ENHANCED LEARNING\Valley center offers array of free programs.

Byline: Virginia Gonzalez Daily News Staff Writer

Tipping his seat closer to the computer screen as if it might help him find the answer faster, Rene Gutierrez giggled as he and a friend competed to correctly answer a math question.

Nearby, a dozen youngsters concentrated on their own learning projects: two boys carefully cut out Indian artwork; one worked on a book report on ancient Rome; several others did workbook writing drills.

It could have been any school classroom in America, but it wasn't. The after-school scene took place at the Valley Family Center, a nonprofit community support facility in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

The center, formerly known as the North Valley Family Counseling Center, offers an array of low- or no-cost support programs to families in the area.

The bilingual services range from parent and youth education and recreation programs to counseling for such problems as family violence, exposure to HIV, gang prevention and societal re-entry for youths just out of Juvenile Hall.

Local residents say the center provides a critical support system for the community.

"Centers like this are important because kids nowadays need a positive self-image in order to feel good about themselves," said Terri Gutierrez, whose 7-year-old son, Rene, participates in the learning programs.

"If it weren't for (the center,) he would probably be behind in schoolwork - feeling rejected because he's not at his classmates' reading level."

Gutierrez, a single parent with limited funds, said Rene would have gone without the necessary reading tutoring if it weren't for the center's free program.

The center is funded through several sources, said Sister Carmel Somers, the administrator of the organization's Learning Center.

Client counseling fees make up 49 percent of the center's income and a yearly United Way grant pays for 13 percent of the center's expenses.

The remainder comes from an annual fund-raising dinner, additional foundation grants and donations, Somers said.

This year's dinner is scheduled for Friday at the Odyssey restaurant in Granada Hills. Reservations for the $100-per-person fund-raiser can be made by calling the center at [phone].

The center was founded in 1982, and grew out of discussions between the Rev. Thomas Rush, pastor of Santa Rosa Catholic Church in San Fernando, and Pastor Gerald Richardson of Foothill Baptist Church in Sylmar.

Both said they saw a need for affordable counseling and support services for low-income families in the community.

Fourteen years later, the center has purchased and moved into a 10,000-square-foot building in San Fernando and serves about 250 people a week.

"People come in to talk mostly about personal issues, relationships in one way or another, issues that eventually point to communication problems," said Somers.

They are offered therapy and counseling sessions that is often their first exposure to such assistance, said Maggie Uribe, a therapist who has worked at the center for two years.

"Our success comes with breaking the barrier . . . breaking the myth that only 'crazy people get therapy,' " Uribe said.

In addition, the Learning Center provides classes and programs for children that support what they're learning in school.

Gutierrez, for example, said she brought Rene to the center at the suggestion of a teacher who said he was having trouble keeping up with classmates in reading and spelling.

He has received tutoring and support - and Gutierrez says he can't wait to get there after school.

"If he doesn't listen in school and I hear about it, his punishment is not to come to the center," she said with a smile. "Since that's a big thing for him, he listens."

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PHOTO

(1) Jorge Reynaud, 8, assembles an Indian village at the nonprofit Valley Family Center in San Fernando. (2) Sister Carmel Somers tutors 6-year-old Luis ReynaTud at the center. David Crane/Daily News