BUENA PARK : Counselor Helps Youths Avoid Gangs

Ed Hernandez is a 24-year-old man with an old problem: battling the city’s gangs.

Six months ago, Hernandez was hired as the city’s first neighborhood coordinator, a new job aimed at steering youths away from gangs.

“Kids have so much potential,” said Hernandez, a recent graduate of Cal State Fullerton. Learning how to guide that potential into positive behavior is his job.

Beginning in September, Hernandez plans to implement a “gang curriculum” in the city’s fifth-grade classes. The program will attempt to build self-esteem and help children cope with problems. It also will attempt to include parents.

“We need to equip parents to handle this,” he said.

Hernandez also is designing “anti-gang behavior” posters and buttons.

But one of his biggest problems, Hernandez said, is funding.

“We have to work with the minimum, but I do the best with what I have.”

Last year the $50,000 needed to start the program was shared equally by the city and the four school districts that serve Buena Park. The agreement was only for one year and expires in November. So Hernandez spends much of his time looking for and applying for funding. Next month he will hear whether the $26,000 that the County Board of Supervisors approved for the program makes it over the final hurdle and into his budget. But even if that is approved he is still $18,000 short of his goal of $41,000

Although Hernandez admits that his efforts are just “tapping the surface” of the gang problem, he says it is a move in the right direction.