NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Tutoring Directed at Troubled Youths

The Los Angeles County Probation Department will begin a new after-school tutoring program for troubled youths at the Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood, department officials said Wednesday.

The program, which is scheduled to begin on May 11, would be held Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at the center at 12240 Archwood St. It would be aimed at students at James Madison and Walter Reed junior high schools.

“The schools don’t have a lot of funding, so we felt that if we could muster up some support, we could help them out,” said Ed Young, supervising deputy probation officer. “We feel that there is a very strong relationship between kids that don’t do well in school and those who end up in the criminal justice system.”

“The aim is to keep kids out of trouble. To keep kids out of gangs and to get kids out of gangs who are already in them,” said James Berg, chairman of the North Hollywood Youth Council, which has been meeting with the Probation Department to encourage the tutoring program.

Volunteers from churches or other social service groups would staff the program, which would initially start with 16 students. If successful, Young hopes to expand both the number of students served and the types of activities offered.

“We are also looking at a potential recreational program that can even go along with this eventually,” Young said.