Latinos helped through service program

Latino Family Services
BY ERIN CHAN DING, FREE PRESS, May 7, 2009

If Roberto Garcia felt disrespected, he would spew angry words.

If he got cussed out, he would cuss back.

"I used to just do," he said. "I would never think about anything beforehand."

Not anymore.

Last summer, Roberto went through a program at Latino Family Services Summer Day Camp that addressed anger management and self-control.

"Now, I think," said Roberto, 13, who's known as Berto. "I like people's opinions, but it's not what matters. Loving yourself is the most important thing."

The anger management program is one of several offered to 125 kids, from kindergarten through high school, who attend Latino Family Services Summer Day Camp in southwest Detroit. In addition to character building and alcohol- and drug-prevention programs, kids also immerse themselves in the fun stuff, like painting and computer animation and trips to a wave pool.

"It's better being here than at home," said Breeana Rodriguez, 10, licking an ice cream bar at Latino Family Services, where she and her stepbrother, Berto, hang out after school and during spring break.

Berto, a seventh-grader at Earhart Middle School in Detroit, adds: "It would be boring in the summer" without the day camp

Campers get breakfast, lunch and field trips in the program, which runs weekdays from June 22 to Aug. 14.

This summer, Breeana, a fifth-grader at the Academy of the Americas in Detroit, would like to learn tennis while Berto wants to get involved in the baseball program, preferably as a pitcher or first baseman.

Youth specialist Martha Reyes, who has worked with the kids for two years, says Berto "has grown from challenging what everyone said to filtering" it, while Breeana has gone from being "so shy to liking herself for who she is."

Adds Alicia Villarreal, president and chief executive officer of Latino Family Services: "You can see the positive impact in their smiles."

For more information, call 313-841-7380.