In this case, the "we" ended up being St. Andrews Presbyterian, St. Joachim Church and the parents in the community.
By the 1990s the area around Shalimar Drive and Placentia Avenue, settled in the midst of industrial Costa Mesa, had a reality to match its reputation. Drug sales were rampant, it had the worst teen pregnancy rate in Orange County and every once in a while there was a shooting to top things off.
There was a police presence there, but they can't be there 24-hours, and they won't stop teen pregnancy or drop-out rates — that's where parents come in. Of course sometimes the parents are the problem, and even when they're not necessarily the problem, they have an uphill battle if they live in an impoverished area, complete with gangs and devoid of anything positive for the youths to do.
After a gang-related shooting in 1994 the mothers in the community started talking about what they could do to make the area safe and make a real future for their kids. At the same time, Barth the head of the mission committee at St. Andrews church, heard about what was going on in Shalimar and thought this would be something the church could get involved in.
"We were looking for something to do besides write checks," he said.
He called his friend who was with St. Joachim's. They met with parents in the community to find out what they needed and how to achieve it.
The parents in Shalimar said one of the things they needed was a safe place for the children to study in the neighborhood.
Barth said they talked to the city and all kinds of people to try to get things going. In the end the churches paid to rent an apartment for an after-school tutoring program. They initially thought they could do it all with volunteers, but then realized the program needed more structure and consistency so they hired a staff.
