U.M. Community Center marks 80 years of caring

An open house is scheduled for Friday.
& lt;a href=mailto:viviano@vindy.com & gt;By JoANNE VIVIANO & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- When the Pearl Street Mission opened its doors on the city's East Side 80 years ago, the goal of its founders was to help Italian immigrants assimilate to a new world of steel mills and an American lifestyle and language.
The place is now called the United Methodist Community Center, but more has changed over the decades than the mission's name: It now offers school-, community- and home-based services to children and adults in three counties, serving thousands of people each year.
Its strength and longevity have come from an ability to adapt to the changes in the community and its needs, venturing beyond its walls to get the job done, said Executive Director Millicent S. Counts.
"We don't just do services for the sake of doing services," she said. "There's a lot of community assessment, needs assessment, to determine where needs are and what's needed.
"We've moved into uncharted waters where no one was serving."
Preschool program
For example, the center once offered a preschool program but ended it when Head Start preschools started. The money used to fund preschool was diverted to a program to help women released from jails and prisons transition back into the community and attend school or find a job.
That program, working with the state Department of Youth Services, has since transformed into one that focuses primarily on adolescent women, to help keep them out of jail, Counts said.
"We're flexible to deal with what the contemporary social issues are," she said.
On Friday, the center, 334 N. Pearl St. at East High Avenue, will hold an open house from 2 to 6 p.m. for community members to learn about programming, meet staff, reminisce and enjoy food and refreshments. A ceremony celebrating the 80th anniversary of the service will begin at 2:30 p.m.
Thomas Anderson, a former community center board member and lifelong supporter, said he'd like members of the community to know that "the service is here and people on staff care for the children."
"Three thirty-four North Pearl Street is my first love," he said. "If I had the choice, I'd have a burial plot and be buried there."
Funding sources
The center operates on a $1.2 million budget supported largely by government and United Methodist Church funds as well as contributions from the United Way and foundations.
Overall, Counts said, the center's "specialty" is case management, through various programs such as the prison/jail intervention. Managers work with 800 to 1,000 people each year. A goal is to involve an entire family.
"A youth does not experience difficulties in a vacuum," she said. "We want to assist families and help families assume their responsibility, and that is the oversight of the children."
Family support
Among other services are Family Readiness Centers operating in each of the 21 Youngstown city schools. These are part of a collaboration that makes up Multidisciplinary Student Achievement Teams to offer family support for youths who are having difficulty in school. Staffers also operate after-school life skills programs for girls and boys in four city schools.
Another city schools' project the center assists is a Truancy Intervention Program, supported by the state Department of Job and Family Services. Mission workers go to homes to help children who miss more than 20 days of school.
Although most of these services are offered out in the community by members of the center's 44-person staff, the facility on Pearl Street hosts an after-school program for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, serving roughly 100 youngsters over the course of a year. A main component is the inclusion of children with special needs, especially those with hearing or vision impairments.
Pupils receive a hot meal and work on computers to learn proper Internet use for homework and create e-mail accounts and personal Web pages, Counts said. The youngsters also partake in arts and crafts and physical education and receive homework help and tutoring from volunteers who work with them one-on-one. Programs are research-based and the facility is a licensed day care, Counts said.
"Kids who have been failing, I can see their grades improving, and their self- esteem," she added. "To me, self-esteem is the single most important thing. If we can get that improved, we see grades improve."
Counts said she's certain it will continue for another 80 years.
"It's built on a string foundation and has the unconditional support of the Methodist church. That's important, because we all have challenges, and when we've had challenges, the church has always been there until we rise again."