20 Years of Service to Kids: From the Beginning with Henry Salinas

September 8, 2011

This month celebrates the 20^th anniversary of ICAN’s youth and family programs! To celebrate this tremendous milestone, we reflect on how far ICAN has come from operating out of a high school gymnasium 20 years ago to anticipating a move into a new 21,000 square foot facility this spring. In early January 2011, StoryCorps made a stop in Phoenix and gave the opportunity for ICAN Founder, Henry Salinas to be interviewed by ICAN Board Member Commander Edward Upshaw to record his story about founding ICAN as part of an oral history project with the Library of Congress.

[caption id="attachment_2896" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="1991 - Henry Salinas and the First Group of ICAN Youth on a Field Trip to Rawhide in Scottsdale"][/caption] Henry Salinas shared his founding of ICAN to address the gang activity that was growing in his Chandler neighborhood in the early 1990’s.  Henry shared about overcoming the odds to bring free programs to Chandler’s children and youth—including the doubts of community leaders that change could occur.  Cmdr. Edward Upshaw, who was the Chandler Police Department Gang Sergeant at the time, recalled a conversation with Henry in the early days, stating, “My job was to eliminate gangs from Chandler; my job was not to mingle with them but to eradicate them.”  After being volunteered for the ICAN board however, Commander Upshaw began to see how his involvement with these kids could and would make a difference.  Henry has also seen the impact and understands the importance of continuing ICAN’s preventative programming, “I’d rather see prevention than prisons (for the youth) and we just need to continue.  We have broken the chain, and will continue to break the chain and never stop.”

Click here to download Henry’s full StoryCorps interview 

Help us celebrate our 20^th anniversary by sharing your vision for the 20 years, as Henry and Commander Upshaw have. Visit ICAN’s Facebook to leave your mark on ICAN’s future!]]>