Beyond the Streets was created in 2002 to help some of St. Francis Medical Center’s young trauma patients, many who were being treated for gang-related gunshot and stab wounds. The hospital’s association with the Daughters of Charity Foundation established a steady funding source for the program.11 with troubled pasts get diplomas
By Kristopher Hanson
Staff writer
LYNWOOD —
They all had a story.
One man barely survived being shot in the head in a gangland attack.
Another dropped out of her senior year in high sc
hool after becoming pregnant.
Then there was the young lady whose drug habit became so severe she quit school at age 13.
On Wednesday, 11 young men and women with troubled pasts began a new chapter in their lives when they received their high school diplomas during a graduation ceremony at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood.
Photo gallery: Graduation ceremony
The group were graduates of Beyond the Streets, a Downey-based nonprofit program that offers at-risk youth and young adults educational and job training, tattoo removal and intensive social skills and spiritual classes.
“This program is about giving them as many chances as it takes to get them to be productive, healthy, spiritual individuals with a real understanding of their purpose in life,” said Brother Richard Hirbe, a Catholic priest who provides counseling at Beyond the Streets. “We want to open their eyes to all that God wants for them.”
One graduate, Rebekah Arce, 23, learned of the program a few years after dropping out of high school to give birth to her daughter. Arce enrolled to gain her GED, which she needed to continue her education.
She said the program changed her life.
“It opened my eyes a lot,” Arce said. “Nobody was there to judge me. If it wasn’t for Beyond the Streets, I don’t know where I would be today. I don’t know if I would have made it. They opened up a whole other door for me.”
Beyond the Streets was created in 2002 to help some of St. Francis Medical Center’s young trauma patients, many who were being treated for gang-related gunshot and stab wounds. The hospital’s association with the Daughters of Charity Foundation established a steady funding source for the program.
Beyond the Streets is open to young people affected by violence ages 17 to 25 years.
Francisco, who asked that his last name not be used, was another individual at Wednesday night’s graduation who credited Beyond the Streets for turning his life around. Francisco was shot in the head in a car-to-car attack last July and was partially paralyzed on the left side.
“When I woke up after two weeks from my coma, Brother Richard was there everyday for me to pray, talk and listen,” Francisco recalled. “He was one of the only ones who really cared. I decided then that I needed to make a change. Not only for myself, but for my two young daughters. He opened my eyes to another world.”
Tags: Anti-poverty strategies
