Yellow shirts spread throughout Compton, California. Silver ladders surround a home. Green Rosemary bushes sink their roots into the soil. Red scrapers blur in fast motion. Black trash bags line the sidewalk. Blue paint saturates a fresh roller. Brown work gloves pat a shoulder. White teeth appear through upturned lips, again and again.
The white smiles belong to the young and the old, the poor and the affluent, the brown, and the black, and the white. They gather together on the streets of Compton bimonthly amidst a myriad of colors for a JustDoGood work day.
Compton is changing; for the good. But it hasn’t always been that way. Compton is notorious for its athletes and rappers, but also for its crime and poverty.
In 2005 a church in Paramount had a vision of seeing healing come to its neighboring city of Compton. Paramount
too has struggled in the past, but it has now been called a “beacon of light” by the President. Some of this can be attributed to the JustDoGood program. The colors at the Compton work day are not new; rather they are an overflow from the beauty and wholeness that has been brought to Paramount.
The change in Compton is not just due to the overflow of Paramount however, it is an outpouring from the hearts of the people right in Compton who love their city. The mayor, city council, local businesses, civic and religious organizations have partnered together to form one united-yellow-shirted force for change in Compton.
On the last Compton work day David, a teenager from Lakewood, asked Mario, a teenager from Compton, “What do you think of the paint color?” Mario, nodding toward his home, simply said, “I like it.”
That is the story. Just do good. Celebrate color. We like it.