PICO-UNION : Parenting Workshop Aimed at Minorities

Hundreds of parents and their children flocked to Berendo Junior High School last weekend to attend free workshops on parenting, domestic abuse, tenant rights, immigrant rights and other issues facing inner-city families.

“Parent Survival ‘95” was the first of five urban family conferences planned for the next few months. A committee of local residents and social service agencies are organizing the conferences, sponsored by United Way.

The Pico-Union conference drew a multiracial crowd to hear workshops in English, Spanish and Korean and designed to aid minority and immigrant parents.

While their children played in a makeshift day-care center on the school’s playground, an audience of Latinas listened as a panel of social service experts discussed domestic abuse.

Some of the women absorbed the information silently; others voiced concerns about being forced to stay in abusive relationships because their religion does not sanction divorce or because they fear breaking up their families.

The experts provided information on crisis hot lines and therapy for the women and their husbands, but they warned that if those strategies are not effective, a separation might be the healthiest solution.

“Children who see this abuse think it’s normal,” Christine Natividad, a victims advocate for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, told the crowd in Spanish. “Boys learn to think this is the way women should be treated, and even little girls learn to believe they should suffer.”

In another classroom, Spanish- and Korean-speaking renters listened to a translation through earphones as a panel of tenants rights experts advised them how to handle negligent landlords and reminded them that they have a right to live in a safe and clean environment regardless of how little they pay.

One woman, who said she has lived for 17 years in the same low-rent building without receiving repairs, asked what she could do to make her landlady fix her faulty plumbing.

Antonio Ortiz of the city’s rent stabilization office advised her to call the Health Department and the Department of Building and Safety and report the problems. In this manner, he said, the city would put pressure on the landlady to fix the problems, or risk being fined.

These were two of 11 workshops offered, ranging from an update on the status of Proposition 187 in the courts to how to feed a family a well-balanced diet on a budget.

“We wanted to give families the tools they need to meet new challenges,” said Sandy Mendoza, a United Way planner who helped organize the conference. “Parents find themselves wondering where they can learn English, or find affordable housing or access the services they need.”

“Parent Survival ‘95” was planned over several months. For the Pico-Union conference, United Way representatives put together a planning committee of residents and social service workers, and together they held focus groups among Latino, African American and Korean parents to determine their needs.

Television stations donated public service announcements, and some newspapers donated advertisements, Mendoza said. A variety of other businesses and government agencies also served as sponsors.

A second conference took place Saturday in Compton. The next one will be held April 22 at the Watts Labor Community Center. Information: (213) 625-5174.