Barrio Action Expands Its Mission to Help Youth

In 1977, Sister Emmanuel Barragan started Barrio Action, hoping to help gang members in the El Sereno community learn to read and write. Twenty-five years later, Barrio Action Youth & Family Center, still active but with an expanded mission, is serving El Sereno families and helping young people graduate from high school.

RITA LUTHER recently spoke with the program’s director.

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TAMMY MEMBRENO

Executive director, Barrio Action Youth & Family Center

We work with at-risk youth who, for various reasons, are not able to complete their high school education in the regular school system. With the Los Angeles Unified School District, we worked to develop a curriculum to allow these kids to do the course work and graduate from high school.

Students are referred to us in several ways. The schools recommend them because of failing grades or discipline problems, or a probation officer will send them. In some cases, kids ask to be in the program because they are having trouble academically and they know they will receive more one-on-one instruction and counseling.

We differ from regular high schools in several ways. Our class sizes are very small, which allows more individual attention and interaction with each student. Also, we work with the entire family. In order to be in the program, a kid’s parents have to commit to be involved, attend parenting classes and participate in family counseling. This last month there have been four homicides involving kids in our community. We want to do whatever we can to keep these kids off the street.

Recently we hired two case managers who counsel the students. We work with the elementary and middle schools to identify potential at-risk kids in the fourth and fifth grades and invite them to participate in our tutoring classes before school becomes a problem for them.

El Sereno is somewhat isolated from other parts of East Los Angeles. We see these kids on the street, in the stores, and we know who they are, who their parents are, and in that way we are like a small town. We know we have the respect of many in the community because we have never been broken into, never had our walls tagged. None of our staff has felt threatened by any kind of violence.

I interact with various departments in City Hall. Recently I was attending a meeting in City Hall and, as I walked into an office, a young lady called out to me. She was a former gang member and student of ours who had completed our program, graduated from high school, had received a degree in computer science and was now working for the city.

We’ve had plenty of success stories, and we love these. But we’ve had our share of failures. We have lost students to gang violence. Recently one of our students was killed because he won a dance contest. Some of the kids are second- or third-generation gang members, and the influences on them are too strong in the wrong direction.

Barrio Action is building a new, 30,000-square-foot community center that will be completed in about a year. We will be offering many more services to the community, including a computer lab, dance studio, digital music room and full indoor basketball court. We see a bright future for Barrio Action and look forward to continuing and expanding our programs.