Family photo: Lawrence Albert “Jahon” Craig Gadlin with his partner, Latina Cash, and son, Jahon Jr.Lawrence Albert “Jahon” Craig Gadlin, a 23-year-old father in Richmond, Calif., was outside repairing a car with friends on May 13, 2010, when a red minivan drove past and fired dozens of bullets, killing him and two others. I sat in a pew at Gadlin’s memorial service with his classmates from the East Bay Green Job Corps, 15 young women and men I’d been following for a few months. Mourners sang and reached for God as a young man helped Gadlin’s mother take slow, heavy steps to face us all. When Stephanie Guillory could speak, she talked about how her son had wanted to take good care of his new family. “Mom! I got a job,” he’d called to tell her a month before his death. “It’s about time, boy. I’m very proud of you,” she recalled saying, voice quavering.
In Feb. 2009, the Obama administration gave out two-year, stimulus-funded grants of $435 million for hundreds of “green collar” job-training programs across the country. The intent of the grants was to help the people most impacte... Read more
