Cara M.
Google
if not for apch and the wonderful mentors I had there, I can't imagine where I'd be now. nearly 30 years gone by and I still think fondly on this place.
it used to be a strange mix of celebrities looking to "do something good" and people who grew up in South Central and wanted to give back to their community. Some of the celebrities who came through or taught there were cool and as a kid it mattered a lot to see that people gave a damn about us. A lot of the time in the 90s, LA didn't feel that way. sometimes we had celebs who clearly were there outta some sort of obligation. usually to a friend or family member volunteering. One group I was in called "gangbusters" mostly functioned as "something to do". Our mentor was dope. she encouraged us, she went to the same elementary school I did and was from the area. she got us on good field trips and always had a new activities (arts &crafts, riddles, puzzles, etc) for us to do. sometimes our group outings were to the founder's (Deborah) house in West LA, which did always feel more like this lady giving a weird flex than actually being about us, but her pool was nice even if she was a little pretentious and showed me favoritism because I spoke "standard" English and rarely used aave, versus some of the other little girls. But we weren't there for her, so it really didn't matter to us.
