Valley Programs Help Youth Play It Safe

It’s 2:30 in the afternoon and most of the 1,700 students at year-round Langdon Avenue Elementary in North Hills are leaving school, a safe haven in a neighborhood where hardened drug dealers and scantily clad prostitutes brazenly ply their trades.

But for 200 lucky kids who stay for the supervised enrichment program, the journey into the mean streets is put off while they do homework, romp on the playground and spend quiet time in the library before leaving at 6 p.m.

“Our area is infested with gangs, drugs and prostitutes,” said Guilla Pulido, who oversees after-care at Langdon. “These kids would be out there in the streets or their parents would have to lock them in a room and let them watch TV all day.”

Tens of thousands of children and teenagers in the San Fernando Valley soon will be looking for something to do once school lets out for the summer. Even children who are off during the summer willingly attend Langdon’s program to get off the streets and out of empty apartments. For those unable to find structured activity, the consequences could be disastrous.

“Kids who are unsupervised are more likely to get into trouble,” said Vickie Jensen, a Cal State Northridge associate professor of sociology specializing in criminology. “That’s why summer programs are so important because they keep kids busy and instill social values that, hopefully, they will take with them when they go home.”

Youth with time on their hands are more likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, become sexually involved and commit crimes than those under adult supervision, experts say. They are also at-risk for poor grades, low self-esteem and depression.

Juvenile violent crime arrest rates are down nationwide. In Los Angeles strict enforcement of a truancy law has resulted in a 20% to 45% drop in daytime crime rates, and juvenile arrest rates show no summertime increase. But police officers who work with kids say the opportunity to commit crime increases in warmer weather, especially among males age 14 to 18.

“Traditionally, kids with free time usually involve themselves in criminal activity,” said Det. Ben Gonzalez, a Los Angeles Police Department juvenile operations consultant. “It’s just a natural fact of being young, easily led and unable to resist temptation.”

Good youth development programs not only keep kids away from troublemakers, drugs and alcohol, but can often turn kids’ lives around, experts say.

“Summer programs provide experiences that are nurturing emotionally, cognitively and socially,” said Jan Tolan, an associate professor of leisure studies and recreation at CSUN. “The earlier . . . we help people to internalize both a work and play ethic, the more likely we are to produce people . . . who can live and work in a complex society and remain healthy.”

Ten-year-old Angelica Biggs of Van Nuys doesn’t understand the sociology of play. All she knows is that she felt good when a group of girls asked her to play hopscotch on her first day four years ago at the Mid-Valley YMCA in Van Nuys.

“I was kind of scared and shy at first because I didn’t know anybody,” Angelica recalled. “Now I know everybody here.”

When a new kid comes, she said, “I just go over and ask them what their name is and tell them my name and ask them if they want to play.”

Michelle Biggs said the after-school and summer programs have helped her daughter get better grades, develop a more outgoing personality and show a willingness to try new things.

“I couldn’t do it without the Y,” said Biggs, a single mother who depends on the YMCA to provide transportation from Angelica’s school to the center and to care for her when school is closed. “The Y is [our] extended family.”

For older kids, summer programs not only give them something to do, they also can be a dress rehearsal for work.

When the last school bell rings in June, about 10,000 students from 14 to 21 will head to jobs offered through the federally funded and city-run Summer Youth Employment and Training Program.

For six weeks, young people from low-income families will be kept busy in city departments, libraries, schools, courts, hospitals and nonprofit groups, said program director Marian Aguilar.

“The intention of the program is to give young people their first work experience, help them to develop a strong work ethic and to understand the linkage between school and work,” Aguilar said.

For eight years, however, federal funding for the program has depended on which way the political winds were blowing in Washington, D.C.

In 1990, the program received a $10-million allocation under the federal Job Training Partnership Act. That figure tripled to $30 million in 1992 after riots resulting from the Rodney King verdict. But a year later, funding was cut to $20 million.

“We know that we will have money this year and similar funding in 1999, but 2000 is still an uncertainty,” Aguilar said.

Even though the city youth program provides thousands of jobs, it can’t come close to providing jobs for all needy youth.

To narrow the gap, L.A. Youth at Work offers 15,000 paid jobs for youth of all income levels at various corporations. The private/public partnership is funded through federal grants and corporate donations. The city provides office space.

By far, the most affordable and largest providers of structured, daylong summer activities are city recreation and parks programs, YMCAs and Boys & Girls Clubs. Costs vary depending on family income, program and center location, but most average about $50 a week.

Kids can also frolic on playgrounds at about 116 district schools under the supervision of Valley Youth Services staff. The free program runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

And there are numerous specialized enrichment programs to keep kids from falling into a three-month cerebral lull. These include:

* CSUN’s TeenAge Drama Workshop, a performance program for youth 12 to 18, is expected to draw about 75 young actors, singers and dancers. The six-week session costs $775 and begins June 22.

* Pierce College’s Summer Day Camp on the Farm is an environmental and animal studies program for children 5 to 14. Four, two-week sessions begin June 22 and cost $255 each.

* Santa Clarita Valley Youth Orchestra Foundation’s International Summer Music Institute gives student musicians a chance to play in one of three ensembles. The two-week session costs $133 and begins July 7 at College of the Canyons.

Families on tight budgets can find structured programs in safe places without spending a lot of money--if only they look beyond conventional summer activities, said Barbara Polland, a child development professor at CSUN and a psychotherapist in private practice.

Hospitals, libraries, child-care centers, senior centers and nonprofit groups are always looking for help, Polland said. Volunteering at these facilities can give youth a sense of responsibility and a glimpse into the world of work while under adult supervision.

“A lot of free time that is unsupervised can be very dangerous,” Polland said. “Finding a safe place to leave your children is imperative.”

Back at Langdon, kids in the afternoon enrichment program know the value of a place out of harm’s way, said Pulido, site coordinator for L.A.’s Best, a nonprofit group that runs programs for 5,000 students in 24 city elementary schools, including five in the Valley.

Every afternoon last summer, a 10-year-old boy and his two younger siblings would arrive at the program an hour early to escape the chaos in their house, Pulido recalled.

“The parents were ex-gang members,” she said. “They were trying hard. They just were not used to being responsible.”