21789: (Hermantin)Palm Beach Post-Agency link imperils Haitian youth program (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Agency link imperils Haitian youth program

By Gariot Louima, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2004



WEST PALM BEACH -- The students who attend the after-school program at the
Haitian Center for Family Services are used to juggling two worlds: the
Haitian culture into which they were born and the American culture they are
struggling to understand.

They're creating their own identities in the place that is home to the
largest agency serving Haitian immigrants in Palm Beach County.

Through the Youth Between Worlds program, they get help with homework
assignments their parents don't understand, practice the arts and associate
with others with similar backgrounds.

Most importantly, they said, the Haitian center is the only place they can
ignore the pressures of assimilation and of living up to their parents'
expectations.

Friday afternoon, 18-year-old Andrew Edmond summed up the feeling for his
peers.

Speaking a mix of Creole and English, he said: "Ou ka rive isit anraje" --
you can arrive here angry -- "but you will feel good by the time you leave.
You know what I'm sayin'?"

Youth Between Worlds flourished because of its location at the Haitian
Center. The youths feel comfortable in the familiar surroundings.

But the program's affiliation with the agency now puts it in jeopardy.

After months of reviewing management at the Haitian Center, the Children
Services Council board voted unanimously to revoke a $548,974 grant. The
agency suffered from chronic financial and management troubles and most of
its programs were underused.

But the Youth Between Worlds program is blossoming, acknowledged council
spokeswoman Marlene Passell.

For example, about 90 percent of its students have improved their grades.
Three students earned top scores in a national French language exam. And
last summer a group of students traveled to Haiti to help teach children to
swim.

While the Haitian Center's board has vowed to appeal the decision, Passell
said the council intends to shift money to agencies that can pick up the
after-school program and three other services that received council support.

Asked whether they'd follow Youth Between Worlds if it moves, the teenagers
said they didn't believe it would survive anywhere else.

"If they take it somewhere else, it's not going to be the same," said
Edmond, a student at Palm Beach Lakes High School. "If they take it
somewhere else, they'll take my home from me."

Partway into its fourth year at the Haitian Center at 2715 Australian Ave.,
the after-school program operates on a "shoestring" $150,000 budget, said
program director Arnold Jay Parham who has led the effort for about two
years. The budget pays salaries for three full-time staff, six tutors and
supplies. There are about 40 students in the program, ranging in age from 12
to 18.

Half of the children were born to immigrant parents, while the other half
are immigrants themselves.

They find the program mostly through word of mouth, as did Salomon Albery, a
12-year-old who attends Roosevelt Middle School.

"I used to get in trouble a lot and get whuppins," said the soft-spoken
adolescent, recounting how his parents would punish him for such
transgressions as stealing.

Friday afternoon, while Albery played computer games with a group of boys,
about a dozen others practiced a dance routine for the Haitian Culture Night
the students have planned for May 28th.

With a track from Janet Jackson's Damita Jo album playing on a boombox,
dance instructor Carl King led four of the girls through the routine they'd
been practicing for two weeks.

Most of the students in King's dance class have been in Palm Beach County
only a short time. King, who said he's traveled the world as a professional
dancer, said he notices a "drive and desire in these kids that you don't
really see in other teenagers."

During a short break, the teenagers said they feel Youth Between Worlds is
more than an after-school program.

"I'm a person that is always down, since my mom died," said Gloria Seide,
15. "Someone told me about the center so I came here. At first, I was quiet.
But now I have all my friends here. I have all these people I can talk to
and feel comfortable."

Kathy Chouloute, 17, credits the center's tutors for helping her past the
FCAT, which is required for high school graduation.

Now a student at Keiser Career College, Chouloute said, "They really
encouraged me to go higher, more than even my family."

gariot_louima@pbpost.com

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