'I feel welcomed here': Boys & Girls Club of Athens reopens community centers for summer

As summer drew near, Aiden Bolton told his grandmother he wanted to attend a summer camp to play and be around other kids.

Bolton said he lived in a house full of women, but wanted to hang around some boys his age. At first, his grandmother said she wouldn't be able to, he said, but his aunt soon told him about a new program being run by the Boys & Girls Club of Athens.

"I was so excited," Bolton, an 11-year-old in the program, recalled of the news. "I was running around the whole house."

Bolton joins about 40 other kids who have signed up to be a part of the Boys & Girls Club of Athens' new summer programs being run in Nellie B and Rocksprings. The programs, which both started June 27, are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will run until July 29.

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The youth-oriented programs are run out of centers nestled in the heart of each neighborhood. Residents have clamored for the reopening of the buildings in recent years with many saying it could give the youth a safe space within their own communities.

To aid in opening the centers, The Boys & Girls Club of Athens secured $135,254 in funding from Athens-Clarke County’s Expansion of Youth Development Programming.

"Athens has very limited things for our youth to do," said John Lawrence, site coordinator at Nellie B. "When you open a program like this right smack in the middle of an area like this, you're opening doors for kids that might not have been open had they not opened these centers up."

The budding program looks to continue to grow and draw more youth. Each child in the program represents someone who Lawrence and others hope to steer in a positive direction.

"That's the number of kids that's not going to be in trouble, that's not going to be in the school-to-prison pipeline," Lawrence said. "This just makes sense to me."

Reopening the centers

Robert Finch, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Athens, knows the importance of centers and programming in neighborhoods. Finch, who grew up on the eastside of Athens, said the Boys & Girls Club's programs had a profound impact on his life.

When programs like this new effort ceased to exist in these neighborhoods, one could draw a correlation to the other activities kids chose to partake in that isn't safe, Finch said.

"Going back into these neighborhoods and reestablishing the Boys & Girls Club presence, giving the people we serve, the students we serve, the youth we serve alternative activities is going to do a number of things," he said.

Heightening academic achievement and better-preparing youth for the job market are some of the goals of the program, Finch said.

Some of the activities that will be provided include digital arts, field trips as well as indoor and outdoor recreation. Kids will be surrounded by trained mentors, many of whom have seen the direct impact of programs like these in their own lives.

Sterling Gardner, vice president of workforce development at Boys & Girls Club of Athens, said he got his start in the Boys & Girls Club running a similar program in a public-housing facility. The effort back then, and now, represented the long partnership between the Boys & Girls Club and Athens Housing Authority to provide programming for youth.

"Unfortunately, for the last few years, many of the neighborhood centers have been underutilized," Gardner said. "There became an opportunity when the housing authority wanted to again put these particular facilities back into service, but wanted some partners to come and help with programming."

But as important as the programming is becoming community partners in these areas, he said. This belief stems from Gardner's own experience when he was involved in a similar center in the Jack R. Wells complex, now Columbia Brookside.

Then, the neighborhood was considered one of the more challenging communities. After establishing the center, workers developed relationships with the wider community.

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Gardner said they were not only able to provide youth programming, but connect adults with city leaders. This empowered residents to voice their own concerns knowing they would finally be heard.

"Not only are we here for our kids, but we're here to also help empower the community," Gardner said. "That to me is the exciting part."

Last week, as children at Rocksprings to play a game of kickball, work was still being done outside the center. But the work in progress is already bearing fruit. The programs at Rocksprings and Nellie B can hold up to 30 kids each, and 20 have been signed up at each location.

Lisa Hightower-Mack, site coordinator at Rocksprings, said she aims to provide a safe place for kids at her location to interact with other kids.

"It doesn't matter which neighborhood you're in, kids need a safe place to go," she said. "We wanted to provide something here, in the community, so it would be convenient for the parents and convenient for the kids as well."

'I feel welcomed here'

Last week, the sounds of a basketball game could be heard early in the morning in Nellie B. Bolton and another child in the program were shooting around with Lt. Blake Gable of the Clarke County Sherriff's Office.

Gable and other members of the sheriff's office joined the kids in a game of activities ranging from basketball to four square.

"I grew up in Athens Housing Authority; I grew up in a situation where I never thought I would grow up to be a law enforcement official, " said Gable, who does community outreach with the sheriff's office. "I like to come out and meet these kids and let them know I'm just like them. I'm a human being and just because I wear this uniform it doesn't make me different."

Gable said programs like the Boys & Girls Club were instrumental in his life.

Sherrod Jones, a staff member, echoed these sentiments.

"Kids just need that guidance, that one-on-one mentor sometimes," he said. "They need to know they feel loved, that they have somebody in their corner."

While the program will close shortly before the school year, staff said they plan to implement an after-school program sometime in the fall. The plan is to use the spaces from 3 to 7 p.m. for educational programming where snacks will also be provided.

But in the meantime, children are already enjoying their experience.

Shariah Brown, 11, said she originally didn't have anything planned for the summer but has had fun since joining the program. Her first week with the program has also been a good opportunity to communicate with other kids.

"I feel welcomed here and comfortable," she said.

That sense of comfort is what staff and the head of the Boys & Girls Club are hoping to provide the youth and the wider community.

"Expanding our programs in these neighborhoods I think is going to have a profound impact," Finch said. "The same kind of profound impact it had on my life, it's going to have on these kids' lives."

To enroll your kid in the new Boys & Girls Club of Athens program, call 706-546-6910. To learn more visit greatfuturesathens.com.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Boys & Girls Club of Athens reopens centers with new summer programs