ANTI-GRAFFITI SWEEP: About 250 teen-agers attending a...

ANTI-GRAFFITI SWEEP: About 250 teen-agers attending a western states Jewish youth conference in Encino will scrape or paint over graffiti in the west San Fernando Valley Sunday with police guidance and support.

The teens are members of United Synagogue Youth, an organization aligned with synagogues in the Conservative branch of Judaism. They are meeting this weekend at Temple Ner Maarav for a program of education, socializing and religious services.

Each one of the regional meetings “tries to include some form of social action in the program,” said Stephanie McDonald of the Encino synagogue. “Police told us that one of the biggest problems in our area was graffiti by taggers.”

Under the direction of Los Angeles Police Department escorts, six busloads of teen-agers will spend several hours in the afternoon attacking defaced signs, walls and overpasses, a spokesman said.

CHURCH-STATE: Bunnie Riedel, national chapter membership director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, will speak at a meeting of the San Fernando Valley chapter at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Temple Ahavat Shalom, 18200 Rinaldi Place, Northridge.

Riedel, based in Washington, D.C., will speak on “Winning Strategies for Dealing With the Religious Right.” Admission is free. Information: (818) 998-5414.

HAYFORD DATES: Is it any wonder that Pastor Jack Hayford of the 8,000-member Church on the Way in Van Nuys is a man hard to reach?

Hayford spoke in Nashville Tuesday at the closing banquet of the National Religious Broadcasters convention, which had a record attendance of nearly 5,000. On Thursday, he joined a dozen other pastor leaders of the periodic Love L.A. prayer sessions at a farewell lunch for the Rev. Lloyd Ogilvie, who is leaving Hollywood Presbyterian Church to become chaplain of the U.S. Senate.

Hayford will address a men’s conference at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove on March 3 and will give a major talk at the annual National Assn. of Evangelicals convention March 5-7 in Louisville, Ky. He will address a seminar for 125 pastors near Tel Aviv on March 18 and 19 before teaching daily during a March 21-29 tour of Israel.

BIG BROTHERS: Announcing its Lenten-season recruitment drive, Catholic Big Brothers said there are more than 50 fatherless youths in the San Fernando Valley area and nearly 220 in Los Angeles County who need the friendship of men through the program.

A spokesman said experience has shown that the few hours a week a volunteer spends with a boy improves the youngster’s self-esteem.

Catholic Big Brothers has a Valley office in Van Nuys. More information is available by calling (213) 251-9800 or attending an information meeting at 7 p.m. March 1 at the organization’s central office, 3300 W. Temple St., Los Angeles.