Youth center forced to close despite success
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Eighteen students in the Susannah Wesley Community Center's Youth Employment Program proudly received their hard-earned high-school equivalent diplomas yesterday in front of friends and family, but this graduating class — the program's third — will be its last.
Money for the program that has helped nearly 200 students with education and other social needs in the past three years has been eliminated, and it will close at the end of the month.
The four-person staff will be laid off. Other youths attending the program will have to find another school to help them reach their goal of graduating high school.
Ashley, whose full name is not being used for privacy reasons, is 16 and has finished four of five units needed for graduation.
"This program is basically my last resort on getting a high-school diploma," she said. "I understand the importance of having a diploma and I know how difficult my life ahead would be without (one)."
The Youth Employment Program has built its reputation on finding youths ages 16 to 21 who likely would not graduate without intervention — kids who are homeless, may have been in trouble with the law, or using drugs, or are pregnant. The program helps these students with job-hunting skills, health needs, family problems and, of course, finishing high school.
"We were looking for the ones that were really in trouble," said Stanley Inkyo, administrator for youth services programs.
To take part in the program, students must qualify for federal low-income status and have been formally discharged from public school. Of the nearly 200 youths that have been helped by the program, 44 have earned their high-school diplomas.
Program coordinator Pete Velasco and his staff of three teachers/case workers will be laid off with the closing of the program.
"It's kind of sad, but I'm more concerned for the students," Velasco said. "They always get the short end of the stick and don't understand why it is closing."
The program was financed through the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which is administered by the city.
The O'ahu Workforce Investment Board selects which programs will get grants, but only $692,152 in money was available for the next year and requests totaled $2.3 million, according to John Sabas, deputy director of the city Community Services Department.
The three programs that received money are The Boys and Girls Club of Hawai'i, the Honolulu Community Action Program and Goodwill Industries of Hawai'i, which are expected to serve more than 250 youths, Sabas said.
Inkyo said the community center was seeking about $250,000 to continue the program for one more year and will continue to run a much smaller session with just 10 students who have no place else to go. He will try to place most of the students into one of the programs that did receive money, back into a public school, or send them to the Farrington Community School for Adults, which has been a partner in the program.
"These kids are everybody's stereotype of dropouts," Inkyo said. "But you know what, they come here for these classes. They come to tutoring and somehow this environment is a lot different than public schools, and they really worked hard."
Liberato Viduya, principal at Farrington Community School for Adults, said the school works with several community-based groups, providing instruction and materials and helping students earn their diplomas, but this group was special.
"Many of them were at risk and lack the skills for even entry-level jobs," Viduya said. "They feel suppressed, rejected, a failure because of not having completed a basic activity in their lives. Every one of them has a personal story to tell, and a diploma gives them a new lease on life. They can say 'Yes. I have a high-school diploma.' Hopefully it will open some doors for them."
Inkyo said the Susannah Wesley Community Center, which will continue to provide immigrant and youth programs in Kalihi, saw the value of the high-school program but has to face reality.
"If you don't have the funds you can't operate a full-scale program," he said. "It really is sad for the kids, but I'm so happy for these that are graduating because they have been told, 'You're nothing. You're not going to make it.' And they have. They proved them all wrong."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
