Inner city students in Los Angeles will receive a pack of free back-to-school starters, including supply-filled backpacks, haircuts and dental screenings, as part of the Dream Center's "Back to School Bash" Aug. 13.
"Now more than ever the need seems so big," said Matthew Barnett, founder of the Dream Center. "It's stunning, every year people are waiting in longer and longer lines to get (these backpacks)."
This year marks the ninth annual event held at 2301 Bellevue Ave., when 2,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies, including clothes, will be given to needy families.
While pens, notebooks and dental exams are important, they aren't the most exciting gifts to receive so Barnett said the center will create a veritable carnival with bounce houses and Ferris wheels.
Although they attend free public schools, the students that attend the event cannot afford the extra materials, said a spokeswoman for the event.
Underprivileged students do not have access to the same opportunities as those who come from wealthier families, she added.
The Dream Center, 24-hour shelter for homeless families and recovering addicts as well as a community center, holds the yearly events to help keep students in school and away from crime, drugs.
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Students aided by the center attend school in a county whose dropout rate for seventh through 12th graders is 24.3 percent, according to data provided by the California Department of Education.
The event, like the Dream Center itself, is supported by private donors, Barnett said. Its initiatives and brick and mortar facilities, of which there are 180 in the U.S., garner financial support from around the country.
Barnett founded the Los Angeles center in 1984 with the intent to provide help for residents in low-income communities. The original site in the Rampart area employs 100 paid staff, 40 percent of whom were in the center's rehabilitation program.
In addition to their back to school event, the center gives away turkeys at Thanksgiving and thousands of bicycles and presents at Christmas.
Today "bad news is everywhere," Barnett said. "We're trying to be productive in hard times."
