Making A Difference in Your Community : Tutors Reach Out to Children of the Streets

Once it took a tutor half an hour to convey to an 11-year-old homeless girl who had never been in school the concept that “B-L-U-E,” four letters on a page, meant “blue,” the color, Fran Chalin remembers.

In a life of bitter reality, the girl had no room in her life for learning abstract concepts that had nothing to do with where to find a meal or a place to sleep. Chalin said the 11-year-old may also have been the oldest child in the family, which meant that she had the added responsibility of caring for her siblings.

But then a tutor from the Women Helping Children program, run by the National Council of Jewish Women in Los Angeles, sat down with the girl at the Valley Shelter in North Hollywood, to try to break into her world of hopelessness and fear.

“It’s not that their parents don’t care about education,” said Chalin, the director of the program, which targets at-risk youths in homeless shelters and group homes, as well as teen-age mothers. However, Chalin added, homeless families have few options about their children’s educations as they shuttle from homeless shelter to living in a car or a basement or a church.

The Los Angeles Unified School District tracks about 1,500 homeless students, who each can drift to as many as 15 schools in a year as their “residences” change. A three-month stretch in a shelter--the time limit by which most families have to leave--is about the most security a homeless family can look forward to.

Typically, homeless children are two to five years behind other children their age in education, Chalin said. Math and reading skills especially suffer because one lesson builds on the other. Also, Chalin said, homeless children are 20 times more likely to develop depression as they shuttle from school to school.

The tutoring program recently has added a new feature, working with the Museum of Contemporary Art, in which homeless children are being taught art skills. Along with an education, the art lessons may help break the cycle of poverty in a family.

“It shows that there is a life outside the life they know,” Chalin said.

Not only is it that the children never have had a chance to create art, but neither have their parents.

“Some of the parents come in and start coloring,” she said.

But the one-on-one attention given by a tutor is also what leaves a lasting impression on the children, especially in knowing that volunteers are giving up time of their own to be with them.

“Kids see that these are people who want to be here,” Chalin said.

The fact that someone is willing to help them learn underscores to the children that education must be important, she said. “These kids love the attention.”

Tutors also help children living in six group homes in Canoga Park who have many of the same emotional issues and problems of self-esteem as homeless children. Children in the homes are assigned there by the courts because of drugs or violence in their homes.

Both homeless children and those from dysfunctional families need consistent, non-judgmental attention from a tutor, Chalin said.

She has seen success in the program, Chalin said, especially on days like one recently when a tutor introduced a 14-year-old girl to the classic play “Romeo and Juliet.”

“She had never been to a play,” said Chalin. “She didn’t even know what a play was. But, now she has gone from this to trying to write a play herself.”

National Council of Jewish Women volunteers also help tutor teen-age mothers trying to complete their high school education at the El Nido Family Care Center in Pacoima.

Volunteers must join the coalition, and membership is not limited by sex or religion. The membership fee is $40, less for those who cannot afford it. To become a volunteer, call the council at (213) 651-2930.

Getting Involved is a weekly feature about volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.