Leader named for Seattle's youth-violence prevention effort

Mariko Lockhart believes people can change.

She has to. The city of Seattle is betting $8 million it can dramatically reduce juvenile crimes in two years, and has handed the job to Lockhart, director of the city's new Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.

"I've seen kids totally change their path and turn things around," says Lockhart, whose faith comes from her work fighting illiteracy for the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, as well as drug abuse and school delinquency in Newark, N.J.

Her favorite story of a teen turnaround involves a young man who was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps dealing drugs in one of Newark's most dangerous housing projects.

"We were able to get him a summer internship with a suburban housing developer. He got hands-on experience and got to see wealthy suburban houses. It had a huge impact on him," she says of the young man who went on to pursue a master's degree in construction management.

The best part, Lockhart says, is this: The young man was on his way to take his SATs when he was stopped by police, who pulled out their guns and demanded to know where he was going. They didn't believe his SAT story — until he pulled out his No. 2 pencil, she says.

"You can't overestimate the odds these kids are working to beat," says Lockhart, 50.

Some say Seattle is facing similar odds in its quest to cut youth violence in Central, Southeast and Southwest Seattle by 50 percent in the first year of the initiative; and then cut it again by 50 percent in the second year.

"It's ambitious," Lockhart says of the initiative, which will be officially launched — and fully operational — on July 7.

Its success depends on adults as much as kids, she said. "It's about adults getting our act together and taking responsibility. We can't write the kids off as somebody else's problem."

That means adults throughout Seattle, she says.

"There's a big disconnect between people who are more fortunate in the city and kids who are not. There is a big lack of understanding as to what the obstacles are for the kind of young people we're reaching out to."

The city aims to identify roughly 800 kids who are at the greatest risk of engaging in violence or being victimized by it. Predictors of violence, such as school discipline, are highest in the areas of the city where the initiative will be focused.

The initiative will try to blanket these teens with services — helping them to manage their anger, apply for jobs, stay in school and avoid gangs.

Lockhart's job is to coordinate a small army, including community groups, nonprofit agencies, mentors, businesses and volunteers.

She has no staff. Instead, most of the initiative services will flow through contractors in the three areas of the city who will report to her. She says it's crucial that services come from neighborhood groups, not City Hall. Those groups include the Urban League, Southwest Youth & Family Services and Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club.

Holly Miller, director of the city's Office of Education, was a member of the committee that recommended to Mayor Greg Nickels that he hire Lockhart.

She will report to Miller and Nickels.

Miller praises Lockhart's attributes as ideal for a job requiring "massive collaboration" among community activists, schools, police and parents.

Lockhart's ability to relate to people, her experience running a statewide group in New Jersey, her work on issues of race and education and her fluency in Spanish add up to the right skills, Miller says.

City Councilmember Tim Burgess, a former Seattle cop, is impressed by Lockhart's candor and humor as much as her résumé. "She's a normal person. She isn't a bureaucrat," Burgess says.

Lockhart is half African-American, half Japanese. (Her first name is pronounced "MAH-ree-ko.") Her father was a social worker; her mother a school administrator.

She grew up on the lower east side of Manhattan and went to the High School of Music and Art, made famous by the movie and TV series "Fame," where she focused on painting. After graduating as an art major from Yale, she went to Nicaragua in 1980 to paint murals.

The leftist Sandinistas had just seized power and soon she was painting murals for the Ministry of Culture. Then she worked in the government's campaigns to eradicate illiteracy and polio. She stayed for seven years, returning to the United States after injuries she sustained in a plane crash required several operations and therapy.

Lockhart then decided to get a master's degree that would help her work with disadvantaged people. That led her to Newark, where she spent most of her career — first for a group called Newark Fighting Back, then for a statewide organization, Communities in Schools.

Some who are already working to prevent violence grumble that Lockhart is new to Seattle and has no direct experience quelling gang violence.

"You'd think that somebody in that position would have a relationship with the community that is being served," said Moni Tep, a youth organizer for Communities Against Rape and Abuse, a Seattle anti-violence group.

Lockhart, whose salary is $117,999, responds that almost all the kids she dealt with in Newark were connected to gangs.

That she came to Seattle just two years ago — when her husband, Cesar Torres, was hired to lead a local legal-aid group, the Northwest Justice Project — "cuts both ways," she says.

"I have a sharp learning curve," she acknowledges. "On the other hand, being new and from the outside is also helpful. I'm not connected to any one neighborhood faction or organization. I have not been part of the city until now."

Burgess says he has no concerns about Lockhart's experience or relatively short time in Seattle.

"I think time will prove she will be a wise and effective leader," Miller says.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com