizations and learned about how and who ran them.
“A lot of the nonprofits I was working for, they didn’t have any administrators or leaders that looked like the community, and it was a very top-down kind of service,” said Navarro.
Navarro realized that the nonprofit organizations that were around didn’t adjust their programs to the community, but instead made the community adjust to them. Navarro felt that wasn’t the way to go about trying to help people. So instead, she went to the community and created programs that revolved around the needs of those she was trying to help.
“We need to learn what the community wants and needs from us in order to grow professionally. And that’s the message I give my staff,” said Navarro
In growing her community center, Navarro made sure to train her staff to know their community and how to interact with people of all backgrounds. As Cruz is interning at Healing Urban Barrios, he is learning just as much as he is teaching.
“I’m a student as well as trying to be a leader, trying to correct the youth,” said Cruz
Cruz also has a hard background, being in and out of jail; he has an understanding of others in similar situations.
Cruz is just one of many who have benefited from re-entry initiatives provided by Healing Urban Barrios. Through Navarro’s dedication and hard work, Navarro has ensured that others who have been in similar situations as her have the resources they need and know that they can ask for help.
“What makes Christina is the people that have believed in me and the people that have stayed with me,” said Navarro.
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To learn more about Healing Urban Barrios, visit their website www.healingurbanbarrios.org or follow them on Instagram @healingurbanbarrios.
