|
Johnson County Community Center
The Mountain City and Johnson County Community Center at 214 College
Street is many things to many different people. To some, it's the
Friday night pickin' place. They probably don't think much about it
beyond that. There are others that see it as 'the meeting place’; a
local chapter of the AA, the ACTION coalition, Beta Theta and other
organizations would be in that group. They, and more, meet here
regularly and see it from the standpoint of their own people and
purposes.
There are probably more than a few that see it as “that building out
behind the assessor's office”.
Flo Bellamy, director of the center, sees it as a “...clean, safe
place for our kids to be ... a place where they learn responsibility
...” and, primarily, as a community facility driven by and for the
needs of all the children in the area, 10 years old and up. She is
very serious about that -- she's relaxed and welcoming, but dead
serious about the children. She and her staff feed, shelter, protect
and motivate a large number of kids coming through the center after
school or during the long summer days when they otherwise would have
to go back to empty houses until parents returned from work.
It's a larger, more complex and more involved operation than might be
first thought. There are, minimally, around 75 young people constantly
going in and out. There are up to three meals a day. There is a
computer lab and recreation area. There is both space for quiet
one-on-one tutoring and the tutors to accomplish that. There is the
'Oak Tree Summer Camp'. There are the frequent interactions with
individual kids as they seek answers to all the questions that come up
while they are moving further and further away from being 'kids' and
closer and closer to being 'young adults'. There are the inspections,
the mandates, the requirements, the planning and the budgeting.
And all of it seems to go pretty smoothly in an attractive, sparkling
clean building complete with appropriately licensed kitchen and an
eight-camera system keeping a watchful eye over the nooks and crannies
of the facility. That's not bad for what is actually a former school
department coal storage shed that, even now, benefits from only
limited local financial support.
That old building which was brought back to life in the late '90s by
crews from the prison, working on it in support of a grant obtained
through the efforts of Mountain City officials, has never had a great
deal of local funding – not because it isn't enthusiastically
supported by both the city and county, but simply because there's a
chronic lack of funds to provide even the basic needs of residents,
and precious little left over for projects such as a community center.
The building itself was provided locally, local funds maintain it, pay
its miscellaneous direct costs and provide the salary of the director,
Bellamy. That's about it. That was the way it all started out and how
the situation remained for several years following the community
center's inception. Bellamy and LEAPs have changed all that.
Bellamy became director in 2004, following on the heels of Terri
Warden, who had guided the center as director before her. She knew
what she wanted the center to become but was constrained by the same
lack of working dollars that her predecessor had been. However, one
day soon after she started, Minnie Miller, Johnson County's (now
former) director of schools suggested to her, “...why don't you try to
get one of the LEAPS grants?...”
LEAPs is the “Lottery for Education: Afterschool Programs”, set up
after the state's citizens voted to create a state lottery in November
of 2002. The General Assembly directed that unclaimed dollars from it
go towards specific educational programs – among them, after-school
programs. Every bit of unclaimed prize money generated by the lottery
must be deposited into a dedicated account which goes towards a system
of competitive grants (and some technical assistance) to fund
after-school programs in Tennessee.
LEAPS comes with a full complement of hoops through which programs
must jump in order to receive funding. The youths served have to be 5
– 18 years of age (the local community center takes in kids 10 and
up), and at least 50 % of the youths must meet at least one of six
criterion, such as being enrolled in a school failing to make adequate
yearly progress, qualifying for free/reduced lunch, having a history
of family dysfunction and so forth. There are more possibilities but
they all fall along the same lines. Preference in awarding grants is
given to those programs in which at least 80% of the children meet one
or more of the conditions outlined in the requirements.
When a program is developed, its activities must be educationally
based and must include services to students on an average of 15 hours
a week. It also must facilitate development and enhancement of skills
in some single field or combination of fields including: reading,
math, science and computer literacy plus offering academic mentoring
and tutorial assistance and some kind of sports or leisure
opportunities.
This is a demanding set of requirements and Bellamy recalls she knew
nothing whatever about LEAPs. She even says, '... and I couldn't
believe that there would be such a huge amount of money left
unclaimed, I was amazed when our first grant in 2006 came through...”.
Whatever her level of experience may have been then, her drive to
provide for the children in the area carried her, the facility, and
the kids, along a path that's resulted in the center as it exists
today. Bellamy gives much of the credit to the LEAPs program, saying
“... it’s basically the reason we can do what we do...” but that
comment seems to gloss over Bellamy's own contributions.
Bellamy is a life long Johnson County resident. One of thirteen
children in the family, she, her sister, Ina, and brother, Rick, still
live and work here. The others are scattered all across the country.
She says she loves the county and the area and speaks warmly of her
father and mother and of her early life but also speaks of “...
wanting more for these kids than I had.” She has been involved in an
active work life in the county including employment at Sarah Lee,
Burlington Industries and other manufacturing plants here and says she
has always had an enthusiasm for volunteering. She's active with a
host of volunteer groups, started up the local Relay for Life and
oversees the community Easter egg hunt, among other duties.
As she speaks, Bellamy appears satisfied, not boastful but satisfied,
with many of the things she's been able to participate in.
Nevertheless, all of her past and present accomplishments appear to
take second place in her mind as she talks about the kids and the
center she and her staff maintain for them.
While Nuts and Bolts was there, we had an opportunity to meet and talk
briefly with Eunice Snyder and Brittany Pleasant, who is the center's
education director. They are among the four staff members active
during the summer. That number grows to eight during the school year.
The staff provides the equivalent of supper during the school year and
breakfast, lunch and supper during the summer vacation. The staff also
helps in supervising the kids, teaching, mentoring, watching out for
anything out of the way and enforcing the center's behavior guidelines
which prohibit bullying, taunting, disrespect towards others,
offensive language, fighting and more.
From 3:15 pm on, during the school year (and starting at 10 am during
other periods) children who are registered at the center can come in
providing they are 10 or older. Younger children may attend as long as
they're accompanied by a parent but cannot be in the building on their
own. The center closes down at 6 for the youth programs and is open to
around 8:30 or 10 for meetings and adult activities. Bellamy and the
staff are frequently at the center longer, cleaning, preparing for the
next day or attending to administrative needs. They are also involved
in continuing training to meet the state's requirements for staff
qualifications. Bellamy attends sessions in Nashville annually while
the other staff members go to Morristown for training sessions.
If you are interested, you can learn more at:
http://www.state.tn.us/education/learningsupport/afterschool/index.shtml.
“Nuts and Bolts” is a recurring series in Bad Idea News covering the
governmental and service departments operating in Johnson County and
Mountain City. In time we hope to cover all of them and provide our
readers with a complete factual tour of every office and service in
the area so they can better understand the activities and decisions of
their public servants.
|
