State Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, took time Wednesday to visit the Parent Awareness Workshop and Support (PAWS) Center to learn how Golden Valley High School is supporting students and families in need.

Photo by Michael Brown/KHTS News.

Wilk, along with several officials with the William S. Hart Union High School District, visited the PAWS Center at Golden Valley High in order to find out what the center was doing and how they could help.

“These types of programs are important,” Wilk said. “If we don’t work together, we’re going to leave a generation behind, because they don’t have the proper mentoring or the proper encouragement and support.”

The PAWS Center is a family resource center within Golden Valley High that helps provide students and their families with supplies and resources that they may not normally have access to.

“This is really encouraging that this is happening,” Wilk said. “One of the biggest challenges for young people is transportation, so even though there are other nonprofits out there that do this kind of work, they’re not here. So being able to just come on campus, where you have to be anyway by state law, is great and I’m sure it’s very helpful for the students.”

Wilk was given a tour of the facilities by two of the lead workers for the program, Resource Coordinator April Rego and Social Worker Cindy Takamoto.

“It is a privilege to have someone in government come and take notice,” Takamoto said. “He’s going to remember the things that Golden Valley is doing and that this district is doing to help support the whole child.”

Photo by Michael Brown/KHTS News.

The center is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it sees anywhere between 75 to 100 students and their families come in every day that they are open, according to officials.

“The kids would come every day, as many times as they could if there were more people here,” said Golden Valley High Principal Sal Frias.

After walking through the center, Wilk talked about how there is a “misconception” that Santa Clarita is an upper-middle-class community, noting that this is not true.

“We have the same challenges that the rest of society does,” Wilk said. “Whether it be the affordability issue because California is expensive, or the breakdown of the family.”

Photo by Michael Brown/KHTS News.

While Wilk said it would be “ideal” if families were able to provide students with the support and mentoring they needed at home, he acknowledged that it was “not always the case.” He left with the idea of bringing students up to Sacramento to expose them to the greater world.

“We don’t want to penalize any child or young person because they didn’t get the proper support at home,” Wilk said.

The PAWS Center is always in need of donations, such as toiletries and school supplies, according to officials.

“We have a generous, kind-hearted community,” Frias said. “Once anyone hears about PAWS, they willingly donate, and they come in wanting to help. It’s a beautiful thing.”

To find out more about the PAWS Center at Golden Valley High School, or to donate, click here.

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