College Program Seeks to Help Inner-City Children

Students from the Watts-Willowbrook area will get to play and study with college students for at least 15 Saturdays this year.

The Hope to Grow program begins Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills. It is an effort to improve the reading and writing skills of 45 third-graders at Grape Street, Ritter and Weigand elementary schools. The same students will participate in the program for three years in hopes of getting them excited about college, said Virginia Long, a psychologist at the university.

“Coming to the college campus gives the children a desire to succeed,” Long said. “We want to give them something to reach for, to hope for.”

The program is funded by a three-year, $400,000 state Healthy Start grant to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

College students will present a workshop each week, focusing on character traits such as responsibility, respect and honesty. The children will also participate in games, drama, music and arts and crafts activities. The school district will bus the children to the university. Workshops will be held for parents on career direction and job placement.