A Point of Light in Venice : Cain Davis Doggedly Kept Oakwood Teen Facility Alive as He Evolved Into Keeper of Peace on the Streets

In his 27 years in Venice, Cain Davis has seen them come and go. Mostly go.

Police, politicians and business people have passed through the community on their way to bigger precincts, higher offices or better jobs, says the director of the Venice Teen Post.

But a few things remain unchanged. The Oakwood section of Venice is still staggering under the burdens of poverty, crime and drug abuse. And there is still a Venice Teen Post trying to make things a little bit better.

So Davis says you can’t blame him for being a little skeptical when another short timer--President George Bush--passed through town one day this May. Bush visited Oakwood to present an award to a community activist who led a community fight against gangs and drugs.

“I think the only reason Bush came to the area,” Davis told a reporter, “was because it was convenient for him since he was on his way to a luncheon in Bel-Air.”

The 43-year-old son of an Arkansas cotton farmer prides himself on not just passing through. For more than a quarter-century, Davis has lived and worked in the Venice area and in a profession, social work, that seemingly fell out of vogue years ago. Davis has doggedly kept the Venice Teen Post open, even as the 150-post network that once blanketed the county has been reduced to just six.

Over the years, Davis has evolved into more than just the director of the Teen Post, becoming an ombudsman for much of the community--helping residents cut through red tape to get government benefits, resolving disputes with the Los Angeles Police Department and generally trying to keep the peace.

Davis had just graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1965 when he took a job as assistant director of the Beethoven Teen Post in Mar Vista.

That summer, Los Angeles suffered through the Watts riots. Thousands of idealistic young people were answering the call from President Lyndon B. Johnson to help fight the nation’s War on Poverty. And the Economic Opportunity Act was providing nearly $1 million for a six-week summer youth program at 120 locations around Los Angeles County.

The funding was renewed and the program expanded to 150 centers, serving 20,000 teen-agers. The centers were later named Teen Posts.

Federal money was so abundant in those early years that social workers like Davis were told to spend all they could or the money would have to be returned to the federal Treasury, recalls William Elkins, then director of the Teen Posts and now special assistant to Mayor Tom Bradley.

“We had more money than we knew what to do with,” said Davis, who became director of the Venice Teen Post in 1971. “We don’t have that problem any more.”

In their early days, Teen Posts sponsored a 10-week summer leadership program for disadvantaged youths, featuring fitness training, black and Latino history and visits by distinguished guests. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once addressed the gathering.

There were a host of other special programs, including one that bused youths from Teen Posts to local dentists for free checkups.

But a combination of budget cuts and closures of posts that were deemed ineffective reduced the network of Teen Posts to 50 by 1968. That slipped to 40 posts by 1972 and 25 by 1974. Today, six Teen Posts remain.

It costs an average of about $75,000 to run each of the remaining centers, including rent, utilities, supplies and salaries for a director and assistant director, said Raphael (Ray) Harris, the director of the local teen post program, which is funded almost entirely through government grants.

That doesn’t leave much room for the unexpected. So Davis said he will spend his own money to resurface two pool tables or buy a “boom box” to provide music in the weight room.

Davis and the other Teen Post employees are “heroes” for staying with the program, Elkins said.

“There are not many of them left,” said Elkins, who was director of the Teen Posts from 1967 until 1972. “They don’t get enough credit. Why? Because that is not where the priorities of the government or the people are in this period of history.

“I think it is tragic,” he said. “The pendulum has swung the other way. There is a belief that law enforcement can do it all. And it can’t.”

Davis said the optimism of the early years was fine, but now he just tries to be pragmatic. He knows he can’t save every child in the Oakwood. But he said he tries to provide a place for them to spend time and stay out of trouble.

“Kids have no place to go,” Davis said. “If they had more Teen Posts, I’m quite sure they wouldn’t have as many kids on the street as they do now.”

On streets like West Washington Boulevard--where the Teen Post makes its home--the poverty of Venice is brought into sharp focus. Down-and-outers come elbow-to-elbow with the Westside’s moneyed elite on a street where thrift shops stand alongside chi-chi restaurants and boarded-up homes face trendy boutiques.

The battered red storefront at 1100 W. Washington Blvd. has been the Teen Post’s home since 1971. The pool tables and a Ping-Pong table dominate the main room. Books and two televisions line the walls, along with pictures of Mayor Bradley and Martin Luther King Jr.

The furnishings are a hodgepodge, but neat and clean.

In back is the popular weight room, where most of the teen-agers on this summer day are spending their time.

The Teen Post is also home to the Pearl White Theater for the Performing Arts, a community theater sponsored by actor Beau Bridges that produces plays that are written and performed by neighborhood children.

Davis said he has learned in his 25 years working with teen-agers that providing activities is much more effective than preaching.

“I’m concerned about what they do on the street,” he said. “But once you have told them once what’s right, there’s not much more you can do.”

The Teen Post is open from 1 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, but Davis is on the job 24 hours a day.

To supplement his $21,600 yearly salary as Teen Post director, he works mornings as a security aide at Venice High School. And when he is at home in Mar Vista, his phone can ring at any hour of the night.

A couple of months ago, the family of a local teen-ager called for help with funeral arrangements. Their son had been shot to death in front of a Mar Vista bowling alley, and they were not sure how they would pay for his burial.

Davis said he solved the problem with a phone call to a Los Angeles funeral home that has often helped him by providing its services at a reasonable rate.

When a Venice family said earlier this year that their 27-year-old son had been beaten up by officers from a special Los Angeles Police Department anti-gang unit, Davis led a contingent to the LAPD’s Pacific Division, where they discussed the problem with Capt. John Wilbanks.

Davis said that Wilbanks agreed to talk to officials in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums unit. Wilbanks was out of town last week and could not be reached for comment.

Last week, the phone was ringing again--the call was from a Venice woman desperately trying to keep custody of three children who had been left homeless when their mother, a drug addict, died suddenly. The local woman was a friend of the deceased and thought she could keep the children together and provide better care than the county’s overburdened foster care system.

Davis agreed and said he would call county Supervisor Deane Dana’s office to see if the county will relinquish custody of the children.

Between the Teen Post, his mornings at Venice High and long nights on the phone, Davis, who is single, is seldom off the job. But despite the long hours and low pay, he said, he never thinks of quitting.

“I know everyone in Venice,” Davis said. “The community out there is just like my home.”