Climbing Back : Troubled Ventura County Youths Confront Problems at Mountain Boot Camp

On the road to turning his life around, Raymond is hugging a hairpin curve.

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Starting around junior high, the 17-year-old Oxnard youth has been in and out of trouble with the law. He has been in a gang and out of school. By his own admission, he had been hurtling down a dead-end road.

But because of a week in the wilderness, he now has a new direction.

Raymond is among more than 40 Oxnard teen-agers volunteering this week for an intensive seven-day boot camp in the San Bernardino Mountains aimed at rescuing youngsters at risk of being swallowed whole by troubles ranging from quitting school to running with gangs to committing suicide.

Sponsored by El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, the program includes obstacle courses and other physical challenges designed to promote teamwork and self-confidence.

But most of all, it involves hours of group counseling designed to get participants to peel back the layers of their lives and dig deep to uncover the source of their problems.

Raymond said his troubled past was among the reasons he first considered enlisting in the program, the first of its kind for Ventura County youth. But it was his hope for the future, his desire to graduate from high school and be a better father to his two boys, that persuaded him to sign up.

“I don’t want them to end up going the same way I did,” he said on the second day of camp, still adjusting to the thin mountain air and the 16-hour days.

“It’s a lot of stuff they have us do, but I understand it’s to help us out,” he said. “I know if I try and I don’t give up I will succeed.”

It’s not like the participants didn’t know what they were getting into.

Funneled into the volunteer program by school officials and law enforcement authorities, the youngsters, ages 15 to 18, attended a two-day preliminary course last week in Oxnard where they were told what to expect.

“What you came in here being is who you were. What you don’t know how to be is who you are, “ said Clinton Terrell, the 45-year-old president of Denver-based Breakthrough for Youth, hired by El Concilio to run the program.

“You keep trying to solve problems the same old way,” Terrell told the youngsters. “What you’re here to do is what we call having a breakthrough. Seeing a problem differently than you’ve ever seen it before, which allows for a different kind of solution than you’ve ever considered before.”

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The program cost $200,000. It is being funded by a $125,000 federal grant administered by the city of Oxnard and another $40,000 in donations.

This week, El Concilio Executive Director Francisco Dominguez borrowed $35,000 from the city to cover the remainder of the costs until the Oxnard-based community service agency can raise more money.

Dominguez acknowledges that the program is expensive, but points out that other alternatives facing these kids are even costlier.

“If something happens to these youths and they end up in the criminal justice system, you could spend up to $30,000 incarcerating them each year. You figure it out. . . . It’s a price worth paying to make a difference in someone’s life,” he said.

Dominguez said the project is the most intensive ever undertaken by El Concilio, noting that when the youngsters return home Sunday they will be matched with so-called committed partners who will meet with them throughout the year.

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“It’s definitely working with a group of kids nobody else is working with,” Dominguez said. “These are the kinds of kids where, if they could just make a change, they could turn their lives around.”

That is what Terrell was telling them last week as he paced inside the old Oxnard library building near City Hall. He urged them to give 100% to the program.

And he told them not get on the bus Monday morning unless they were committed to change.

“You’ll be coming back to the same stuff you left behind but you’re going to see it differently,” he said. “But to get there you need to view who you were and who you could be. That is no small measure.”

What they were on the first full day of boot camp was tired.

After only seven hours of sleep, the teen-agers were awakened Tuesday morning, divided into teams and put through an obstacle course to start the day. After showers and breakfast, the group counseling began.

A lot of rotten stuff has happened to many of these kids.

One spoke of being molested. Others talked about being beaten by their parents or watching their parents beat on each other. Many talked about being unwanted, unloved and unprotected.

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Dyanell, 15, said she wanted a better relationship with her mother. Alex, 16, said he wanted the same thing with his newborn son.

“Since I’ve been here, I’ve learned so much already,” he said. “I’m excited to be here. This is helping me and teaching me not to give up.”

Ralph Revelez, an Oxnard firefighter and one of the many local volunteers for the program, didn’t think twice about signing up for the effort.

“I’m just here, doing what little bit I can do,” he said. “It’s exciting. Already you’re seeing changes, already you’re seeing results.”