Making A Difference in Your Community : Group Helps Those Striving to Be Just Folks

The “folks” at Tierra del Sol, like Leandra Muntean, have been feeling pretty proud of themselves for the last year or so.

“I like the outdoors better. I like to rake,” said Muntean. The woman, born with a mental impairment, has been one of the folks, a term used by the Tierra del Sol staff for their clients, for 14 years--”since the nuns were here,” Muntean said.

Tierra del Sol was founded in 1970 in Sunland to provide daytime activities for adults with developmental disabilities, including mental retardation, autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy. The group started by using the grounds of a Catholic convent and school for prospective nuns. The facility’s organizers purchased the 7 1/2-acre property from the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1986. The organization now has two other campuses, in Van Nuys and Claremont.

It has been within the past two years that Tierra del Sol has started trying to expand the world of their nearly 300 clients, helping them to integrate into the community and work with agencies as volunteers.

“I like it,” Muntean said. “It was different.” Just last month, Muntean also took her first bus trip to a mall in Sunland.

Some of the clients have won paying jobs through their volunteer work, and the staff here has noticed that those clients have changed, that they no longer walk slowly under a cloud of depression, but with heads high and a sense of purpose, said Nancy R. Bissonette-Andrew, the agency’s associate director of planning, programs and evaluation.

“There’s a 100% difference,” said Serena Zamora, an instructor at Tierra del Sol for eight years. “Some of the clients I’ve had since I started. Now, they really have a sense of themselves.”

Even those who cannot speak have shown a preference for activities based on their talents, Zamora said. On a recent Thursday morning, students in Zamora’s class packed lunches for the homeless at the Frontline Foundation in Van Nuys.

Members of the class also help to clean up the grounds and the trains at Traveltown in Griffith Park.

“People were just going along with what was put in front of them,” Zamora said, remembering the days when she and the clients spent eight hours a day in the classroom. Now, with the volunteer work, recycling and other activities, they are rarely in the classroom.

Tierra del Sol volunteers also work with the Salvation Army, the U.S. Forest Service, convalescent hospitals and environmental groups.

One group helps with clerical work at a Special Olympics office in Burbank.

Muntean, who lives in a group home in Chatsworth, helps rake and pull weeds at a small park in Sherman Oaks.

Through community integration programs and volunteer work, Tierra del Sol hopes to erase much of the stigma attached to those with mental disabilities, said Vicki Nadsady, the group’s community development officer.

The group also needs volunteers to help maintain and upgrade the property, which is running out of class space.

Groups that could use Tierra del Sol volunteers, or those who want to volunteer to help Tierra del Sol, can call Bissonette-Andrew at (818) 352-1419.

The Retired Seniors Volunteer Program of the San Fernando Valley needs volunteers for the Los Angeles Unified School District Science Center in North Hollywood for gardening chores and to help care for small animals. Mentors are also needed to tell life stories at adult continuation schools. No experience is necessary. Those interested should call (818) 908-5070.

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