Adding Some Luster to Their View of the World : Social services: A group home tries to provide the best kind of family life for youths on probation. Among the activities are chores, such as a carwash fund-raiser.

They have committed crimes, gone to juvenile court and been sentenced to a stay at a probation home.

Now they were washing cars.

The young men descending on grimy automobiles with rags, water and detergent on a recent Saturday live at Wilshire West Friends Group Home, the only probation home in Santa Monica.

Their stated purpose was to raise money to attend a Los Angeles County Probation Department banquet in May. But the project also seemed to have a therapeutic value for some of them.

Willy, 17, described the work as “hard but fun” as he scrubbed hubcaps, breaking from time to time to shout “Carwash! Get your car washed!” at vehicles speeding by the home, on 19th Street near Broadway.

“It’s better to spend time doing this than getting in trouble,” he said.

The carwash, the youths’ second of the fall, grossed $85. Some participants’ enthusiasm flagged as the day wore on, however, and much of the labor was left to the energetic few, such as Francisco, 17, who said, “For me, nothing’s hard. I just like to work.”

The probation home opened its doors in 1991 to six troubled boys, ages 12 to 17. It was founded by Mark Mitock, who also runs the private Wilshire West School directly across the street, for children and teen-agers with learning difficulties and emotional problems.

“We were seeing a lot of regression with our (school) population and always knew if we could establish a residence . . . we could provide the structure and nurturing, and the involvement that a family ordinarily would,” Mitock said.

The crimes the residents at Wilshire West have committed range from graffiti tagging to weapons offenses and auto theft, and many are gang-related.

Fund raising is only part of the reason for the carwash, Mitock said. “It is clinically designed to get the kids to appreciate the world of work and have better self-esteem,” he said.

Carol Bluiett, chief administrator of the group home, said that participation is optional, and that if the youths do not earn enough to cover the banquet expenses, the home will make up the difference.

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Bluiett says the small size of the Wilshire West Friends Group Home means “we offer better services. . . . We’re more one-on-one. The kids here aren’t just a number--they’re a name and a person. In some larger homes, I think, kids are depersonalized.”

The Probation Department had its first banquet early this year to honor youths for doing well in the system. Awards are given for educational achievement, athletic ability, good behavior and excellence in fine arts. Four scholarships of $1,000 each will be distributed to graduating seniors with plans to attend four-year colleges.

For the last banquet, the group home paid for the youths’ formal wear. “This year,” said Mitock, the residents have “decided to be a little more proactive and rent their own tuxedos.”

“We’re trying to reshape behavior that took so many years to be established,” Mitock said. “The carwash, while sounding mundane in many aspects, is kids putting themselves out in a positive way. . . . When you see kids who are making some dignified choices and getting their lives together, you finally conclude that there’s hope after all.”