After-school club serves up fun, learning

Each weekday afternoon a ritual occurs on West 6th Street in Tustin. Children by the dozens, either by bus or on foot, converge on the Tustin Boys and Girls Club.

Here, they dispense with the formality of school and go about the business of being children. Some play jump-rope, others billiards and some shoot hoops.

So many children are packed inside the facility that they create a din, which the Orange County club’s officials refer to as “our organized chaos.”

Except for a group hard at work in a room behind a simple sign: Education and Computer Room.

Inside, Jawed Awan, a 26-year-old assistant, quizzes a handful of youngsters who have formed a semicircle around his desk. “Spell the word ‘tomorrow,’ ” he says. The students quickly jot down a “T” followed by an “O,” and continue spelling the word. “Good job,” he says, as smiles erupt on the faces of his young charges.

Other children are at computers, their eyes riveted on a screen, their hands on the mouse. The club started a literacy program in 2004 for kindergarten through third-graders, aimed at providing critical tools in basic reading and math to children who need them the most, said Gary Oustad, club director.

“The majority of our kids speak English, but the problem is their parents don’t,” Oustad said.

Many children come from single-parent Latino households where a mom or dad barely can provide the family with food and shelter, Oustad said.

The club is near the border of Tustin and Santa Ana, where single-family homes are outnumbered by thousands of low-income apartments, Oustad said.

“People think of Tustin and they think of million-dollar homes like in Lemon Heights,” he said. “But along the Santa Ana-Tustin border are the Williams Street apartments, and it has one of the highest density of apartment dwellings in the country.”

Parents arrive at the club after work -- usually between 4:30 and 6 p.m. -- to pick up their children. Oustad said they want to help with their children’s homework but can’t because many “don’t have the skills, either.”

“That’s where we come in. We can help the kids and also the parents,” he said. The club offers classes in parenting skills and basic computer use, Oustad said, and more than 50 families have taken the courses.

Oustad constantly is looking for financial support. A grant from J.C. Penney kick-started the literacy program. Oustad also sought help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which provided 100 used computers that went to the homes of the club’s neediest members. The Times Holiday Fund contributed this year to the club’s literacy program.

In the education room, Sami Madain, 7, is at a computer. His assignment is to use the mouse to move different shaped objects into an empty rectangle on the screen. If he succeeds, the program takes him to a higher level.

“It’s difficult because it’s math, but I like it,” he says, smiling after filling the rectangle successfully.

Janae, 7, whose family did not want her last name used, is busy with a reading program. It’s a fill-in-the-blank program that asks for the word that best fits the meaning of a sentence.

The bright child moves quickly from question to question. “It’s fun, but math is harder,” she says.

Janae is part of a success story for the club. She is one of nine children in a family that was homeless until a few months ago. Her mother has since found them a home and herself a job.

“I’m alone, and just getting my daughter into the program at the Boys and Girls Club has been a lifesaver,” Cathleen Murphy said. “Janae likes it but sometimes she says, ‘Oh, Mom, I’m bored.’ But they also take her on field trips, and she has a great time.”

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david.reyes@latimes.com