Wilson Gives $3.4 Million to O.C. Youth Programs

Pushing his agenda to reduce teen pregnancy, Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday announced more than $25 million in grants to programs in the Southland, including $3.4 million to Orange County organizations.

The awards to groups in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties are part of $53 million in Community Challenge Grants to be doled out statewide to programs that “improve and protect” the lives of children, state officials announced.

Orange County recipients welcomed Wednesday’s news with joy.

“I just opened the letter and just about passed out in my chair,” said Pat Halberstadt, executive director of the Girls and Boys Clubs of Garden Grove, which received $200,000. “We’re absolutely on cloud nine.”

The governor’s effort is part of a broader campaign to tackle juvenile crime, gang association, school dropout rates and teen pregnancy. About 95% of the Community Challenge Grant recipients focus on preventing teenage pregnancies.

The local programs attack teen pregnancy from various angles, including contraception, counseling of fathers and offering high-risk youths a glimpse of greater opportunities.

Halberstadt’s organization will use the funds to expand a mentoring program that pairs girls ages 9 through 12 with professional women through the Junior League of Orange County, and to develop a similar program for boys. A pilot program last year with girls who did not plan to go to college showed that by the end of the program they had all changed their minds, she said.

“If you start young and give them solid aspirations and show them they have a lot of potential to succeed, that’s as effective as anything else that’s being done right now,” she said.

Other grants include:

* The Orange County Department of Education, which received more than $600,000.

Pregnancy prevention efforts will focus on the ACCESS program--Alternative and Correctional Education Schools and Services, said grants coordinator Virginia Benefiel. Existing teen parents also will be targeted, and the department will launch a program of “parenting, bonding and responsibility” for fathers.

* The Fullerton Joint Union High School District, which received $615,000. The district will use the money for its teen parenting program, drawing on other agencies to provide counseling, parenting skills, pregnancy prevention and support for the extended families of pregnant teens, said Linda Miller, assistant principal of La Sierra High School and an author of the grant.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Fullerton and La Habra are participating in the grant.

* Camp Fire Boys and Girls in Tustin, which received $592,000. The grant is a collaborative effort with Girls Inc., Planned Parenthood, YMCA Community Counseling, the Coalition for Children, Adolescents and Parents, and Youth Employment Services of the Harbor Area.

The effort focuses on a segment of west Costa Mesa identified as a hot spot by the state Department of Health Services for a high teen pregnancy rate, Executive Director Todd Hanson said. Among other things, the grant will help provide employment development skills and job placement, and provide access to contraception for older youths, Hanson said.

* Catholic Charities of Orange County, which received $420,000. The grant goes to a group dubbed the Santa Ana Family Enrichment collaborative, or SAFE, comprised of Catholic Charities, the Delhi Community Center, and UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health, said Catholic Charities deputy director Raoul Aroz.

The grant focuses on three ZIP Code areas of central Santa Ana deemed most at-risk for teen pregnancy. It will establish teen parent councils to serve as focus groups for peers; provide academic tutoring for adolescents; and offer counseling, education and job placement.

* The Boys and Girls Club of Westminster, which received $237,000 for programs focusing on adolescents and will use youths to carry the program’s message to other youths.

* Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children in Santa Ana, which received $458,000. No one was available Wednesday to discuss details of the grant.