Steps From the Street : Dance Group Hopes to Sway At-Risk Teen-Agers

In a small church classroom on a hot Thursday afternoon, a dozen teen-agers moved to the music, dancing the salsa and the quebradita , and learning other folklorico steps that were second nature to their ancestors.

The swaying and stepping and whirling is part of a countywide crusade by Hope In Youth to keep young people off the streets and out of gangs. It is also the kind of local community-based program that the group hopes will attract some of the $7 billion reserved for crime-prevention in the new federal crime law.

The dance group formed in late June with a 17-year-old volunteer leader and dance instructor, Bertha Arceo. Santa Rosa Church in San Fernando provides practice space. A festival this Sunday is the group’s immediate goal.

For the teen-agers, the practice session is a refuge.

“I feel safe when I come here,” said Nancy Hernandez, 13, one of the neophyte dancers. “There’s a lot of gangs and drive-by shootings. This keeps us from the streets or any other trouble on the streets. The music makes you want to move, and when you’re dancing, it’s fun.”

The exhilarating movements of the dances are what attracted the youths and what will make them keep coming. But the program’s intentions are loftier than simply preparing for a few performances.

“Our goal is to connect youth and families with the larger community and make them productive members participating in the community,” said Consuelo Valdez, Hope In Youth’s San Fernando Valley regional supervisor.

The concept for Hope In Youth arose in 1991 because of concern about growing gang problems by 10 religious groups, four community organizations and Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, the social service arm of the Catholic Church.

In December, 1993, the first programs began and a year and a half later there are 15 youth groups and 16 parent groups at six sites in the Valley. Countywide, there are 42 sites, with 11,665 parents and youths participating.

Currently, Hope In Youth receives about $5.5 million from the city and county of Los Angeles and $2 million from the state. It will lobby to be among the recipients when the city and county will distribute Los Angeles’ portion of the new federal crime-prevention money, said Hope In Youth Director Greg Fitzgerald.

Hope In Youth was designed to address the multiple problems facing at-risk families.

At risk, under the group’s definition, could mean anything from failing classes to running away from home. Improving the youths’ chances of success means not only providing alternatives to gangs for 11- to 17-year-olds, but also helping their parents learn how to communicate with their offspring and how to get more involved in their education.

“We are trying to reconnect the families,” Valdez said. “We listen to what the youth want and not just do what we think they need. We try to channel their energies to something positive.”

Arceo, the dance group leader, agrees with Hope In Youth’s philosophy that positive mentors and peer examples are very important. By volunteering, she hopes to provide such an example while also striving toward her future goal of working as a child psychologist in a social service agency.

But these days, Arceo is more consumed with the practical matters of the troupe’s debut on Sunday, during an event called Fiesta at St. Ferdinand’s Church in San Fernando. She is trying to keep it simple: Four partners will perform the salsa, then five partners will dance the quebradita .

“I think we’re doing great,” she said. “We’re almost ready.”