Street Smart : Activist Teaches Blythe Residents How to Improve Their Troubled Block

For Albert Melena, who grew up in Van Nuys, it’s still a little strange to be working on Blythe Street without having to worry about looking over his shoulder.

A well-earned reputation for drugs, gangs and violence made the Panorama City street synonymous for many years with urban blight in the San Fernando Valley and an unwelcome place even for residents.

But in a measure of the slow but steady changes taking place on Blythe Street, Melena, now the outreach coordinator for the Blythe Street Prevention Project, has become something of a hero in a neighborhood desperately in need of role models.

“The drug dealers used to run the streets around here but we’re helping to change that,” said Melena, a soft-voiced 27-year-old with a round face and wispy goatee. “It’s true, a lot of the gang members are still here, but now their little brothers and sisters are in our program and not hanging out on the sidewalk.”

Police who patrol this largely Latino neighborhood have praise for the program. “It’s a great idea, something the street has been lacking,” said Senior Lead Officer George Flores of the Van Nuys Division. “Before we didn’t have somewhere to direct these kids.”

The Prevention Project, a 3-year-old program run by the San Fernando Valley Partnership and funded by a $1-million federal grant from the Washington-based Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, is teaching Blythe Street families how to resist negative influences and revitalize the spirit of their neighborhood, Melena said.

As the program’s first year comes to a close, Melena and other Prevention Project leaders are celebrating their gains while acknowledging that much remains to be done in a neighborhood that was ignored for too long.

“This community did not become the way it was overnight. It’s going to take a sustained effort to turn it around,” said Dr. Ester Cadavid-Hannon, executive director of the Partnership, which was established in 1991. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, which funds the Partnership and the Blythe Street Project, is administered by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

“When a community is isolated and not very good at accessing services, then the only alternative is to go in there,” said Cadavid-Hannon, citing the language and cultural barriers that continue to keep many Blythe residents out of the social services loop. “You have to get access, and access requires trust.”

Operating out of two apartments at the rear of a worn building in the center of the most troubled stretch of Blythe Street, the program’s seven employees lead 10-week “skills training” courses for families. Subjects vary from drug and alcohol awareness to stress and anger management to cultural pride and conflict resolution.

Groups are organized according to age: one for parents, one for children 9 to 11, and another for adolescents 12 to 14. Children younger than 9 are supervised while their parents and siblings attend the once-a-week evening courses. Older teenagers can join a youth leadership group run by Melena.

The programs are free and the only requirement for admittance is a Blythe Street address, said Norma Gallegos Rosen, director of the Prevention Project.

The courses can accommodate as many as 80 families per year, Rosen said, not enough to avoid a waiting list that now runs several months.

“This program is fantastic. It’s helping us learn how to educate our children,” said Isabel Arambula, who heard about the course after a neighbor attended one of the first groups. “This information is necessary for every family in this neighborhood.”

The parents group, which Arambula attends each week with her husband, Gabriel, meets in the living room of one of the apartments and is conducted entirely in Spanish. In a bedroom, the Arambulas’ son David, 12, participates with the adolescent group, which discusses the same topic parents do, but with a curriculum designed for youth and conducted in English. Last week the topic of discussion was stress management.

Flores said the program is unusual because it’s geared toward educating parents and their children. “Most groups don’t include both of them, and it’s important to do that if you’re going to make headway,” he said.

A short distance down the street, the landscaped courtyard of the only new building on the block serves as a playground for an after-school program that offers sports, cheerleading, tutoring and an occasional field trip. This aspect of the program that gives children positive things to do is critical for the neighborhood’s revival, Melena said.

“This program was created in response to the needs of the people on Blythe Street and the lack of activities for youth is one of the biggest problems,” Melena said.

It is because of his efforts to keep kids active and informed about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse that Melena, whose work with the Partnership on Blythe Street predates the establishment of the Prevention Project, has become such a respected figure in the neighborhood.

Esmeralda Virgen, 16, an 11th-grader at Monroe High School, has been part of the youth leadership group run by Melena for two years. “At first I just came here looking for something to do but pretty soon this group became like another family to me,” Esmeralda said. “We all get along and we can talk about anything here.

“Albert is a great man. He always has time for us no matter what our problem is. To me he is the hope of this neighborhood,” she said.

“Our job is to bring together different segments of this community in a collaborative effort to turn things around. With people like Albert we’re doing that,” said Cadavid-Hannon. “He’s very dedicated. He’s got the heart and that’s what you need. You have to have the heart first and then you get the training.”