Woman teaches inner city kids

A product of the inner city, current Calabasas resident Gwen Foladare-Weisman, who at age 69 created an after-school program to teach youth about the environment, said she wants to give back to the place where she came from.

Foladare-Weisman, now 74, said she’s very aware of the challenges inner city children have in education.

“I was raised in South Central L.A.,” Foladare-Weisman said. “I got my teaching credential and taught in L.A. Unified.” Foladare-Weisman fought the challenges and hard times of living in the inner city and made the most of her life.

While a teacher, Kirk O’ the Valley Church approached Foladare-Weisman and asked if she’d start a school. She founded Kirk O’ the Valley Preschool and was director for 35 years.

“My career was so good to me both in terms of relationships with people and with helping kids . . . that I thought, now’s the time to give back,” FoladareWeisman said.

Interested in the environment, Foladare-Weisman planned to use that as an educational tool to help inner city youth.

“I met with the person (at L.A. Unified) who was head of after-school programming and I brought an outline of teaching to what’s called Title 1—these are underserved kids—a little bit about the environment,” said Foladare-Weisman.

When the program proved successful, the school district allowed Foladare-Weisman to work with more schools.

“We are working with kids who truly fall through the cracks,” Foladare-Weisman said. “These kids are just being pushed right through the system and they don’t have any idea who they are and they don’t know their own potential. They feel if their mother or dad—or whoever takes care of them—has very mediocre work, then that’s where they’re going.”

Foladare-Weisman encourages her students to be outspoken. She has them write letters to elected officials regarding environmental issues.

“This isn’t just environmental education; it’s helping to empower them to let them know that they can (make a difference),” FoladareWeisman said. “These kids are really starving for people to care about them. That’s what we do.”

Foladare-Weisman sends instructors into inner city schools who work with the students for about two-and-a-half hours each day for a week. The instructors then move on to a different school. Foladare-Weisman and her instructors reach over 100 students a week and work with more than 70 schools.

“The focus for me was to help these kids know their self esteem and know that they have a responsibility,” Foladare-Weisman said. “I want these kids to feel part of what’s going on (with the environment) . . . I want them to be aware of what they can accomplish.”

Foladare-Weisman currently works with elementary school children, but says she might expand her work with middle school students in the future.

“I feel the greater need is to get with these kids when they’re young because by the time they hit the third grade, they’re either going to make it or forget it,” Foladare-Weisman said. “That’s kind of scary.”

Foladare-Weisman feels her work will only grow, as it has in the past few years. Her afterschool work with youth has proven to be effective, she said.