|
By Jorge Casuso
April 23 -- Overcast skies and a steady drizzle
failed to dampen spirits at the Unity Resource Fair in Virginia
Avenue Park Sunday afternoon.
Children played games and crafted picture frames and clay
birds, teens and community leaders discussed the challenges
facing “at-risk-youth” and everyone swayed to
the sounds of half a dozen local bands.
 |
| Helen Coleman and great-grandson
Sean Johnson (Photos by Jorge Casuso) |
Helen Coleman, who was watching her great-grandson, Sean
Johnson, decorate a frame at the Michael’s Arts &
Crafts booth, was impressed with the new park she was visiting
for the first time.
“The people are polite, very friendly,” said
Coleman, who lives in Los Angeles. “There’s a
lot to do for the kids. I think it’s nice.”
At a nearby booth, Justin Mammen, a counselor for the Pico
Partnership, was looking for recruits to help put through
college.
A joint program of Santa Monica College, the park and the
City, the partnership helps kids who grew up in Santa Monica
and attended local schools “develop a solid education
plan to attend SMC,” Mammen said.
The program counsels students, helps them apply for financial
aid, provides vouchers for books and helps them find work,
he said.
“We try to do things holistically -- from how to build
relationships to conflict resolution,” he said.
 |
| Information
booth |
Inside the park’s Thelma Terry Building, counselors
and community leaders were sitting in a circle chatting with
local youth about the challenges of living in the City’s
poorest area.
When parents visit their kid’s school, said Paco Retana,
from St. John’s Family Counseling, the invariable ask,
How are they behaving?” Seldom do they ask, “How
are they doing? How are their grades.”
Parents are busy just surviving, said Peggy Harris, who is
in charge of Student and Family Support Services at the School
District.
“Some of these families are struggling with survival,
just getting bread on the table,” Harris said. “Some
feel alienated, disenfranchised. They won’t seek help
because they won’t trust you.”
Turning young lives around will take a joint effort that
includes the school district, the City, churches and other
institutions, those in attendance agreed.
“We have to build relationships with people,”
Harris said. “We have to go to where people are, where
they feel comfortable, like the schools, the churches.”
 |
| Sisters
Zoka and Cahlain |
The workshop was attended by two former mayors, Judy Abdo
and Nat Trives; City Council member Kevin McKeown; Laurie
Newman, from State Senator Sheila Kuehl’s Office and
Jim Lynch, the new Chamber of Commerce president.
After the “circle of concern” broke up, McKeown
caution that it will take an ongoing effort to “create
an environment in which that human connection happens more
consistently.
“The circumstances that abandon young people to violence
go on day after day, year after year, whether we more comfortable
Santa Monicans feel personally threatened that week or not,”
McKeown said.
 |
| Ladee Dred |
Outside, a light drizzle was falling, but it didn’t
seem to bother those huddled in the folding chairs taking
in the Raggea sounds of Ladee Dred.
|
