SOUTH-CENTRAL : Community Oasis Needs a Face Lift

Elizabeth Gonzales is a veteran on the El Santo Nino Community Center playground.

The lanky 11-year-old with long brown hair instinctively knows to drop to the ground when she hears the whistle. She giggles and waits for a second whistle and then runs into the aging building at East 23rd Street and Trinity Avenue where she spends most afternoons.

“I’ve been coming here for more than a year,” said Gonzales, a sixth-grader at San Pedro Elementary School. “It’s nice and they teach us stuff that all the kids need to know. You know, like how to be prepared for any situation,” she said referring to the drive-by shooting drills that train the youths to drop to the ground when they hear two whistles, warning them of gunfire.

Nestled between blocks of factories and apartment buildings, the small center has been a meeting place for residents for decades. The center evolved from informal meetings in the late 1930s when the Catholic Church began outreach programs in the community, said Helen Yost, a 34-year employee of the Catholic Charities, the nonprofit organization that runs the center.

“A lot of the people are out of work around here,” said Veona Gibson, center coordinator. “Since the riots, a lot of the buildings that were burned down haven’t been rebuilt, so that puts a lot of pressure on this area.”

She said the center’s goal is to offer help and dignity. That philosophy translates into parenting and English as a Second Language classes, gang-prevention outreach, 12-hour day care for workers in nearby factories and a residents council.

“The center makes people around here feel like they can make a difference,” said Elizabeth Torres, vice president of the residents council. “For example, people around here were complaining that we needed a stop sign on the corner and we started to get organized and got one.”

An annual budget of $80,000 pays for 15 part-time employees and one full-time coordinator. And residents often throw impromptu fund-raisers at the center.

When three local teen-agers were killed in gang-related violence two months ago, residents rallied to help the victims’ families pay for burial costs by raising $900 at car washes, Torres said.

For now, Gibson and residents are focusing on maintaining their programs and renovating the center.

“The biggest need right now is to fix up the building so we can give out more services,” Gibson said. L.A. Works Group Action Project, an organization started by actor Richard Dreyfuss and other entertainers, has pledged a one-day work campaign on Saturday to paint the center. And the center is awaiting a decision on a $200,000 city grant to help pay for renovations, such as repairing holes in the walls.

Despite a lack of resources, the center continues to be the only after-school respite for children like Elizabeth Gonzales. “Where I lived before,” she said, “they used to throw rocks at the kids. I didn’t like it there.”

Information: (213) 748-5246.