PACT is Refining, Improving, Expanding
PACT, over its 14 years, has not only proven a way for at risk 9-15 year olds to learn the disciplines and rewards of the work ethic. From its beginning in 1994, PACT’s Work Ethics Education Program (WE) has been funded almost totally through the non-school hours operation of the program itself.
Having demonstrated viability through its “bootstrap” years, PACT now has plans to refine, improve and duplicate itself to ensure that many more youngsters can benefit from its Work Ethics program. In addition, PACT plans include further implementation of its new non-school hours dropout prevention Lifetime Empowerment Program (LEEP)). The expansion of PACT
is already beginning with the receipt of a $500,000 grant from U.S. Trust.
What This Means
In addition, PACT for the first time is actively seeking outside financial support form those individuals, estates, foundations, corporations, churches and government agencies with a priority stake in putting at risk youngsters, at the early ages of 9-15, on the right track and diverting them from street life and gangs, and equipping them to complete high school.
President George Bush Senior, at the 1997 inauguration of America's Promise—the Alliance for Youth, stated there were 15 million youth “out of America’s mainstream”. Carnegie Corporation of New York with its 10-year, $10 million investigation (completed in 1992), proved once and for all the need for innovative, new, non-school hours programs for children in their vulnerable pre-adolescent years.
Additional expenditures will be required to underwrite PACT’s role in fostering state and federal legislation—a new Child Labor Exemption—to clarify the opportunity for idle, at risk 9-15 year olds to learn the work ethic through adult mentored, non-profit managed, parent/guardian approved after-school education internship, for which they are compensated at the minimum wage.
Current Child Labor restrictions, stemming from the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, appear to preclude this opportunity. There are only two blanket exemptions that apply to child labour under 16: the entertainment industry, and family based businesses (each with their own safety restrictions). Exemption in no way impedes the basic protection of young children from hazardous or exploitive work, as defined in the 1938 law.
The new Lifetime Empowerment Program (LEEP), while sharing space, transportation and other facilities with the Work Ethics Education Program (WE) in its initial stages, will be TOTALLY dependent on outside financing.
The Shopping List for WE and LEEP
Travel/Communication— Sacramento, Washington DC, New York
for Child Labor Exemption and financing.
9-Passenger Van— new or used, plus insurance, operating costs
and driver -Accomplished April 2008!
Monthly Outings— museums, amusement parks, recreation, tours; $500-600 each.
Expanded Location— 750 sq. feet -Accomplished April 2008!
Your Support as a Volunteer is Welcomed
Volunteers work when where and how they want to— at what they want to work for. We understand that. If it’s worth giving your time and your passion to help others—especially children—you must be needed and appreciated; and it all has to fit into your personal schedule and be something you want to do.
We just hope now that you’ve found us we’ll meet. We need you!
If you like kids and agree their very childhood is under siege these days,
we welcome you either to come take part with them in PACT’s one-on-one child-enriching opportunities or to bring your computer and office skills to the behind the scenes mechanisms that make it all go—helping acculturate at risk kids.
PACT has all sorts of roles for volunteers - of all ages - to sustain, enhance and expand our program.
The What, When, Where, How and Why of Volunteering
through PACT
What - tutor, drive, play, file, correspond, answer phones, research, community-school-parental liaison, scheduling, counseling
and fund raising.
When - Your schedule: sporadic or fixed hours, mornings, afternoons evenings, weekends, on call; whenever.
Where - The PACT Center, 12421 Venice Blvd, Suite 7, just West of the intersection with Centinela next to the hand carwash. At museums, beaches, hikes, aquariums, crafts, Raging Waters, Magic Mountain, sailing, fishing, paintball, Lakers etc.
How - Call (310) 313-4119 and/or come visit us. Our current office
hours are Monday through Friday 12:00-4:00 pm. (Maybe you’d like to be a "paid volunteer"? See the Work Ethics Program page and the other pages of this website.)
Why - Of course you have your own reasons for why you might volunteer to help kids through PACT, but here’s ours:
PACT’s "why" is to help pilot at risk 9-15 year olds through the most vulnerable period of their young lives: At risk boys and girls, primarily Latino, some African and Asian or White, typically from large families, often missing
a father, living in crowded housing in enclaves where corrosive peers lurk, tempt and threaten. The threat of violence is accepted matter-of-factly as
part of everyday life. We take them away from all that to their work in
safe neighborhoods.
PACT’s Program: work, learning, fun and play to empower
at risk youth.