SUN VALLEY : Family Center Waits for Word on Grant

A family care center is preparing for all contingencies in case it doesn’t get a $400,000 state grant.

Word on whether the grant has been approved for the East Valley Family Care Center, based at Glenwood Elementary School in Sun Valley, is expected next week. However, an open house to celebrate the award of the grant is already scheduled for May 20.

“With or without the grant, the community needs to be involved either way,” said Ann Britt, chairwoman of the center’s board of directors.

But if the grant is not approved, the open house will be used to try to draw the interest of other community groups to help with the center.

The center offers a range of services from immunizations and screenings to parent counseling. The grant money would be used to renovate two bungalows on the site now being used to teach parents English and for expanded medical and dental services. A parenting center offering resource materials and workshops would also be created. The center helps parents from three other local schools: Roscoe Elementary in Sun Valley as well as Camellia Avenue and Arminta Street Elementary Schools in North Hollywood.

The care center was created last year to try to fill a gaping hole of needs in the community, Britt said. The site is already being used for gang-intervention programs with parents through the Los Angeles County Department of Probation. Counseling services are also being offered at Glenwood through the Valley Community Clinic.

Last year, the North Hollywood Rotary Club donated a dental chair to the center and promised to help arrange for dentists to volunteer their time, but the center lacked the equipment needed to install the chair. Organizers hope to get a dental clinic running.