Street Smart Celebrates Five Years

Coming together to celebrate the last five years was the main agenda for the Redlands Police Department (RPD) and Redlands citizens, as the community gathered to commemorate the department's Street Smart Program's five years of service. On Nov. 1, the RPD hosted its 5th year anniversary party, with many Street Smart students filling the Redlands Community center's multipurpose room. Many came in Halloween costumes, with the celebration being so close to the holiday, ready to eat and dance. Street Smart, a self-defense program overseen by the RPD, was created in an effort to prevent bullying, help Redlands youth develop self-defense skills and teach children how to exemplify the attributes of a leader, shared program leaders. Street Smart instructor and RPD Officer Alex Paredes oversees the program. "Street Smart serves as an after school program. It is a safe haven for kids, where they can come hang out, learn self defense, build camaraderie, build friends and build confidence. It teaches them perseverance, self control, fighting spirit, courtesy and justice. It builds better people, better citizens. I credit who I am today with a program like this back when I was in high school. When I see [students] come in not very motivated, seeing them grow not only as people but as martial artists, seeing their skills grow and seeing many of them go from being these little kids into matured adults is amazing," Paredes said. To develop self-defense skills, the program uses a martial arts system consisting of an ancient Korean martial arts system combined with Jiu Jitsu. Students ages 6 through 17 participate in the program. "We teach self defense based on realistic situations and use martial arts as a steady background. We want to prevent kids from bullying, from being bullied, and teach them them how to be able to get themselves out of certain dangerous situations," assistant instructor Marissa Dollins said. Street Smart student Kaitlyn Soleski added, "It basically teaches us how to protect ourselves from bad people. One of my friends got jumped and my parents wanted me to be able to protect myself if that ever happened to me, so my parents thought Street Smart would be good. And it is. I love it." Eric Aguilar is a Street Smart student who has been participating in the program since it began in 2008. "I saw a flyer on a wall back in 2008. I came (to the class) out of curiosity and I've been coming ever since. The morale, the discipline and the [unity] throughout the whole program keeps the kids off the street and helps them to make the right choices and turns them into something new," Aguilar said. Uniforms, belts, stripes and medals are all earned, explained instructors. Students also have the opportunity to win medals and trophies as rewards for their accomplishments. Ricardo Solis, whose daughter, Valeria, is a Street Smart student, said, "I love how they teach her to be prepared for any danger and be reliant on herself." Ruben Gallardo, grandfather of student Ruben Elis, said, "This program is excellent. The main part I like about it is that they are all very disciplined. Whenever the instructors aren't here the older kids with the higher ranking belts immediately take charge and the kids listen. I would recommend and encourage every child to participate in this program." Officer Paredes is the program's lead instructor and has been instructing students in this type of martial arts since 1991. He is aided by assistant instructors Estevan Sandoval and Marissa Dollins. Sandoval is a prior student of Paredes's and is the first of his students to earn a black belt. "At first it was all for myself," said Sandoval. "It helped me grow as a person. Now it's grown into more of a passion to pass that on to others, especially in this generation where I feel like there's a lack of mentors. I want to be the one (who's) there for them. The best part is always working with all these kids and being able to impact them. If I can change just one life out of the whole bunch I would be ecstatic, because I know [Officer Paredes] changed my life in a very serious, sort of drastic, way. He just took it and turned it into something so much better than what I thought it could ever be, and so I really want to do that for as many kids as I can." Pardes said one of the goals of the program is to "teach the old ways in a more modern way, and through that hope to bring all those leadership attributes." "This program has taken me on a journey I never thought would come to pass," student Aguilar said.