CULVER CITY : Officials Launch Project to Help Teens

Seeking to improve conditions in one of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods, a federally funded youth services program has been launched to counsel teen-agers in the Kinston Avenue area about city services that are available to them.

The program is one component of Kinston Avenue Pride Strategy, a broader program involving city departments. Its purpose is to help youngsters who live in and around a stretch of 50 buildings between Overland Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard plagued by gang activity and drug dealing.

The youth services project is being led by director Alfredo Rodriguez, 22, a part-time city employee. Rodriguez has been going door to door, handing out flyers detailing city services such as job counseling.

Rodriguez’s position is being funded through a $34,000 federal community block grant that the city received in September. When the grant runs out in September, 1995, the city plans to turn the youth services program over to other city employees to run.

The Culver City council last year approved the Kinston Avenue Pride Strategy program, which also includes housing rehabilitation, rental assistance and the construction of a cul-de-sac to halt drive-through traffic in the neighborhood.