Tackling Problems Through Prevention

People like to say that children are the future, but for the El Nido Family Centers of Los Angeles County, that future is now.

The organization, which has been around in one form or another since 1925, promotes the social and emotional development of youths and their families in the region. Many of its clients are from economically disadvantaged households.

Liz Herrera, who assumed the position of executive director in July after nearly three decades with the organization, said the precarious economy is making El Nido’s work particularly challenging these days.

“Funding for social services agencies is always a struggle in times like these, and I know this is going to be a really tough budget year for the state,” she said. “But it’s when the economy is bad that social problems tend to increase, so it’s really the worst time to cut back funding.”

Herrera said El Nido Family Centers, which employs about 180 people on a budget this fiscal year of $8.7 million, gets most of its funding from the state. She said the agency’s programs may have to be trimmed next year, unless the economy picks up.

El Nido breaks its service programs into five components: teen pregnancy prevention, teen pregnancy counseling, child abuse treatment, delinquency prevention and parental education. There are 11 service sites scattered throughout the county.

“Most of our clientele is made up of teen parents,” Herrera said. “We have high-risk programs that deal with the younger siblings of these teen parents, because they are more likely to run into the same kind of problems later on.

“We have case managers who work with the teens and their families one on one,” she continued, “because many times the teen’s parents were teen parents themselves, so our goal is to stop the cycle.

“If you cut programs, you’re going to end up paying one way or another. You either pay with prevention or you end up paying for babies in neonatal units,” Herrera said.

El Nido also tries to help young people break out of poverty and learn to handle money.

Working with Merrill Lynch, the agency has a program to teach youngsters the value of math, reading and computer skills in the workplace. Enrollees learn how to improve their research and organizational skills, and to work as members of a team.

El Nido Centers received a $6,000 grant from last year’s Times Holiday Campaign. During this holiday season, The Times is featuring programs that have benefited from the fund-raising effort.

Recipients are charities serving Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. More than 50 groups shared the $653,000 raised in last year’s campaign.

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