The White Center Community Development Association held its first Member Mixer on Saturday Aug. 7 at the YWCA Learning Center 9720 8th Ave. SW and it became clear that some issues were of more importance than those on the agenda.

The meeting, run by Resident Fellow Sean Healy, was intended to bring members and the public together to review progress the agency has made on core issues of community development. Last Dec. 4 a Community Summit was held to provide a look back and a look ahead at these issues. At Saturday's mixer health was on the agenda and access to health services was covered. Healy touched on housing and mentioned the SOPI (Strength of Place Initiative) that they have been central in implementing. The groundbreaking for SOPI is set for Sept. 15.

Healy touched on jobs and the assistance the CDA can provide to job seekers, spoke about education and programs the agency provides. Education rounded out the topic list and the CDA's efforts to encourage parents to become more involved in the education process was discussed.

Immigration reform and Youth Issues were on the mind of several people in the meeting but primarily as expressed by Claudia De Loza. De Loza is a White Center resident and was outspoken about access to services the CDA and other agencies provide. De Loza said that one of the issues facing some people in the community was the inability to get a social security card. Without it, they had no access to higher education, or housing programs. This is at the heart of immigration reform since people must live while they seek to become a citizen, which suggests they require a job but they cannot get one legally without an IRS number. This is the purpose of the Green Card but these are now commonly forged. This has prompted suggestions at the federal level to instead prepare a social security card with a biometric identification to serve as a national ID card of sorts

She suggested that the CDA might help members by creating some form of ID card that could be used on at least a temporary basis to help people gain access to more services or move toward citizenship and the Social Security card that opens the door to loans, education and other government services.

De Loza was also outspoken about the need to control or somehow deal with young people and the all ages Club in White Center called Club Evolucion or Club Evo. See our story about this from 2007. Police have been to the club on numerous occasions for the past few years as violence has broken out or as other laws have been broken. The owner of the club is an attorney from Los Angeles named Alfred Lopez who has met with groups from the community in the past but problems persist. The CDA currently has no dialog with Lopez.

Membership in the CDA was also discussed. It costs $25 to become a lifetime member and members get an "I Heart White Center T-Shirt" (in a variety of colors) and a very high quality aluminum water bottle plus, are in on all the group activities throughout the year. There are currently 125 members.

You can join by visiting their website or by stopping by their offices at 1615 SW Cambridge Street in White Center.
Their phone number is 206 694 1082

For more information about the WCCDA visit http://www.wccda.org