The Entertainment Industry, the largest economy in the world, is less than ten miles from the South Los Angeles Community, and yet for those who live there who want to find careers in the industry, it might as well be on another continent. The studios, guilds and trade unions have been woefully exclusionary to the plethora of cultures that populate the City of Los Angeles. Less than 10% of the jobs in the entire entertainment industry are held by minorities and even less by residents of South Los Angeles.

To add further insult to injury, the problem has been exacerbated by the fact that too many feeder educational institutions have failed to adequately prepare our youth with the skills necessary to satisfy the needs of professional production internship programs

Ironically, the professional internship and secondary media academy training programs set up to train the disadvantaged are complaining that the very clients they are funded to serve are unqualified to participate in their programs because of lack of exposure and proper prerequisite training in their chosen fields. They also fail to give support services to their graduates once they have entered the workforce. The majority of these programs are themselves exclusionary, because of discriminatory admission policies, inconvenient locations, predatory practices on the under-educated, exorbitant fees, sub-standard instruction by unqualified personnel, and poor referral services, which also serves to further disillusion prospective apprentices in the fields, in front of and behind the camera.

CAG gives the dis-enfranchised an opportunity to explore a career in the industry hands on with professionals in their respective fields before entering entry level employment and professional training programs, and also provides the counseling, lifestyle and workplace mentoring, to ensure a successful transition and preserving resources for candidates that have a clear insight into the fundamentals of employment in the industry.

CAG also provides jobs and crossover training to the Retired, Unemployed and Underemployed professional artists, administrators, and technicians already well-established in the Industry.

CAG believes training institutions must be responsible to the community and industry by properly preparing talent and support personnel, giving them an environment with conditions and standards that approximates actual professional production.

Community Artists’ Guild, Inc (CAG) was founded in 1983 in Detroit by actor Duane Shepard, Sr. to (1) mentor and upgrade the skills of performing artists and (2) provide facilities to community theatre groups. By 1986 CAG had become an integral part of the Detroit Theatre scene, the city and eventually a grants awardee, when the City of Detroit contracted with CAG to provide a project director for their citywide JTPA Summer Youth Employment Program in performing arts. The following year CAG with Shepard as Director was running all the city’s youth programming. Operations were moved to Los Angeles in 1998 with a mission to provide inter and multi-disciplinary comprehensive vocational training in the industry trades (film, television and recording) to at-risk youth ages 12 – 17 years old as an alternative to potential gang affiliation and an option for a future career choice.

For the past 25 years CAG’s staff including guest actors and production industry professionals, have worked with community organizations, local and state government and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) throughout L.A. County providing workshops, professional mentoring, industry panels and training. In 1999 CAG became contractors for the Los Angeles Community Development Department’s LA Bridges Gang Intervention & Prevention Program and created the “First Takes- Kids in the City” Film/TV Production Vocational Training After school Program for middle and high school students.