Albert's Story
Albert was a seven-year-old boy struggling with some very difficult issues. His teachers at the Charter School could see that he suffered from a negative self-image, often telling them, "I'm dumb." Albert would give up easily on classroom tasks and then distract other students with his antics.
Two years ago, teachers recommended that Albert repeat first grade, but his parents declined, and he was enrolled in the second grade. Even with intensive work with Charter School staff, Albert continued to struggle; he was always on the edge of failing. When famed British art educator Malcolm Wray began workshops at the school, Albert seemed to transform. He instantly perked up and was absorbed by the material and lessons. After Wray’s departure, Albert continued using the techniques he learned in the workshop. His teacher was especially impressed when Albert turned to the internet to research the difference between rural and urban life after for a social studies project.
Principal Norma Silva, impressed with Albert’s initiative and talent, asked Albert and his parents if she could hang one of his pictures in the school office – they happily agreed. Albert, beaming with self-confidence and a joy of learning, began to participate in school activities with a new sense of success. Today, he is receiving passing grades, no longer in danger of retention.
As part of his new-found enthusiasm for school, Albert has immersed himself in Writer’s Workshop activities, and now considers himself as a writer and a poet. When asked what he likes about school, Albert responded, “My teacher told me that I can do anything I put my mind to and to never give up. She makes me feel great!
Anna's Story
Many stories are told artfully by words alone; requiring only a writer’s skill to conjure an accurate illustration of a subject. But for some, words simply fail to communicate the real heroism, raw emotion, or heartbreaking experiences of those who were there.
This is one such story. Anna was a happy and engaged Kindergarten student at Para Los Niños’ Charter Elementary School until her behavior changed suddenly and dramatically, becoming increasingly more erratic and unpredictable. Formally bright and happy, she became inexplicably fearful, often hiding under tables refusing to emerge. She was aggressive and enraged; storming out of classrooms, screaming and hitting, even throwing objects. Eventually, Anna became inconsolably sad; her little body tense with
sobbing that could last an hour or more, requiring an entire team of teachers, administrators, and staff to comfort her. At an age when other children are care-free, Anna’s teachers worried about her well-being.
Although her elementary school team tried to empower Anna by reminding her of her talents and gifts, Anna’s needs were too great and required specialized help. Because Para Los Niños provides education, mental health and social services, Anna’s teachers were able to work hand-in-hand with professionals who could identify and begin to treat the source of her emotional distress. Therapy sessions were scheduled to accommodate the work hours of her mother, a seamstress in LA’s Garment District, who is struggling alone to support three children and a grandchild.
In time, Anna began to heal and is considered a child with tremendous social and educational potential. She has been in a bilingual program, yet scored proficient in both English Language Arts and Mathematics on the California Standards Test for the second grade. As a result, Anna was placed in a third/fourth grade combination class, where her teachers describe her as a formidable competitor to her fourth grade colleagues in all subjects. She has a respectful, tenacious spirit, is recognized as a leader amongst her peers, and is admired by adults for the strength, resilience, and grace she possesses.
Although she has overcome many more obstacles in her short life than most adults have in a lifetime, more lie ahead. Anna continues therapy and is successfully learning how to manage her emotions and the challenges of her past. She aspires to be a doctor and possesses both the determination and intellect to become one, but her family’s economic future is uncertain.
Anna has the potential to achieve all that she dreams of and more; her aspirations are limited only by the circumstances in which she lives. Anna deserves a chance. Please help us give her one.
Eddi's Story
Against all odds, Eddi Ortiz grew up good. Raised in one of Los Angeles’ most impoverished and dangerous areas, Eddi understands the temptation of gangs, the seduction of drugs and the fear of violence. He knows that most people who live in these neighborhoods do so because they’re stuck; bound to those streets like cement, with no options, no mobility, no chance. Most who leave do so in one of two ways: they die, or they succeed. The majority end up in the first group.
Eddi is different. He grew up there, but didn’t join a gang; he didn’t deal drugs, he didn’t commit crimes. He also didn’t have extraordinary advantages. His mother was a live-in nanny, so he and his brothers were raised by an uncle most of the week. He attended a school that even today is considered a failure in the LA Unified System, but he graduated, and began college. He has a good job where he is well respected.
Eddi is a success…and yet, he stays.
Eddi describes his decision to stay in the neighborhood more as a calling than a mere choice. He says he’s driven to be there by a heartfelt passion to give someone else the kind of chance he was once given.
