Girls Helped Toward Goals

The posters decorating the walls and bulletin boards in Room 18 at Channel Islands High School extol notions of social justice and revolution: “Problem Posing Demands Reflection and Action.” “No peace, no justice.”

But the teenage girls gathered here talk about simpler, more personal things: educations, good jobs, nice cars, husbands, healthy children. They’re confident they’ll have all that by the time they’re 30. They’re here under the auspices of the El Centrito Latina Leadership Group of Oxnard, meeting for 10-week workshops meant to prepare them to set goals for college and beyond.

Through discussions, lectures and guest speakers, the girls are encouraged to develop personal goals and determine ways to achieve them. Recently, in an exercise designed to help them do so, they were asked to make collages illustrating where they saw themselves in five years and in 15.

“We hope it gets them to think about how they’d like to shape their future,” said Lizeth Barreto, a workshop coordinator. “Their parents want their daughters to go to college, but they didn’t go to school in this country and they have no idea how to direct their children.”

The classes are sponsored by El Centrito de La Colonia in Oxnard, a community center that provides educational services to the low-income Latino communities of La Colonia and downtown Oxnard. The center, which has received a $7,500 grant from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, exists to help empower young people to use all the educational and career opportunities at their disposal.

El Centrito’s staff hopes that giving youths tools for success and instilling pride in their heritage will help them grow into productive members of society. “We want them to have a purpose to their lives,” said El Centrito Executive Director Luann Rocha.

Maria Gaeta says that in 15 years she will be a lawyer or an international businesswoman. Unlike the rest of her classmates, she doesn’t have plans for a husband or children. The leadership class is part of a concerted effort the 16-year-old has made to clean up her act: Not long ago, she was being disrespectful to her parents, drinking and smoking marijuana.

“I realized that if I didn’t help myself, nobody would,” Maria said. “I wanted to see and hear about other educated Latinas to know that I can do this, to know that I can prove anybody who doubted me wrong.”

In addition to the Latina Leadership Group, El Centrito runs several youth groups open to boys, a family literacy program, a school readiness program and several community technology programs.

During this year’s Holiday Campaign, The Times is highlighting groups that serve children and youths in Southern California.

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