Young Moms Receive Job Training
This was Erika Lopez’s reality at age 15:
She was a single mom, getting little help from her baby’s father. She lived with her mother in Montebello. She had no skills with which to get a good job and support her child.
Then she was referred to Project Amiga, a nonprofit organization that, among other things, teaches computer skills to teen mothers at its Boyle Heights and South El Monte centers.
After teaching her computer skills, the organization helped Lopez get a job as a Spanish translator at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.
Now 18, she credits Project Amiga for launching her into a brighter future.
“Before I came to Project Amiga, I knew that, just with a high school diploma, I still didn’t have any job experience that would get me a good job,” she said. Now “it feels really good to be able to pay for things on your own -- not depending on men to support you.”
Project Amiga received a $5,000 donation from last year’s Times Holiday Campaign.
During this season’s fund-raising effort, The Times is featuring the kinds of agencies and programs that benefit from its grants.
Project Amiga served about 1,000 people last year, said Executive Director Irene Portillo. The group is branching out to also serve boys, she said. Its programs include, besides the computer lessons, sessions on such subjects as health and parental skills.
Another Project Amiga success story is Juanita Segura, 19, whose experience in the program led to a job in the office of Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn as a constituent service representative.
After becoming a teen mom and before encountering Project Amiga, she said, “I was in denial, thinking there was no way out.”
Brenda Ramos, 17, said the program “made me feel good because, for the first time, there was something that I completed.” She’s a mother too, and also will be working at Queen of Angels hospital.
“I learned a lot in those classes,” she said. “I know I’m going to get somewhere in life later on.”
Agencies helped by the Times Holiday Campaign provide a range of services to disadvantaged children and youths, including food, clothing and shelter, childhood literacy programs, services for developmentally delayed and disabled children and programs to prevent drug abuse, violence and teen pregnancy.
Fifty-six Southern California charities received grants from funds raised during last year’s holiday appeal.
The Holiday Campaign was established in 2000, and is a part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation.
The foundation matches the first $700,000 raised at 50 cents on the dollar, and the foundation and Los Angeles Times absorb all administrative costs.
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HOW TO GIVE
Checks or money orders supporting the Times Holiday Campaign should be sent to L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File 56986, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6986.
Please do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made on the Web site www.latimes.com/holiday campaign.
All donations are tax-deductible. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in The Times, unless a donor requests otherwise. Acknowledgment cannot be guaranteed for donations received after Dec. 18. For more information, call (800) LATIMES, Ext. 75771.
