Group Wants to Add 2 Learning Centers

After experiencing success with its first learning center in an apartment complex on Vanowen Street, the Van Nuys Livable Neighborhood Council is looking to open at least two more in the area.

Council officials are meeting with several apartment complex owners and with city officials to find the additional locations, said Carlos Ferreyra, council chairman.

“The surrounding community [of the Vanowen center] has benefited greatly from having the center there,” said Ferreyra.

“We would love to be able to do this for more people.”

The Vanowen center recently received eight new computers, which were donated by a local business.

In late afternoons, the center, located in the community room of an apartment complex, is filled with children working on the computers and being tutored by students from Valley College and Cal State Northridge.

Since the center opened in September, Ferreyra said, residents have begun to take more responsibility for the area.

“There’s more of a sense of community,” he said. “It’s a lot cleaner. They get rid of graffiti right away and they are taking advantage of city services to help them out.”

The one drawback, he said, is that the center is available only to the residents of the complex, greatly limiting the number of people it can reach.

That is why Ferreyra and others are searching for a location that will be open to the community as a whole.

One possible site is a room in a senior center at Woodman Avenue and Vanowen Street.

While the search for a center continues, Ferreyra said, the council is studying the pros and cons of becoming an incorporated, nonprofit group to better qualify for state grants.

Also, the council is polling residents to see if they would like a playground built in Erwin Street Park.