During his elementary and middle school years, when other boys sought a place of belonging on the streets, Eddi was enrolled in a para los niños after school program. Here, he met a group of boys with a passion for sports, and a counselor who encouraged those activities, as well as the importance of staying in school. Looking back on it years later, Eddi realized he’d found the camaraderie of a gang in the sports program, and a model of success in that counselor. He knew then, that he had a vision for his own life: to help turn his neighborhood around and give the children who live there a more promising future. Once he’d made that decision, he simply couldn’t leave.
Like many who devote their lives to a cause, Eddi has sacrificed; he has a young child who now lives in another, safer, part of town. Though Eddi concedes he feels both relief and gratitude that his child lives beyond the violence of the neighborhood, it galvanizes him to do more.
As a Family Advocate/Behavior Assistant at Para Los Niños, Eddi works for the same organization that helped keep him on the right path so many years ago. In his job, Eddi works with parents who need help and middle school children experiencing behavioral problems. He links our mental health and social services with children at our schools, ensuring that more at-risk youth get the help they need. Like the counselor who meant so much to him, Eddi also coaches sports and gets involved in the community well beyond the scope of his job. He hopes his example will mean something to at least one boy, who will grow up good, and stay.
Leslie's Story
Leslie can see her future again thanks to the work of Para Los Niños. Suffering from a terminal disease and the insensitivity of the doctors who used her to translate to her parents and tell them of her state, Leslie came to Para Los Niños emotionally distraught.
A sickly child, ten-year-old Leslie has had her share of doctor visits. None will ever compare to the one she had last year. As Leslie’s parents do not speak English, her doctors would often give Leslie the information about her health and ask her to pass the information on to her mother and father. On this fateful day, they told Leslie that she was dying; they then asked her to tell her parents. Shocked and in disbelief, Leslie proceeded to share the terrible news.
Needless to say, Leslie’s parents were horrified and Leslie was traumatized. They called upon Para Los Niños to help them through this painful time. They met with a case worker, Luis, who offered psychological support and explained Leslie’s patient rights to her parents. Leslie’s doctors should not have used her as a translator. Luis went to the hospital to personally speak with the doctors and staff working on Leslie’s case. Luis also collaborated with the hospital’s social services department to ensure Leslie and her parents would receive information about her health status, course of treatment, and recovery in the right way.
Luis didn’t stop there. He teamed up with Make-a-Wish Foundation to get Leslie a laptop. He also researched her illness and found an experimental treatment at a reputable university. Leslie’s doctor conducted additional research on the treatment and decided to use the treatment with Leslie.
Leslie responded extremely well to the course of treatment and is now on the road to recovery. The family continues to see Luis to help them fill out forms and find financial aid for Leslie’s expensive treatments. Leslie’s parents have grown close to the caseworker and say he’s just like one of the family.
Margarita's Story
Margarita has a big smile on her face these days. After battling severe depression brought on by her mother’s drug addiction and months of living in foster care, Margarita now lives a peaceful life with her father. Fourteen-year-old Margarita was referred to Para Los Niños' Mental Health Services by her County case worker. Margarita had been removed from her mother's care due to her mother's drug use. Unfortunately, this turn of events left Margarita severely depressed, with thoughts of suicide. Margarita’s condition was so poor that Para Los Niños immediately arranged for psychiatric hospitalization for the heartbroken girl. When Margarita was released from the hospital, she returned to Para Los Niños for outpatient care. Medication and therapy had relieved the worst of her symptoms, but Margarita was still a very troubled girl. She did not respond to her foster mother, and was faring poorly in school. Para Los Niños’ therapists – with the help of Margarita’s caring foster mother – helped Margarita cope with her situation. The therapists also reached out to Margarita’s mother. Sadly, Margarita’s mother, deep into her drug addiction, refused to help Margarita. Soon, though, a relative of Margarita’s long-absent father discovered that Margarita was living in foster care. Her father had no idea of his daughter’s circumstances. With the help of her therapists, Margarita reconnected with her father, and her depression lifted. Margarita was able to discontinue the use of medication, and her case was closed when she successfully reunited with her father and his family.
Margarita's Story
Margarita knows the fear of desperation. She cries when she thinks of it, though silently and elegantly so, and she speaks in soft, measured tones. Through a translator, Margarita is recalling the night she considered ending both her own life and her son’s out of fear of starvation, wondering if death by her own hand would be more merciful.
