Dorothy Thompson - 25 Years... and Counting
“I founded our Production Assistant Training Program after the Los Angeles riots. April 29, 1992 will be forever remembered as a day of fear and upheaval, as L.A. was shaken by citywide riots that altered the way many people viewed the structure and stability of our society. Once the fires and turmoil died down, most went back to their daily routines, feeling that someone else would fix the problems. Those troubled days convinced me that many of our city’s racial and cultural tensions were caused by the lack of fulfilling job opportunities available to young men and women living in L.A.’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods. This belief led me to notice that there were few faces
of color on any of the sets where I worked as a producer of television commercials. In response to both issues, I began training young people as Production Assistants (P.A.'s) and securing jobs for them on TV commercial I produced. Gradually, Film, Television and TV Commercial production companies with a commitment to diversity came forward, while more trainees were found for the steadily increasing amount of jobs being offered. In answer to the grown numbers of both eater students and willing employers, Streetlights was born.
There is no quick fix for solving our community's problems. But the best fix is still a job."