Volunteering on empty

Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series on how the recession is affecting the Newport-Mesa area. Part three will appear Sept. 29.

Jenna Tourje sat down earlier this year with the girl she was mentoring for the Mika Community Development Corporation and made a list of things the two of them wanted to do together. The list included going to the beach, baking apple pies and other typical mentor activities — and a couple of more expensive ones, like seeing the New Boyz in concert.

By now, 13-year-old Paulina Ortiz has accomplished about half the items on the list. Tourje, meanwhile, has a new goal of her own. The former full-time staffer for Mika was laid off in June, and she’s busy mailing applications and seeking another job while pursuing a master’s degree at UC Irvine.

In the meantime, the Costa Mesa resident has people at her former workplace who depend on her. And so Tourje is back at Mika every week — volunteering without pay for the Westside residents she’s come to know over the past two years.

“I had so many connections in the neighborhood, it was hard to cut them off,” said Tourje, who served as a center coordinator for the nonprofit and now oversees its mentoring program.

Like other nonprofits, Mika, which formed in 2003 to fight drugs and gangs and foment community activism on the Westside, has struggled to stay afloat during the recession. Executive Director Crissy Brooks said her paid staff has been reduced from 12 members to seven, as three employees were laid off and two left without being replaced.

Mika’s mission, though, is to encourage people to help their neighborhoods without always reaping a tangible reward. And in volunteers like Tourje, Brooks can see that ethic shining through.

“She really believes in what we do,” Brooks said. “So it’s been very humbling for me.”

Not as much to give

Mika, which covers four Westside neighborhoods, was founded by local church and community members who perceived a lack of role models and job opportunities in the area. The centers on Center Street, Maple and Baker avenues provide tutoring, neighborhood cleanup days, children’s Bible classes and an annual basketball tournament with local police, among other things.

The nonprofit costs about $400,000 to run annually, and most of that is through donations, which have slowed down since the recession began.