Proyecto Pastoral
Proyecto Pastoral was established in 1986 as a faith-based organization to serve the low-income Latino community of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. Its mission is community empowerment through the development of grassroots projects in education, training, and service. Current projects include youth employment training, an alternative middle and high school, a child care facility with parenting classes for mothers, violence prevention, mentorships, homeless assistance, and community organizing.
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Youth Programs Stay on a Roll
The area served by this organization is marked by extreme poverty, unemployment, and overcrowding in housing and schools. It includes Pico/Aliso, which is the largest public housing project west of the Mississippi, and encompasses sixty active gangs with 8,000 members in a one-mile geographic area. The high school dropout rate is between 30 percent and 50 percent, and more than 20 percent of all girls become pregnant in their high school years.
A recent $45,000 Weingart Foundation grant allowed the agency to purchase a van to be used by five of its youth programs, run under the leadership of Father Greg Boyle, who is well known in the community for his work with young gang members. The new vehicle replaces an existing one which had worn out. Youth programs that will utilize the van include the alternative school, attended by at-risk youth who have not succeeded in regular public school classes, a violence prevention program which offers conflict resolution training to youth living in four housing projects, and a pregnancy prevention program which promotes education and life goals.