San Fernando Valley : A Sea Change for Troubled Youths

It was the lobsters that got him.

“They told me that when you’re underwater hunting lobsters and you see two antennas poking out of a crack, you can reach in and grab him,” said Danny Flores, 16, a participant in a new city-sponsored program that teaches troubled youths how to scuba dive.

“But if there’s only one antenna sticking out, that means you can’t reach in,” Danny said, “because the lobster is keeping one eye behind him, and there might be a big eel back there.”

The Youth Quest scuba program, run by Bridge Focus, a Van Nuys-based community service agency, was created for San Fernando Valley teenagers who ordinarily could not afford scuba lessons. Funded with $150,000 from the city of Los Angeles’ Community Development Department, the goal of the yearlong program is to teach about 60 youths like Danny--a gang member from Sun Valley who was expelled from school for peddling alcohol and carrying a knife--that there’s more to the world than can be seen at street level.

“When [Danny] walked in here two months ago, he was hip, slick and cool--full of himself, full of attitude,” said Youth Quest Director Jan Barros, standing at the edge of the Cleveland High School pool in Reseda, where Danny recently completed his last pool dive in preparation for his first open-water dive off the Channel Islands.

Now, Barros said, “he gets here early, stays late and helps pack up the equipment.” His teacher says his grades have improved from Cs to A’s and Bs, and his school attendance has increased, too. “And he’s talking about getting a job at a dive shop,” Barros added. “He’s challenging himself.”