Academic Center Is a Study in Self-Help

They are preparing for the future at Cabrillo Village, an investment that takes place every day at a resource center where youngsters flock after school with homework in hand.

Launched last year at the former farm labor camp, the Adelante Academic Center provides tutoring, a computer lab and mentoring services to children in the Latino enclave -- where the residents are mostly poor and the educational opportunities have been in short supply.

The after-school program, set in the heart of the tightknit but isolated east Ventura housing project, seeks to steer youngsters clear of gangs, violence and other influences that too often derail those who grow up in poverty-plagued communities.

But it also tries to put youngsters on the path to higher learning, pushing them to focus early on what it takes to get into college and graduate.

“We felt there wasn’t enough support from organizations outside of Cabrillo Village for the children in our community, so we took it upon ourselves to set this up,” said legal aid attorney Hector Martinez, who returns often to the neighborhood where he grew up to work with youngsters.

“What you have is a community that has embraced this project and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep it going,” he said.

Indeed, board members of the cooperative housing project have poured $50,000 into setting up the program, transforming a little-used building into a state-of-the-art learning center that draws as many as two dozen kids a day.

The effort also received $50,000 from the California Consumer Protection Foundation, a San Francisco-area nonprofit group that supports a wide range of interests. The money funded the purchase of 11 computers for the center. A local church donated 10 more.

Lonnie Miramontes, who manages the housing cooperative, said more than one-third of the 300 school-age children who live in Cabrillo Village have used the center. The program also has developed a core group of about 20 volunteers, although more are needed to keep it running smoothly, he said.

The center, open from 2:30 to about 7 p.m., draws some youngsters from outside the community in need of academic assistance or just a quiet place to work.

“A lot of them know what they need to do; they just need a space where they can sit down, lay out their books and think,” Miramontes said. “Members of the [housing] board sat down, looked at the needs of the community and decided this was one of the best ways they could help.”

The self-help philosophy is not new to Cabrillo Village.

The present-day community came into being nearly 30 years ago when laborers -- their grower-owned shanties condemned by health officials -- stood arm in arm to block an army of bulldozers intent on knocking their houses flat.

Together, the villagers raised $80,000 to purchase their land and formed a cooperative that today owns the entire community at the edge of the Santa Clara farming valley.

It is believed to have been the first time in the nation’s history that Mexican American farm workers rallied to collectively buy their homes from a grower. From the 1930s-era farm labor camp had sprung a bustling community, complete with a church, market, laundry room, community center, library and playground.

But for all of its improvements, the community has largely remained isolated from the rest of Ventura, even as new subdivisions and strip malls have sprung up around it. As a result, services have started coming to Cabrillo Village.

The Ventura Unified School District opened a state-funded preschool in the community three years ago, the first in the district to operate off a school campus.

And last year, Cabrillo Village, in conjunction with the Ventura Chamber of Commerce and the Ventura Police Department, launched a recreation center for youngsters in the community.

Now comes the academic center, which revives and expands a tutoring program discontinued years ago in the east Ventura community.

Cabrillo Village resident Alejandra Saucedo, 25, a senior at Cal State Northridge, received academic assistance through the old program when she was growing up.

An aspiring teacher, she now volunteers to help youngsters with their homework several times a week and has started providing group lessons once a month on various subjects.

“I know that the tutoring and the mentoring can really make a difference, because they made a difference in my life,” Saucedo said. “I want to help further my community. And by volunteering one hour here and one hour there, I know we can make it happen.”

Anyone interested in providing tutoring, mentoring or other services at the Cabrillo Village academic center can call the housing cooperative at 647-4083.