Community Service Programs

President Bush, keeping to his domestic schedule amid the first foreign policy test of his administration, gave a spirited defense Tuesday of his faith-based community service initiative. By day's end in Washington, Bush was monitoring the situation in China, where the Beijing government was holding 24 Americans captured after a U.S. surveillance plane made an emergency landing in China on Sunday. But midday found him in the H.

Isolated as a young mother in a new country, Maria Elena Romero found solace--and opportunity--at an unusual school for children and mothers alike. One part preschool, the other part support group, the 40-year-old organization aims to educate two generations at once. The Mother's Club Community Center in Pasadena has become "like a second home" to Romero, 38. "When I stayed at home, I didn't have any friends and I didn't know anybody," she said. "When I am here, I feel great."

Despite concerns from right to left, the White House is using the levers of executive power to move forward with President Bush's plan to expand the role of faith-based charities in the nation's social safety net.

Key senators on Tuesday put the brakes on President Bush's effort to channel more government money to religious charities, giving the White House time to fine-tune its proposal before the Senate acts on the more controversial parts of the package. The decision to wait several months to a year to act on the "charitable choice" component of the package, which would allow government to fund religious-oriented social services, was made with the White House's agreement.

With all the attention focused on the booming economy of the 1990s, a darker side of Los Angeles--poverty--was left out of the picture. So says Jay Levin, one of the driving forces behind "Sharing With the Other L.A.," an event designed to raise awareness about poverty and hook up potential givers and volunteers with worthy charities. The event, described as a "teach-in and opportunity fair," will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the University Synagogue, 11960 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.

From its modest beginnings three decades ago in a two-car garage in Mission Hills to its present two-story office building on Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima, Meet Each Need With Dignity, a nonprofit social service agency, has comforted the northeast San Fernando Valley's homeless and poor.

President Bush sent legislation to Congress on Tuesday that would permit religious groups to receive federal funds for social services, but he indicated willingness to compromise on that and his other proposals. Appearing at a faith-based community center here with four members of Congress, including Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), Bush all but invited critics to amend his proposal.

The parents of a Laguna Hills teen who was severely beaten at a party in December 1999 have teamed up with a local counseling service to advise families how to keep youth get-togethers from running out of control. "It's not like we're trying to wipe out every teen party," said Greg Lerum, who in the year since his son Kris was assaulted has spoken to small parent groups and PTAs.

Kirk Smith, rector of St. James' Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, runs three schools, a Friday night soup kitchen, an emergency food pantry, a Scouts program, an Alcoholics Anonymous group--in all, 40 programs to meet the community's spiritual and social needs. President Bush plans to unveil proposals this week to call on religious "armies of compassion" to assist in government social service programs aimed at battling poverty and other social ills.