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Yahoo!Living in Isla Vista has given me a chance to meet people who are, for want of a better word, cool.
I’ve met people who are passionate about food, trees, I.V. itself, and life in general. Most recently, I met someone who feels strongly about helping teens.
Cat Neushul
Leonor Reyes, the director of the YMCA’s Isla Vista Teen Center, sets the tone for the after-school program she runs. She works to create a safe and supportive environment for the up to 30 teens who frequent the center Mondays through Fridays. The teens come to the center to do homework, visit with friends, or watch movies. “We pretty much get to know everyone,” Reyes explained.
The teens — ranging from sixth graders to high school seniors — come to the center for a variety of reasons. Some do so because they live in overcrowded apartments, others because they need a quiet place to study or want help with their homework, and still others because they want to hang out with their friends. With its open door policy, it may seem that anyone — even a teen who might be a bad influence — might frequent the center, but Reyes said center staffers discourage that by acting in an unwelcoming manner toward a teen who is using bad language or engaging in unacceptable behavior. “We don’t tolerate it, and they go out,” Reyes said. In some cases, she might try to get the teen help, by hooking them up with a drug and alcohol program or by just talking to their parents. In any case, her main goal is to make the center a positive option for teens.
The teen center is chock-full of the things designed to make a teen happy. A large-screen television, a pool table, foosball game, ping pong table, and computers. All this great stuff, however, is housed in a small, soon-to-be unusable portable leased from the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District (IVRPD). But the teens seem to make do with what they have for now.
“I get help on my homework — and it’s fun,” said 12-year-old Paulina Silva upon being asked why she drops by. This answer is typical, but the teen center kids might also list any number of other reasons for why they find the place attractive — the dances with the live DJ performing for about 80 teens, for example, or the girls' nights, or the lock-down when they spend the night at the center. Jessica Gallegos, 13, told me about decorating cookies during a girls' night, watching movies, and being in a dance group. She particularly liked the lock-down event. “It’s better at lock-in. It’s cool,” she said.
But the teens don’t only come to the center for these reasons; they also come for emotional support. Gallegos said she feels comfortable talking to Reyes. “We always talk to her,” she added. Reyes, an attractive, youthful, 31-year-old, doesn’t seem like the quintessential mother figure, but she is proud of the support she gives the teens. “They come at us with a lot of different stuff,” Reyes said. She said a 15-year-old boy came into her office recently saying his friends were putting pressure on him to ask a girl out. She told him to ask the girl out when he was ready. “I gave him the words he could use," she said.
In addition to popular activities like a dance group and a music education class funded by the Santa Barbara Foundation, another important component of serving teens is providing parenting classes. Reyes said the center actually supports parents in the I.V. community in a variety of ways. A parent might have trouble understanding the grades on a report card, for example, or difficulty following a school procedure. Reyes, or someone else at the center, can work with parents to make sure they understand the school system.
The teen center got its moment in the limelight during last November’s election. For Isla Vista voters, the ballot included Measure D, a referendum that would have allowed the IVRPD the right to sell, trade, or lease property in order to raise money for a community center, which was to include a new and improved teen center. The current teen center site, which is leased from the IVPRD, won’t be usable for much longer due to safety issues. Reyes said she’s been told they might have to find a new site in about a year.
Many I.V. residents didn’t even realize the teen center existed until they heard about it when it was mentioned in conjunction with Measure D. Since the referendum didn’t pass, the money for a community center won’t be coming from this source. Jamie Goldstein, who was with the Santa Barbara County Redevelopment Agency, had said that there was a possibility of funding the community center with agency funds, but that a plan would have to be presented to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Until a permanent solution comes to light, the teen center will be in a sort of limbo. But this doesn’t mean that Reyes and the teens don’t know what they would like.
Reyes said she took some teens on a trip to see the Twelve35 Teen Center in downtown Santa Barbara. She said they were impressed, and asked why they didn’t have a center like that. “It’s disheartening to explain it to them,” she said. Even though the Isla Vista Teen Center is a far cry from the downtown site, Reyes said she doesn’t think it has to be. She has visions of a community center where people can come to take cooking classes, record music, and hold celebrations. “That would be really nice,” she said.
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