Volunteers have faith in teaching kids

Volunteers brought the inner-city tutoring program from concept to fruition.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- At one table, Caroline Perjessy tests Marcus Marbly, 8, on addition problems with math flashcards. Nearby, instructor Jason Cooper helps Imani Jones, 9, do her homework.
Across the room, two children fix their attention on a computer screen. A volunteer explains what's happening. Several children in the room next door roll paper cups in glue and glitter to make Christmas decorations.
All are absorbed in what they're doing.
"They really, really want to learn," said Perjessy, assistant director of the Operation Learning Community program at Victory Lutheran Church.
Six months ago, Victory members and their other Lutheran church partners were confident -- but not certain -- such a day would come.
Today, 11 children ages 7 to 11 come to the church two afternoons a week, three hours a day. The children come from the church's lower South Side, Glenwood Avenue neighborhood.
Why the kids go
They have a light meal and a snack before they go home. They come, however, for the learning environment designed to help them improve basic skills -- especially literacy -- and state test scores, Perjessy said.
From nothing but statistics and a desire to help, the church has brought the inner-city tutoring program from concept to fruition.
"It started as a dream. Our dream has become a reality," said the Rev. Hosea Ekong, pastor at Victory Lutheran and director of Operation Learning Community.
Victory Lutheran isn't working alone. Members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the city and Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Canfield are helping, too.
Together, volunteers from the three churches raised $10,000 from banks, foundations and individuals between July and November to get started.
Financial goal
The goal is raising $78,000 a year. Program organizers, however, consider getting started more important than raising all the money up front. They are confident the program will secure more grants and donations once potential funders see what they are doing.
"We just have to get busy" pursuing funding, said Ken Welch, a program volunteer.
The money to start came because of the statistics that church members compiled about the kids in their neighborhood.
Fourth- and sixth-grade reading proficiency scores for neighborhood children, who go to Cleveland Elementary School, dropped between 1999 and 2002.
In that time, the city district's overall numbers improved.
Cleveland Elementary sixth-grade pupils in 2001-02 had a lower passage rate on proficiency tests, 10.9 percent, than when they were fourth-graders in 1999-2000, 15.3 percent.
Winning the bank over
"That made a real big impact on the bank," said Jonette Edmonds, assistant vice president of community reinvestment at National City Bank.
National City saw determination in the volunteers, Edmonds said. She sees that same quality in the children.
"We feel good about that," she said.
Church volunteers clearly explained the problem to win Bank One's support, said Robert J. Papa, vice president and community reinvestment act market manager.
Literacy is a main interest of the bank, making Operation Learning Community appealing, he said. Papa said he expects the bank will continue its support, assuming the program progresses.
The Rev. Mr. Ekong is sure the program will draw more children, more funding and offer more services in the near future. The dire educational statistics are all the motivation volunteers need to keep working to help the children, he said.
"We're trying to do the very best we can to change their lives," Mr. Ekong said.
rgsmith@vindy.com