Months before, Margarita’s husband had left her for another woman. He took all their money and all their food, and tried to take her son from her too but she fought back. She wanted to get a job, but all her applications required a phone number, and she couldn’t afford a phone. She wanted to get help, but was told by other immigrants that if she did, the police would take her son. She wanted to ask someone if the court documents her husband sent really did say that he’d won full custody, but she was illiterate and ashamed. She wanted her son to stop feeling sad, to stop crying for food; she wanted salvation.
The next day she found it. Upon being stopped by a woman in their building who had noticed their increasingly ill health, Margarita told her neighbor that they were without money, food, and very soon, a home. The woman took her to Para Los Niños, where she and her son were fed and given food vouchers, and where the truth about public assistance was explained. Soon, Margarita enrolled in Para Los Niños’ financial management classes for women and received legal assistance, becoming educated enough to realize her husband had been sending fake legal documents concerning their custody battle. She installed a phone and got a job, eventually earning enough to decline welfare. Soon after, Margarita joined with other tenants in her apartment to sue their landlord for failing to maintain conditions in the building, which was overrun by bedbugs, rats, and cockroaches. They won, and though she remained fearful of returning to poverty, Margarita donated a generous amount of her settlement to Para Los Niños for the express purpose of helping single mothers struggling for survival.
Today, Margarita says she no longer worries about returning to those darker times.
She explains that while the memory is still very painful, it helps to talk about it because it affirms how far she’s come and how much she’s achieved. Now, she says, she helps others who need it; accompanying them to court, dispelling myths, and pointing single mothers to important resources.
When asked about becoming an example of courage for others she laughs off the compliment.
“People call me a leader, but I don’t know if that’s true,” she says.
Rafael's Story
Rafael just won the “most improved” award in our After-school Program! Thanks to his teacher’s close attention to his individual needs, Rafael went from being a fast-talking, trouble-making second grader, to a hard working, spirited student.
Seven-year-old Rafael was the kind of child that most would label as troubled. Talking a million miles a minute, he never sat still and seemed to delight in the distraction he could cause around him. Teachers would call to him multiple times to get his attention before he would look at them. When Rafael first came to the After-school Program, he refused to bring his backpack with him – containing his homework. Para Los Niños’ After-school teachers identified that he needed more personalized attention, so they worked with him one-on-one. And, more quickly than anyone anticipated, Rafael discovered an enthusiasm for learning. Soon, Rafael was participating fully in the After-school Program. Rafael even began helping other students with their homework. For his efforts, Rafael won the program’s “most improved” award – a turn of events that left Rafael and his mother in tears. As Rafael’s teacher said, “Now that is what this job is all about!.”
Victor's Story
Victor knows the value of hard work. Arriving to Para Los Niños' Youth Center with failing grades, Victor has worked his way to passing grades and discovered a determination to succeed he never knew he had.
At seventeen, Victor arrived at the Youth Center looking like a tough and troubled teenager. He wore baggy pants and shirts, and had a gruff manner and a history of destructive behavior. Victor’s family life was difficult; his parents struggled with job loss and the drug addiction of Victor’s sibling.
Victor was failing all his high school courses, and was often approached by gang members, who wrongly assumed he was one of them. Victor saw the Youth Center as a refuge from his chaotic life. Underneath his rough exterior was a young man who was caring, innovative, and smart.
Although Victor instantly loved the Youth Center program, the program supervisor had to inform Victor that he would be expelled from the program because of his failing grades. Crestfallen, Victor made a deal with the supervisor: if he could stay, he would participate in all Youth Center activities, complete his school assignments, and raise his grades. The supervisor readily agreed. Victor, committed to his agreement, began to work hard on his schoolwork, even taking assignments along on Center field trips. He sought out daily tutoring, and joined a wide variety of Youth Center activities, including participating in the Los Angeles Youth Leadership Council, Arte Sano, and the carpentry and auto mechanics class.
When he completed his personal portfolio, he earned a spot in the Youth Center’s annual Yosemite camping trip. Victor is now easily passing all his classes, and continues to work hard to improve his grades. When asked how he did it, Victor said, “It was easy! I simply did all my work!”
Fast Facts
In 2007, over 583,000 people in Los Angeles County lived in extreme poverty
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87% of children of immigrant families in Los Angeles County are U.S. citizens
