Community Service Programs Los Angeles

Los Angeles arts officials will ask Chatsworth and Granada Hills residents Tuesday to suggest ways to spend public arts funds in their neighborhoods. The workshop is one of several to help draft plans for spending revenues generated by a new public art fee charged to developers. For two years, developers of major, non-residential building projects have been asked to reserve up to 1 percent of their project costs for public art.

It sounds odd--a school that aims to get students out of the classroom and onto the streets. But at the Community-Based Instruction Program at Leichman High School in Reseda, that's precisely the goal. As part of the special education program, which teaches developmentally disabled teen-agers to function in the community, about 25 students decorated the yard outside Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick's office Thursday for Halloween, kicking off what will be a monthly ritual.

When Phillip Roach saw a woman apparently teaching a teen-age girl how to scrawl graffiti on a pile of boulders at Chatsworth Park, he summoned authorities. Police arrived a short time later and apprehended the suspects, one of whom tried to take down the license number of Roach's car. "My brother blocked her view and said, 'Fat chance, lady,' " recalled Roach, 45, of West Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

Every Monday, a special duo takes over the information desk at Valley Presbyterian Hospital. They know the hospital inside and out. You want to know where the cafeteria is? Just ask. When the hospital was built? Ask. The pair's wedding anniversary? You got it. Mary Oberle started volunteering at the hospital in 1960, when it first opened with only one building. Her husband of 52 years, Gene, joined her there a year ago.

A group of local business owners have agreed to set aside a percentage of their advertising dollars to form a nonprofit organization to help other nonprofit groups in the area with training, fund-raising, organizing and raising awareness in the community. The Community Care Corp. held a free event with games and entertainment at Mariachi Plaza in which several nonprofit organizations set up booths to meet with residents.

The Watts Foundation Community Trust Organization has named former Los Angeles Lakers star James Worthy to its board of directors. Worthy, who retired after 12 National Basketball Assn. seasons, has helped the less fortunate since he was a North Carolina undergraduate. "I grew up in the inner city and I always vowed to reach back to repay the early positive influences I had in my life," Worthy said. Founded in 1989, the organization raises funds for 26 community health programs.

To help senior citizens protect themselves from crime, a workshop giving tips for preventing attacks, burglary and other threats will be held June 22. The workshop, sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Aging, will focus on ways to guard against assaults, unlawful entry, elder abuse and fire. Information will also be available on how to respond to an emergency, how victims are emotionally affected by crime and how counseling may help.

The children were ecstatic as they ran down the stairs Monday to enter the new Eastside Family Literacy Center for the first time. Two of them kissed the walls and shouted, "Our school, our school!" No longer will the Strengthening Family Ties program for children and their parents be conducted in two spare classrooms at the Garfield Community Adult School. And gone are the days when the family center teachers have to go out of their way to take a child to the bathroom.

It looks like a circus in Lanark Park. The colored tents and crowds may be the only free, private, nonprofit medical examination program for children in the city of Los Angeles. This traveling clinic, called "Kids on the Move," is the brainchild of South-Central resident Lynda Greene. Greene recruits physicians to spend their days off not only giving immunizations, but blood tests and urinalysis to poor children and youths, from newborn to 20 years.

Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilwoman Laura Chick joined staff members and supporters Thursday to celebrate the grand opening of a $1.8-million center that will house a unique day-care program in which seniors and young children will work and play together.