Here is a little history on Save Our Youth
It seems like yesterday when a small group of parents met to discuss their concerns about rising violence among Costa Mesa’s youth. It was 1992 and the city had just experienced its first drive-by shooting. The parents didn’t want their teens to be drawn into gangs or street life. They met with City Manager Allan Roeder and other city staff to express their concerns. With City Councilman Joe Erickson leading the way, the City agreed there needed to be an alternative to the lure of street life, so they provided space at Rea Center, but it was up to the parents to provide and sustain the program. And so Save Our Youth was born. Share Our Selves acted as an umbrella agency until SOY became incorporated in 1993 and had its own federal tax number.
The parents and some community supporters got to work accumulating donated furniture, computers, pool tables, weights and exercise machines, even mirrors and padded gym flooring as well as a boxing ring to attract the kids. Many teenage boys flocked to the new center and when a Girls’ Program was started teen girls also came. The greatest early lift was an amazing donor who contributed money for over 16years to establish an innovative scholarship program which paid students for good grades and awarded them a grant upon graduating equal to the amount of money they earned during their years at SOY. Almost $2,000,000 were allocated to hundreds of SOY graduates who went on to colleges all over California. They draw the money down as they need it for college expenses.
From that humble beginning, SOY is now a full service organization, as these pages illustrate. Its numerous programs serve almost 400 teens. Because of financial cutbacks, SOY is operating with only two dedicated staff and has had to eliminate much of the scholarship program, but a core of dedicated volunteers and growing numbers of donors are helping to keep the Center open to fulfill its mission of serving Costa Mesa’s youth at risk. SOY is extremely grateful for the community support it has received these past 20 years.