Chinatown After-School Program Fills Void for Many At-Risk Kids

The dozens of children who converge on Castelar Street Elementary School in Chinatown every afternoon make it hard to tell that classes have recessed for the day. What draws these middle-school students, many of them the children of Chinese immigrants, is an after-school program designed to keep vulnerable kids from joining gangs and to help them overcome cultural and language barriers.

Participants receive help with their homework, play basketball, visit museums and take field trips to local colleges, staying busy until their parents get home from work.

“For many of these kids, there’s really nobody to watch over them or keep track of what they’re doing,” said Victor Szeto, who leads the program.

Wilson To, a seventh-grader at a San Fernando Valley middle school, has been attending the Castelar program for two years. He said he values the friends he has made and sheepishly acknowledges that the program forces him to make homework a higher priority than he would if he were at home.

“At home, I would watch television, eat, hang out and then do my homework,” To said. “Here, it’s homework first.”

Szeto and the program assistants also help by acting as interpreters. Many of the children, who spend most of their day learning and speaking in English, don’t know enough Chinese to communicate well with their parents, Szeto said. And many parents, whose days may be spent in the company of other Chinese speakers, don’t speak enough English to talk meaningfully with their children.

“The generational gap is particularly big in these homes,” Szeto said.

The program has a waiting list; there’s not enough space for more than the two dozen or so youngsters who show up each day.

The Castelar program is run by the Chinatown Service Center, which was established in the 1970s and is a recipient of a grant from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign. Last year, the holiday appeal raised $653,000, which was given to 56 charities serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

The agencies provide services to disadvantaged children and youth, including food, clothing and shelter, early childhood literacy programs, services for developmentally delayed and disabled children, and programs to prevent drug abuse, violence and teenage pregnancy.

The Chinatown Service Center, which runs a range of programs, used the money it received last year from the Holiday Campaign to train teenagers to teach their peers about pregnancy prevention and safe sex.

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