METHODISTS ON A MISSION Group targets health care, counseling and technology in five-year strategic plan

The community center is developing a five-year plan to improve its programs.
AMBER HYLAND
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
THE DISMISSAL BELL AT VOLNEYRogers Junior High School in Youngstown rings, and pupils eagerly scramble to the buses waiting outside.
Some pupils are not so eager to leave.
A group of girls gathers in the hallway before meeting in the school's library for an after-school program.
They pass around Cheetos and juice boxes, finding the best seat to watch a video about HIV awareness.
Getting Ahead In Life is an after-school program for young girls in the Youngstown City School District that helps female pupils to build self-esteem through the development of short and long-term goals. The program also offers tutoring and additional lessons from outside speakers.
"When they come in the midst of each other and me, they feel that love," said Edie Smith, coordinator for Family Readiness and GAIL. "A child knows a phony. They know when someone is truly sincere."
The GAIL program is just one of the Youngstown United Methodist Community Center's programs that are being developed under the center's five-year strategic plan. The center is located at 334 N. Pearl St.
Strategic plan
Millicent Counts, the center's executive director, said the community has to "realize that everyone is linked together in a universal way. The role of the community center is to make that known so people can begin to live in peace together as a nation."
Counts said the critical part of the strategic plan is to maintain their funding while expanding the programs in existence.
To maintain and secure funding, the center plans to develop community partnerships with other community centers and social services. Counts said the goal is to identify the needs in the programs and to make sure there isn't much overlap from other local social services.
The third part of the plan will integrate technology into the center. Counts said the center will try to get new computers and technological training for staff.
Sustaining and improving the center's health-care coverage is the fourth item on the center's strategic plan.
Finally, the center addressed a need to sustain leadership because Counts will be retiring after 27 years with the center.
Community services
In the meantime, the center continues to serve the community through a variety of programs.
The center along with Humility of Mary Health Partners instituted a Neighborhood Health Watch at the center on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Health Watch offers free blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, body fat and bone density screenings. Free health education and consultations are available.
The center also provides a monthly workshop. This month, the center focused on the importance of exercise through line dancing.
Counts said she sees a need for services relating to seniors, job training and development, youth and people released from prison.
"You can't expect them [released people] to get out and go through the revolving door of mainstream society," Counts said.
The center focuses on programs for youth through the GAIL program, as well as a similar after-school program for boys called Building Individual Life Lessons.
The program takes place weekly at Volney Rogers Middle School, The Rayen School, Hillman and East middle schools and Harding and North elementary schools.
The Friendship Club is another way the center reaches out to Youngstown's youth. Children can go to the center after school every day while their parents are at work.
The center works with every school in the Youngstown district through Family Readiness programs, which provide essential clothing needs and emotional support for children and families.
GAIL Girls
Smith said one of the goals of GAIL is not to label any child, adding that the girls in the program have diverse personalities and backgrounds.
However, Smith remembered one pupil whose progress stood out. When the pupil entered the GAIL program, she was very withdrawn from everybody.
Smith said the pupil's involvement in the GAIL program allowed her to bloom, adding that the girl's mother was in tears because she never thought her daughter would open up like she did.
The program focuses on concerns teenagers might have, and helps them so they can be prepared.
Because childhood obesity is an increasing concern, Smith said the program incorporated a Neighborhood Health Walk where pupils walked around the neighborhood of their school.
To prepare the girls for careers, Smith said the program had them shadow a person who works in a career they would like to go into. Pupils wrote a report and filled out a sample job application.
Smith said appearances are very important to female pupils in middle school. A Mary Kay representative came to Volney to give the girls facials and let them experiment with makeup.
The girls also participated in a cooking class.
"Everyone eats their own stuff," Smith said. "I don't want them to get an attitude if someone else's food is nasty."
Smith said the program is supposed to be fun for the girls.
"If it's just book, book, book, it's going to burn them out," she said.
Center's board
In addition to the strategic plan, the center's board elected the Rev. Patricia Christ, pastor of Richard Brown Memorial United Methodist Church, as president for the year. Other board members are Dr. Cynthia Anderson, the Revs. Jerri Bell-Brown and Bruce McLaughlin , Greg Calko, Lenora Jefferson, Paul Melvin and Edna Pincham.