Free Social Services Center Due to Shut

Santa Paula’s only free social services center is set to close at the end of the month, leaving dozens of low-income families without counselors, mentors or a daytime haven for their kids.

The Santa Paula Resource Center, which opened in 1999 to deter juvenile crime, is one of 12 facilities statewide that are shutting down after Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a $5-million budget item last month. The money was sliced despite weeks of lobbying by the centers’ directors and several legislators.

The cuts hit particularly hard in Santa Paula, a small farm town along California 126, which is one of the poorest communities in Ventura County and has one of the highest crime rates.

“These families for the first time were starting to feel some hope,” said Martin Hernandez, hired to run the resource center for Interface Children Family Services. “Now they’re just left out there hanging again.”

But Interface, a Camarillo-based nonprofit group, will continue searching for grants or other donations that could revive the programs piece by piece. Officials have already contacted the Ventura County Probation Agency in hopes of getting crime-prevention funds, said Terry Miller, chief program officer at Interface.

“We’re all scrambling,” she said, adding that they are seeking money for all 12 centers affected by cuts.

In the meantime, Interface will continue paying rent--about $4,300 a month--on both the resource center building on Main Street and a smaller after-school activities room a few blocks away.

There, on Monday afternoon, a handful of kids worked on small needlepoint projects.

Gladys Galarza, who has been bringing her three children to the center for about a month, said she was grateful for the chance to keep the youngsters in supervised activities and tutoring instead of sitting idle at home. It has made a difference, and there will be a void without it, she said.

“In Santa Paula, there’s hardly anything for kids to do,” Galarza said. “If they have nothing to do, they’ll be hanging out in the streets, getting into trouble.”

Her 11-year-old daughter, Marisa, said she’ll be sad to see the center go.

“It’s fun to come here and learn how to do stuff, like cooking and sewing,” she said. “At least it’s doing something.”

Aside from its effect on individual families, the statewide program is important, Miller said, because its effectiveness in helping impoverished families is being studied.

The four-year study of the state project, called the Juvenile Crime Prevention Program, is only half complete. A two-year benchmark review found it decreased delinquent behavior, substance abuse and improved family cohesion, social adjustment and school achievement.

Davis proposed scrapping the program earlier this year. The Legislature restored $5 million of its $9.7-million budget, but Davis vetoed even the lower amount. He earmarked the savings for the state’s reserve fund, citing “fiscal uncertainties,” said Sandy Harrison, a spokesman for the Department of Finance.

In Davis’ veto note, Harrison said, he pointed to a $116-million appropriation in the Corrections Department budget aimed at preventing youngsters on probation from committing more serious crimes.