Group Honors Work With Children : Public Service: Deputy and child-care worker are among recipients of advocacy group’s awards.

After four years of maintaining a “D” average in the area of children’s welfare, California--or at least some Californians--have finally made the dean’s list.

The announcement came this week in Los Angeles at the first Children’s Honor Roll, designed by the nonprofit advocacy group Children Now to honor people, programs and corporations who help at-risk youths.

“Californians are aware of the problems that face kids,” said James Steyer, president of Children Now. “We want to emphasize the positive things being done for the kids.”

From 1988 to 1991, California had received Ds from Children Now for the state’s overall policies toward children. In 1992, the state’s grade dropped to a D-minus.

But this year, Steyer said, the group chose to take another tack.

“We felt it was time to change the message and focus on solutions,” Steyer said. “With the honor roll, instead of a report card saying D-plus and bumming people out, we can let people know that they can change the world for children.”

Among the diverse group of honorees was San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Ruben Gonzalez, who acknowledged that he entered his formative years on the wrong side of the law. Gonzalez was born into a gang family in San Bernardino--his father was a convicted murderer and his grandparents were heroin addicts with 40 years of jail time between them. He seemed well on his way to following in their footsteps, but in 1986, after his own near-incarceration, Gonzalez began a new life as a deputy, dedicating himself to public service and helping others escape gangs.

In 1987, with the help of parents and other deputies, Gonzalez founded CHOICES, a comprehensive intervention, prevention and education program that reaches out to at-risk children in the San Bernardino area.

As a former street kid, Gonzalez saw that throwing juvenile offenders into prison without counseling or offering them alternatives was a dead end.

“There was a lot of suppression going on, but not a lot of intervention,” said Gonzalez, 28. “There was a kind of feeling that there was a certain segment of our society that was expendable.”

Another honoree was Patricia Navarette-Davids, one of the founders of the Dolores Mission Women’s Cooperative, a child-care center that allows the mothers of preschool children to take college-level classes while they care for one another’s children.

Founded in 1988 by a handful of mothers from three Eastside housing projects, the cooperative has helped at least 160 children; this year, 30 of the cooperative’s members received their preschool teachers licenses.

“It has been a lot of work and (the award) has been a long time in coming,” she said.

The awards were presented Wednesday by actors Dan Lauria and Alley Mills, the TV parents of Fred Savage in ABC’s “The Wonder Years.” Between presentations, honorees, friends and guests were entertained by children from the Carthay Center School.

Steyer took the opportunity to announce Children Now’s newest program, the “Los Angeles Action Campaign for Kids,” which seeks to promote greater involvement by individuals in helping at-risk children in the area.

The campaign includes a toll-free number, (800) CHILD-44, for people to join; the distribution of more than 50,000 booklets titled “Hundreds of Ways to Help America’s Children--In Your Own Community,” and public service ads that encourage people to act on behalf of children.

Other honor roll recipients were Sacramento’s Birthing Project, Pasadena Young & Healthy, the Santa Clara Office of Education, Hewlett-Packard’s community involvement programs, Mendota’s Westside Youth Inc., Pomona’s Move to Independence and Penny Markey, coordinator for the Los Angeles County Library’s youth services.