Almost every Saturday, a woman at the South Seas House in Jefferson Park is running frantically up and down the stairs, inside and outside the house, and to and from the park next door.
This woman is Walidah Williams, and she’s been the director of the South Seas House for two years now.
“It’s my job to reflect the progress the community wants to see,” she said. “Every so often, I release a survey to the neighborhood and find out what they want here. Then, we implement.”
Since 2003 the house right off of Arlington Ave. on 24th St. has been a resource for the Jefferson Park and West Adams community. It's served as a haven for programs ranging from computer lessons (typically for senior citizens) to after-school homework sessions for elementary school children. For a decade, and for a small fee, residents thrived on those programs. But since Williams has gotten involved, their outreach has only been expanding.
“In the past two years we’ve focused a lot on children since that’s what the community seemed to need. We’ve started year-round sports programs as well as art classes, cooking classes, and even yoga as well. Sometimes all of these will be happening at the same time,” she said.
Today the South Seas is seen, as Williams puts it, as “a safe space for children.” But this wasn’t always the case. From the mid-1970s until 1999, the site was actually a drug den.
Abandoned by the City of Los Angeles, which bought the property for a street widening project that never happened, the house became dilapidated. It was continuously lived in by homeless people and looted by others for decades, until residents finally said no more.
In 1999, the campaign to convert the South Seas House into a community center had begun, and the City soon followed suit.
“I was totally scared of this house as a kid,” staff member Kalli Robinson said. “No one would ever go inside, and the people who were already inside would never leave.”
Robinson is one of the many staff members the work at South Seas. He coaches soccer for kids ages 7-12, and also teaches a comic book art class on the weekends. He’s been working as a teacher, coach, and after-school counselor there for 10 years, but has been a sketch artist for even longer than that.
“This place has been a huge portion of my life,” the 27-year-old Jefferson Park resident said. “I started here as a trainee, and now I’m able to do what I love: teach about my passion. I can’t ask for anything more.”
The classes taught at South Seas range anywhere from one child to 60, but regardless of the attendance, some parents prefer them to the free after-school programs at the nearby public schools.
Lorena Banuelos, 29, has a daughter enrolled with South Seas classes. She picks her up every Saturday after her comic book art class with Robinson.
“My daughter’s basically gotten used to the staff here. They’re a fantastic group of people that really care about our community’s children,” she said.
The competition from public schools hasn’t been easy for South Seas over the past few years. The free services that public schools provide are not possible for their situation, but staff member Jason Ardoin, 25, feels there’s a distinct difference between the two, and that ultimately South Seas is a stronger program.
“After school programs are strictly tutoring, here we like to say we assist. We know who the teachers are, who the parents are, and when the students’ tests are coming up,” he said.
Often times, South Seas teachers will meet the children at their schools and give them rides back to the house. But soon, the house will be undergoing some changes again.
The City announced another renovation to further improve the house. It’s expected to start later next year, but for now the house continues to bring in new faces every day.