Adding Luster to Youth Haven

It began, simply enough, with a wet basketball.

At the Girls and Boys Town Emergency Shelter in Long Beach, the basketball court ended where the lawn began -- right beneath the hoop.

"A lot of times, the ball falls in the grass and it gets muddy," said 17-year-old Emmitt, a shelter resident. When Men's Divisions International, a volunteer community support group, heard about this, they took on the project to extend the basketball court. After visiting the two-story house, constructed in 1993, they knew they could do more. They solicited donations from supermarkets, hardware stores and nurseries for their project.

Earlier this month, 40 members spent a Saturday working with the shelter's teenage residents painting rooms, landscaping, planting and beautifying the shelter, at Wardlow Road and Pacific Place.

Each year, more than 1,600 teenagers are referred to the organization's two shelters -- the girls' shelter is on West Adams Boulevard near USC. But, due to space limitations, 1,000 children are turned away every year, said spokeswoman Jeannie Whited. A third shelter will begin construction in East Rancho Dominguez, near Compton, in spring 2005.

Because there are only 16 beds, residents can stay for only 30 days. Many of the teenage boys living at the Long Beach shelter have been abused, neglected or had behavioral problems before arriving. During their stay, they work with counselors who help them develop social skills many others might find rudimentary, Whited said.

The first lesson in the shelter handbook, for example, deals with following instructions, broken into four steps: Look at the person. Say "OK." Do what you've been asked right away. Check back.

"Many of them come from family situations where they didn't acquire basic skills as youngsters," Whited said. "These kids take the skills and generalize them when they leave.... At some point it becomes second nature."

Applying these skills -- such as saying "It was nice to meet you" -- can earn them points toward rewards, such as sweatbands, designer sneakers and Laker caps.

"That's all I really want," Emmitt said, pointing to the CD player in the accomplishment case.

But it's not just material motivation that drives the residents.

"Initially it's about having extra privileges," Whited said. "But then they take pride in how far they've come. They see how they can start to help other kids who come in the program."