I've spent a lot of time in my journalism career documenting the challenges and the opportunities for residents in Southeastern San Diego: a cluster of neighborhoods that comprises some of San Diego's poorest parts of town.

The headline-grabbing gang violence, the abject poverty and the inequality of opportunity that mars these streets is only one side of the story. Throughout these neighborhoods are individuals fighting to make things better.

In this month's San Diego Magazine, we highlighted the voices who are working to make Southeastern San Diego safer and more prosperous.

Take Bevelynn Bravo, for instance. Even before her son Jaime was stabbed to death in a local park, she was already working as a counselor for families who were victims of gang violence. Since then, she's doubled down her efforts, joining forces with others to form "Mothers With A Message," which shares their stories with community groups.

And there's Sasha Knox, outreach director at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA, who helped link a group of students from a private school in La Jolla with mothers like Bravo for a documentary project. Those kids went on to form their own group, the Building Peace Club, after spending time understanding some of the challenges for their neighbors to the south.

Putting a face to these names was an important task for me and one I wanted to do justice. I got the call on a Sunday night and had to schedule, shoot and file the project by Tuesday, with five different photo subjects scattered around town.

The most important and sensitive task was a photo of Bravo, whose son had been murdered. She offered to meet me at his gravesite on a Tuesday, just a couple of hours before my deadline. We arrived at 4:10 p.m. To our surprise, the cemetery closed at 4 p.m.

A couple of quick phone calls later and the staff at the cemetery graciously offered us just five minutes of access to do the shoot. I tried to work quickly without rushing Bravo. She sat beside her son Jaime and grasped a framed photo of him. She clutched a locket with his image. After four minutes, I put the camera down and walked back to my car, so she could use the last minute to spend some time alone with her son, and her husband who's buried alongside him.

Take a moment to read more about these folks and many others trying to make a better San Diego over at San Diego Magazine. 

Bevelynn Bravo poses at the gravesite where her son Jaime Bravo is buried. Jaime was stabbed to death in May 2013. 

Bevelynn Bravo clutches a locket with an image of her son Jaime Bravo, who was stabbed to death in May 2013. 

Sasha Knox is the Outreach Director for the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA.

David Tos, a San Diego police officer with the Southeastern division, helps run a diversion program for youth who are caught violating curfew.

Andrew Castro is a co-founder of the Building Peace Club at The Bishop's School in La Jolla.

Barry Pollard poses with a mural that he helped the community organize to paint on a fence that used to get regularly tagged with graffiti.

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