Martin Bautista credits the family-focused structure of Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA) Charter School in Los Angeles with turning his life around and saving his family. Martin’s father was an alcoholic who rarely came home, and his mother struggled to put food on the table. As a teenager Martin got involved in gangs and drugs, was thrown out of two high schools and finally arrested. “I was considered to be a threat, and I wasn’t allowed to attend any school in the district.”
At the urging of his probation officer, Martin’s mother enrolled him at SEA Charter School which was created in 1972 by mothers from East Los Angeles whose sons had been killed by gang violence. The school provides a “last chance” opportunity for students who, because of behavioral or other issues, have exhausted all their public school options. While Martin reluctantly went to class, his mother also attended SEA’s 20-week parenting program and counselors and other support staff reached out to help his father overcome alcoholism. More than ten years later, Martin is still at the school, but now he is there as the school’s Director of Community Support Services.
The school’s success is built on the premise that to be successful in helping at-risk youth, the whole family must be involved. “It’s the whole structure around the child that is important, ” Martin explained. “We can work with a teenager all day at school to form new learning habits and attitudes, but if they go home to the same environment that is not improving alongside them, the odds of our students changing is minimal. But, if the whole family changes, our students stand a much greater chance of success.”
Currently there are 18 SEA education centers throughout Los Angeles County serving over 3000 youth and their families each year.
Click here to learn more about SEA Charter School.