Grant will likely be used to help task force secure additional
funds to create new center
Gilroy – A $100,000 grant secured by U.S. Congressman Mike Honda for the Gilroy Gang Task Force will likely be used to help build a new youth center. City officials are not certain exactly when funding will come through, however, the money is slated to be used for the 2006-07 fiscal year.
The Gilroy Community Youth Center is run by the Mexican American Community Services Agency and designed to give at-risk kids a chance to change their lives for the better.
“The purpose is to give them a little more knowledge, to give them a safe place, an open place, a welcoming place,” explained program manager Juanita Calderon. “Some of them are homeless, some have no food on the table, some of the kids have very dysfunctional homes.”
The nonprofit provides afterschool services for about 500 kids ages 6 to 17 years old each year, and is housed in the former PG&E building on Sixth Street. The site was purchased for $200,000 that former Gilroy Mayor Don Gage raised through donations for the gang task force after the city’s first drive-by shooting.
“It’s something that was needed for the east side and those kids in gangs,” Gage said. “There’s a lot of kids that come there everyday. These kids have a positive alternative and MACSA is right there, so if they have an issue they can take care of it on the spot.”
City and MACSA staff members provide homework assistance, pregnancy prevention education, as well as personal enhancement programs for children at the center. The youth center is a safe haven for kids to come after school.
According to Gage, many of the kids are afraid to go home because a parent is abusive or simply can’t go home because no one is going to be there.
“Some of them would be crying when it was time to close up at night,” he said.
Calderon has worked at the youth center since it opened 12 years ago and has witnessed funding gradually drop off for the institution.
“We need a little bit of everything,” she said.
In the past, the center was able to hold more enrichment activities such as three-on-three basketball tournaments and take more field trips to keep kids off the streets at night. Calderon wants to see more money come in for funding weekend activities.
“Friday nights they have nowhere to go,” she said. “They have no money to buy a movie ticket.”
However, the grant will likely be used to try to procure additional grants to build a new youth center.
“The youth center needs to be replaced,” said Police Chief Gregg Giusiana, who Congressman Honda initially contacted about applying for the funds. “We need something that’s a little more conducive to being a youth center. It’s an old PG&E building and it certainly has some remnants of that.”
Asphalt surrounds the building. There is no main entrance. Where children play is not obvious to the untrained eye.
Last year city officials estimated it would cost about $2 million to design a youth center to accommodate their needs, Giusiana said.
“In the future there’s going to be a huge housing development at the Cannery. That’s right down the street. So we’re anticipating that there’s going to be an increase in youth there,” he said.
While $100,000 will not build a new facility, it will help the task force search for other avenues to obtain the rest of the money needed to update the site.
“The youth center has helped reduce gang activity in the neighborhood by, among other services, providing a safe haven for kids so they will not become involved in gang activity,” Honda said in a release. “I’m happy to deliver this federal funding to improve the Gilroy Gang Task Force Youth Center and begin the fundraising work necessary to make the Youth Center a reality.”
