SOUTH-CENTRAL : Teen Post Seeks New Sources of Funding

For the past few years, Teen Post Inc., which offers after-school and evening activities to more than 500 youths who are at risk of joining gangs, has operated on what officials call a bare-bones annual budget: about $460,000 from the federal government.

Now, as the agency’s 30th anniversary approaches, organizers hope it will be spared in the budget-cutting frenzy that has gripped Congress. But it has begun casting around for other funding sources just in case.

Fund-raising ideas vary from the conventional to the novel. There are plans for a yearlong penny drive at local businesses and community centers, and one proposal may even help propel the agency to self-sufficiency.

Officials hope to take a Watts-based summer jobs program, in which young men and women decorate old furniture and picture frames with discarded glass and mirrors, and turn it into a moneymaking art gallery that will help finance the Teen Post and other local social service agencies.

“We don’t want to be entirely dependent on federal funds,” said Judson Powell, an artist and Teen Post vice president. “The community needs a program of its own that is self-sustaining.”

Powell brought the idea of coating old tables and chairs with intricate glass patterns to the Watts-based Wellness Center three years ago. Since then, the nonprofit community center at 2128 E. 103rd St. has taken the concept and turned it into city-paid summer jobs for residents in their teens and early 20s.

Much of the work is sold to neighbors and relatives of participants, but Powell wants to expand on that client base with a marketing plan that he hopes will call regional and even national attention to the artwork.

Under consideration are plans to post notices on Internet bulletin boards and to display Powell’s glass art at the Omni Hotel downtown. Profits from the art would go to the Wellness Center, the Watts Children’s Theater and the Teen Post.

With locations in South-Central Los Angeles, Chinatown, Pico-Union and Venice, Teen Post offer youths 13 to 21 a place to go in the evenings and after school. Activities at the centers range from weightlifting and Ping-Pong to anti-gang and drug counseling.

Teen Post works closely with a handful of city agencies to counsel young first- and second-time offenders against pursuing a life of crime and violence.

Under the Teen Post’s Youth Advocacy Program, young men and women and their families undergo parenting classes, tutoring, career planning and peer counseling.

Along with its focus on youth, Teen Post operates a senior center at its Main Street Los Angeles headquarters to provide recreation and social services for the elderly.

Clyde Hill, a program coordinator with Teen Post, said the agency has lasted three decades because “we’ve been an advocate for the community and we just haven’t sold out.”

The organization will kick off its anniversary celebration on Monday with the yearlong penny drive in which donation cans will be placed at various locations in the community.

Other commemorative activities include a youth seminar in June at USC to discuss issues of violence, education and employment, and the Watts Roots Reggae festival in August. Nzingha G.J. Ejukwa, community relations coordinator for Teen Post, is organizing the musical event and is seeking corporate sponsorship to bring in international reggae artists.

Information: (213) 232-2411.