Program Offers Activities to Poor Women

A nonprofit organization that serves low-income families in the northeast San Fernando Valley launched a new program over the weekend that will provide social and educational activities for poor women and their children.

The program, sponsored by MEND, or Meet Each Need with Dignity, a social service agency in Pacoima, is designed to bring relief to low-income, uneducated mothers who cannot afford to take their children to a movie, a museum or the bowling alley, officials said.

“For these women, their focus is primarily on the day-to-day struggle for survival,� said Warren Love, program director. “There is not a lot of socialization. Hopefully, we can do something about that.�

The program, Mothers Offering Mothers Support, or MOMS Club, will include recreation and cultural outings, as well as classes on car-seat safety, childhood immunization and gang prevention, Love said. It will be funded through the agency’s $722,000 annual operating budget and in-kind contributions, said Marianne Haver Hill, MEND’s executive director.

For Saturday’s kickoff, organizers turned MEND’s parking lot into a carnival with storytellers, face-painters and booths touting agency programs.

“We thought we would start out with a kickoff carnival and then have a Halloween party, so that people could learn what we are about,� Love said, adding that he hopes a core group will develop and elect officers, hold meetings and plan activities.

MOMS Club is Love’s second attempt at creating a women’s group. An earlier effort fell through because the emphasis was solely on parenting skills.

“We thought it would be easy to develop a parenting program,� he said. “But to my surprise we got looked upon like, ‘You got to be crazy. I don’t need someone to help me train my kids.’ They thought it was an intrusion into their personal lives.�

This time, Love said he hopes participants will be won over by social and educational activities, but would consider incorporating parenting skills into the classes from time to time.

Lynda Gomez, 55, a volunteer English-as-a-second-language teacher at MEND, said she agreed to help launch the program to ease the burden on poor women.

“The women of this community work all day taking care of their children and there is not a lot of attention paid to them for all the work that they do,� said Gomez, a human resources administrator from Van Nuys.

Gomez’s sister, Gigi Gomez, an English-language teacher at MEND, said she hopes the club will become a place where women can renew their spirits.

“It doesn’t matter whether you live on the Westside or in a low-income community, all women face the same kinds of problems, doubts and concerns,� she said.

For information, call (818) 896-0246, ext. 312.