Sunday, November 17, 2002
The university is planning a fund drive to buy the new community center building.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- When a community center on Crawford Avenue closed five years ago, Slippery Rock University students who spent time there tutoring neighborhood children didn't want to leave the area.
"My students said 'We have to stay there. We will find a place,'" said Alice Kaiser Drobney, director of SRU's Institute for Community, Service-Learning and Nonprofit Leadership.
In January, they expect to finally have a permanent home.
The university is leasing and plans to buy 602 Court Street, she said. They are waiting for New Castle council to approve a conditional use permit for the center, and then work will begin.
In the last five years, groups of the SRU tutors have been moving to different churches and other locations to offer the tutoring and other community services, such as a community garden, for youngsters in the area. When they first came to the city, they realized there wasn't a community center or green space on the city's East Side.
Now they hope to offer a safe place for youngsters and the rest of the community to gather, Kaiser-Drobney said.
"We are only limited by our imaginations," she said.
Leasing property
The university has secured a one-year lease for the property and is hoping to eventually buy it. Kaiser-Drobney said they have about $17,000 of the $50,000 asking price for the building.
There will be a concerted effort to raise the rest of the money once the Lawrence County United Way campaign ends this year, she said.
The converted Victorian house on Court Street is only the first step in the service-learning institute's involvement in the community. The group plans to build a state-of-the-art community center on nearby property donated to the university by the Lawrence County commissioners.
The university is still seeking funding for that project.
Until then, Kaiser-Drobney said, students have been going door-to-door asking east-side residents what type of programs they would like at the center. They've received a warm reception.
"More people have told us if we can do anything for the kids that would be best. We know you can't do things for kids without doing things for families too," she said.
Interest in participating
Area social service agencies have also shown interest in participating. One of the first to respond was the Lawrence County Literacy Council, which is planning a mom-taught literacy program at the center, Kaiser-Drobney said.
"We don't want to take the stand the we are coming into the community on a white horse and we have all the answers to all the world's questions. Our students and faculty are trained to listen and become engaged in the community. We are trying hard to build collaborative opportunities with people who want to collaborate," she said.
New Castle High School seniors participating in the AmeriCorps Program, a domestic Peace Corps that gives volunteers money for college, will also be using the house for programs, said Lora Karlinsey, group team leader, who is an SRU graduate student.
Karlinsey is hoping they can expand their programming, which now is limited mostly to after-school tutoring for other high-school and middle-school students.
Until they start work in the new house, Kaiser-Drobney said, they will continue in the next few months to offer programs at the Second Presbyterian Church on Countyline Street.