New Center to Offer Classes, Job Training

More than 200 residents, business owners and politicians were on hand last week to dedicate the Ujima Village Community Learning Center, which will provide basic education and job-preparation skills to the Watts/Willowbrook area.

The center, which will open in early December, is a partnership between government agencies and local social services groups formed to address a need for supplemental education in South Los Angeles, said Carla Dartis, president of the Drew Economic Development Corp.

The corporation is an 11-year-old nonprofit community-based housing, economic and social services development agency that will oversee the center’s programs.

The Ujima Village Learning Center will be equipped to serve 500 people daily. Programs will include free reading and computer literacy classes for individuals 5 and older, a microbusiness training center, job-preparation classes and job-placement services, project officials said.

The 9,000-square-foot facility at 1921 E. 126th St. is jointly funded by the Walt Disney Co., Mattel Corp. and the federal Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

Disney donated the three portable buildings that will house the center, and Mattel will contribute $120,000 annually for program operations for three years, Dartis said.

HUD provided the two-acre site next to the Ujima Village apartment complex for low- and moderate-income people, she said.

“We are here demonstrating what can happen when business, government, educators and, more importantly, the community, pull together in a relentless effort to (improve) the education of our children,” said Joe Gandolfo, president of operations for Mattel.

Gandolfo’s comments came during a one-hour dedication ceremony Tuesday attended by Mayor Tom Bradley, retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, Rebuild L.A. co-chairman Bernard Kinsey, and Jack Kemp, Secretary of HUD.

At the ceremony, many tenants of the 300-unit Ujima Village apartments, a HUD facility, praised the new center and its services.

“This will give a lot of people around here the chance to get the skills to go out and get a job,” said Patricia Coulter, an Ujima Village resident for two years.

“For adults like myself, it will give us an opportunity to learn how to use the computer. Being over 40, it’s not easy to get that kind of training. For the young people, I think it is a positive step. This center shows them that our community cares about them.”