Living up to its name

Deirdre Newman

Shalimar. The word conjures up an image of an exotic place, an abode

of bliss -- the literal translation in the Indian language.

In 1994, Shalimar Street on the Westside was far from an abode of

bliss. Gang violence infested the neighborhood. Drugs were sold out

in the open. The residents were living in fear.

And then a catalyst arrived on the scene, transforming the

neighborhood’s menacing feel and liberating its residents to feel

safe again.

The Shalimar Learning Center was created out of desperation by

neighborhood moms who wanted a refuge for their children after

school. This fall marks the center’s 10-year anniversary.

Shalimar has received a host of accolades over the years, spawned

a clone in Arizona and some of its graduates have been the first in

their families to go to college.

“What they did for me is let me dream and think beyond the streets

of Shalimar of Costa Mesa,” said Nadia Flores, 23, one of the first

students to attend Shalimar. “They let me see so many different

things that were out there for me.”

A TROUBLED PAST

Ten years ago, residents of the neighborhood were constantly in

fear, said Newport-Mesa Unified School Board member Dave Brooks, a

former police captain who patrolled the area.

“It used to be a place where people were afraid to go in their

front yards, there were cars parked all over the streets and in front

of houses, the garages and alleys were unusable,” Brooks said. “If

you drove onto the street, there were drug dealers out in the open

and stuff like that.”

After a gang shooting in the neighborhood, mothers organized to

take control of their streets. Randy Barth was the head of the

mission committee at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport

Beach at the time. Barth, and other groups interested in the

neighborhood’s salvation, met with the moms and listened to their

concerns.

Barth founded the Shalimar Learning Center as an answer to their

plea.

Police redoubled their efforts to eradicate the gangs and

drug-dealing after the Shalimar Learning Center opened in the fall of

1994, Barth said.

“They didn’t want any [of the kids] getting shot, so they started

trying again,” he said. “They wound up blocking off the streets and

eliminated on-street parking.”

The city’s code enforcement department also demolished some

dilapidated apartments and created a small park, Barth said.

The physical transformation of Shalimar Street was a comprehensive

effort, including traffic specialists, the Fire Department, Police

Department, engineering and code enforcement, Brooks said. The city

formed an apartment owners’ association to gain their cooperation and

a tenants association, Brooks added.

“We followed a pattern that had been used in other urban

redevelopment areas,” Brooks said. “If you make it so it’s not real

attractive for people to get onto the streets, it cuts down a lot of

the problems.”

The gang violence and drug dealing has been drastically reduced,

Costa Mesa Police Capt. Jim Watson said, as has the crime rate.

And it is a desirable neighborhood for Latino families to move

into, Barth said.

“I think it’s more friendly than before,” said Patricia Urquilla,

who has lived in the neighborhood for 21 years and works at the

after-school center. “Everyone was afraid to go out on the street

[before].”

St. Andrew’s provided financial and volunteer support for the

fledgling center with help from the Orange County Congregation

Community Organization, St. Joachim’s Catholic Church and Women of

Vision.

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Barth rented an apartment in the 700 block of Shalimar for the

original center, which served elementary school students. They

expected about 30 children the first day and 100 showed up, he said.

Now, they have to limit enrollment to about 250 kids because it’s so

popular, Barth said. The center currently serves elementary, junior

high and high school students.

A few months after it opened, Barth rented a second apartment in

the building next door for a group of eighth-graders that became the

teen center. Another apartment in that building came soon after for

high school students.

The apartments are brightly colored walls with motivating mantras

like “We are the promise of the future.”

Staff members evaluate students’ skills so they know what subjects

they need help with and monitor their progress. The center recently

started a literacy program run by a reading specialist.

Fridays are art and enrichment days where the kids do arts and

crafts and music activities.

For most of the students, English is not their first language so

they really benefit from extra exposure to English after school,

Barth said.

“At the start, we take kids that don’t speak English at home, give

them additional exposure to English, teach them to read and help them

with their homework -- all this support that typically their parents

can’t give them,” Barth said.

About 100 volunteers, from churches and the community, work with

the students. One of them, Carlita Fuller, is a volunteer from St.

Andrew’s.

“It makes me aware of the needs of children and how easy it is to

help,” Fuller said. “It should make a difference. Working one to one,

almost everyone can learn.”

Eight-year old Luis Aguilar, a third-grader at Whittier Elementary

School, said he likes to come to the center to work on math.

Shalimar also has a computer lab, which helps the students compete

on a level playing field with their higher-income peers, Barth said.

Last year, the center gave the 11 high school graduates who were

going on to college brand new laptops, he added.

In 1997, the church spun Shalimar off as a nonprofit organization

-- THINK Together, an acronym made up of the goals of Teaching,

Helping, Inspiring, and Nurturing Kids.

The nonprofit now boasts 20 after-school programs in Orange

County. St. Andrew’s is still involved as a financial donor and

provides volunteers. Over the last 10 years, it has given $1.1

million to the organization, Barth said.

THINK Together needs to raise about $2 million every year to

support all its centers, Barth said.

HOPE AND INPSIRATION

In addition to helping students with their homework, the

after-school center helps them realize what it takes to achieve their

dreams, Barth said. Like when one student wanted to be an architect

but was flunking geometry, one of the volunteers took her to an

architect’s office to hear firsthand what kind of skills are

necessary to make it in that field.

“We start working on motivation and inspiration and they begin to

think college is possible,” Barth said.

Flores lived in the neighborhood when the Shalimar Learning Center

was in its embryonic stages. As a teenager, she was nonchalant about

the center, she said. But once she got to know the volunteers at the

center and saw how much they cared, Shalimar became a significant

part of her life, she said.

“I’ve always said the key to the program is the dedication from

the volunteers,” Flores said. “Because it’s not only the academic

help they offer, but the mentoring, attention and accountability and

all these things you couldn’t really get anywhere else.”

Flores went to Shalimar after school until she graduated from high

school. From there, she became the first Shalimar graduate to get a

degree from UC Santa Barbara, she said. She majored in international

business.

“I got to go a four-year university and have a good job and

traveled to seven major countries through my major and all these

amazing experiences,” Flores said.

BECOMING THE MODEL

The center that sprung up out of necessity is now a paragon of

after-school centers.

Last year, THINK Together was one of two organizations awarded as

a top after-school program in the National Community Education Day

contest, sponsored by the Kinderstreet Corp.

An independent evaluation of the program funded by the Samueli

Foundation found it is one of the few after-school programs in the

country that has improved grades and test scores among low-income

English Language Learners.

And the success of THINK Together spawned an out-of-state

affiliate, THINK Together Arizona, which opened an after-school

center in Phoenix in August.

The Arizona center evolved in much the same way as the original --

from the desire of church members to help at-risk youth, said Jim

Bradshaw, the executive director of THINK Together Arizona.

Bradshaw heard about Shalimar through Barth’s sister-in-law, and

came to visit some of the centers in Orange County before deciding

the program was the perfect model to emulate, he said.

“I was so impressed with the program ... what I saw taking place

educationally and certainly the mentoring portion,” Bradshaw said.

“Of the many characteristics of the program -- the fact the community

was so involved -- I thought, this is really the way it ought to be

done.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].