Santa Ana Group Offers Family-Friendly Gathering Place

It’s 3:30 p.m. and the community room of the Cambodian Family in Santa Ana is filling up fast. A group of boys in one corner crowds a worn foosball table. Four girls wearing jeans and solemn expressions dip and sway as they practice the cadence of a traditional folk dance.

Several children laden with bulging backpacks mill about, waiting for classes to start.

“This is my second home,” said Christina Koeul, 16, of Santa Ana. “If there were no Cam Fam, I’d stay home and surf the Net and watch TV all day.”

Vuthy Yam, 15, of Santa Ana has attended the Cambodian Family’s youth program for six years and now helps by answering phones, finishing her homework between calls.

“I can really depend on Cam Fam for [helping address] all my troubles,” said Linda Sok, 16, who, like her friends, walks the several blocks from Century High School.

“Without Cam Fam, I wouldn’t know any of these people,” Sok said. “I wouldn’t have gotten the confidence I have now to talk to people and get to know them.”

Now in its 21st year, the Cambodian Family is a multiethnic relief organization housed in a former warehouse that stretches along a mid-city railroad track.

Last year, the agency had a $1-million budget and offered a menu of classes for adults and children. A grant from the Orange County Children and Families Commission allowed it to open a preschool, where most of the children come from neighboring Latino neighborhoods.

This year, the agency received $15,000 from the Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign, which raises money for nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. The money went toward the youth program, which assists about 120 kids in after-school classes until 6 p.m.

Several years ago, a $10,000 donation from the Times Holiday Campaign helped buy a 12-seat van that the agency uses to shuttle children to its after-school program from the Minnie Street neighborhood.

But the state budget deficit, a drop in federal assistance and stock market losses that buffeted the coffers of philanthropic foundations have taken a toll on the agency.

With only half the budget of last year, the Cambodian Family is preparing to replace several staffers with volunteers and has shrunk its operations to reduce rent, officials said. Excess furniture and supplies are stored in nooks and corners in the hopes that additional funding will restore its space.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep it running,” said Sundaram Rama, the agency’s youth coordinator. “It’s been a struggle, but at the same time it’s been an opportunity.

“You have to look at the difficulties and figure out a new way to do things,” he said. “That’s when you grow.”

There’s a lot at stake.

Since tracking began several years ago, the agency has seen the graduation rate among its high-school students zoom from 50% to 97%, Rama said. Eight in 10 students go on to college.

Kheang Tang and Moryna Tann, both 17, said the teenagers are doing what they can to help raise money: holding bake sales and carwashes to fund special events such as an annual camping trip to the Sequoias.

“This is such a good place to hang out,” Tann said. “It’s an opportunity to see your friends and get help.”

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HOW TO GIVE

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $800,000 raised at 50 cents on the dollar. Donations (checks or money orders) supporting the Holiday Campaign should be sent to: L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986. Do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made on the Web site: www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign.

All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $50 or more may be published in The Times unless a donor requests otherwise; acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed. For more information call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.