THE TIMES HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

Susana Campos can see it in their eyes.

Whenever a stranger spots the crude, homemade tattoos on her leg and arm, they think: gang member, ex-con, troublemaker.

Campos is anything but. She has two young daughters and works nearly full time at an Arby’s restaurant to help her family buy groceries and pay rent on their two-bedroom Huntington Beach apartment.

A year ago, Campos had the names of her girls inked on her thigh. The tattoo on her forearm--a meaningless scribble--she did herself when she was 8 years old in Puebla, Mexico.

“I’m not a bad person,” said Campos, 25. “The way they look . . . [they] make me feel like I’m a drug user.”

Campos doesn’t need the headache. Struggling to pay the bills and care for her daughters, she goes to night school to learn English in hopes of getting a better-paying job.

She also remains grief-stricken over the death of her 18-year-old brother. He was shot and killed by Huntington Beach police last May. Officers spotted him with a toy gun and mistakenly thought he was a burglary suspect.

After the shooting, Max Madrid of Community Services Programs Inc. provided the family with grief counseling, helped arrange her brother’s funeral and offered to help Campos remove those tattoos.

“It was a devastating situation,” said Madrid, the organization’s gang prevention counselor. “After her brother got killed, she became a lot more aware of things around there . . . the gangs, the tattoos. She wanted no part of that.”

Community Services Programs is a Santa Ana-based nonprofit agency that provides family counseling, victim assistance and gang intervention, plus programs for abused children, struggling families, substance abusers and people in need of dispute resolution and mediation. The organization assists about 60,000 people each year and works with law enforcement agencies throughout Orange County.

After the funeral, Madrid made arrangements for Campos to see Dr. Daniel C. Mills, a specialist in plastic and reconstructive surgery in Laguna Beach. Over the last four years, Mills has removed tattoos from more than 100 gang members, former inmates, juvenile offenders and others wanting to shed the inky labels that once defined them.

He does it free of charge for people referred to him by Community Services Programs.

“I’m all about people trying to change their lifestyle,” said Mills, who also volunteers his time to help burn victims and children with cleft palates in Baja, Mexico. “It’s really worth it when you see the smiles on their face . . . and are really thankful.”

Campos has already undergone one laser treatment to remove the tattoos, and is scheduled to go back for another in January. Some tattoos take three or four treatments before they disappear, Mills said.

“I’m happy to do it, since CSP is such a good program,” he said.

Community Services Programs was established in 1972 as a field-study project for students at UC Irvine. At the time, new prevention-intervention strategies--as outlined by the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice--favored treating families of adolescents involved in minor offenses to prevent them from committing more serious crimes.

The program became an independent nonprofit agency and expanded to provide youth diversion counseling in police departments throughout Orange County. Additional programs, such as victim/witness assistance and dispute resolution services, emerged in response to the needs of the justice system.

The Los Angeles Times is highlighting local programs and organizations that serve needy youths and families in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Last year, the newspaper established the Holiday Campaign to help raise money for worthy programs in Southern California. The program is a part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, which includes The Times’ long-running Summer Camp Program.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation will match the first $500,000 in donations at 50 cents on the dollar, and The Times will absorb all administrative costs.

HOW TO GIVE

Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign should be sent to: LA Times Holiday Campaign, File #56491, Los Angeles, CA, 90074-6491. Please do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made on the Web site: https://www.latimes/holiday campaign. All donations are tax deductible. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in the Los Angeles Times unless a donor requests otherwise. For more information about the Holiday Campaign call 1 (800) LA TIMES, Ext. 75480.