Operation Progress is a Non-Profit started by a group of Southeast Division LAPD Police Officers who fight gang crime in South Los Angeles; specifically the community of Watts. They were deeply moved and motivated by young students who worked hard to keep up their grades and stay out of gangs. The only thing holding these kids back from a post high school educations was their lack of financial opportunity.

Operation Progress. also known as “OP” was started in order to raise money for underprivileged youth in poor areas of the city. OP can be summed up this way…”Good cops helping good kids get out of really bad places.”

The officers of OP set out to find these kids who have survived in these bad neighborhoods and help them out through leadership training, mentoring and providing financial assistance for education.

One of the Southeast officers was raised in Boston and has a very large family network in both the nursing and law enforcement communities of the city. This provided the perfect opportunity for Operation Progress to become a bi-coastal foundation partnering, since its inception in 2000 with the Boston Police Department. More recently, the Long Beach Police Department under the direction of Chief Jim McDonnell, formerly Assistant Chief of the LAPD, joined the police family of the Operation Progress Foundation. The Long Beach Police Department, the Long Beach Police Foundation and Long Beach BLAST have entered into a Service Partnership to raise scholarship funds for the students of the city of Long Beach, and raise community awareness of the opportunities that Operation Progress offers to at risk youth in the city of Long Beach.

Operation Progress has since served over 50 educational scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, to well deserving inner city youth in both Los Angeles and Boston. Our 2009 goal is to partner locally with corporations and small businesses for both the financial support and internship opportunities for the graduates, as well as partner nationally with all large city police departments across the United States as we continue to raise money and provide the opportunity of education to all inner city students striving to achieve despite the circumstances in their homes, or local communities.

If you are interested in supporting this cause, sponsoring a student, sponsoring an event or becoming a business mentor, please contact us today!

Our Mission : Cops for Kids

Our mission is to identify, improve, and invest in the potential of students who might otherwise be denied an opportunity to succeed.