Canfield church seeks housing for young workers

Friday, August 25, 2006 By HAROLD GWIN VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER YOUNGSTOWN — Western Reserve United Methodist Church of Canfield wants to bring 600 teens into the city for a week to help repair homes of elderly, disabled and low-income residents. The problem is they've got no place to house them. A group of church representatives, led by the Rev. Russell Adams, approached the Youngstown school board this week, asking if the district will make a school building available to serve as a temporary hotel. The church is working with the Group Workcamps Foundation, a nonprofit, faith-based mission based in Loveland, Colo., to bring one of its camps here. The foundation organizes about 70 of the weeklong camps every summer, and the church is trying to get one of them located in Youngstown in summer 2008, the Rev. Mr. Adams said. To sign a contract with the foundation, the church has to know by the end of this September if it has a place to house the participants, he said. There have been three Group Workcamps held in the Shenango Valley across the border in Pennsylvania over the past decade. The participants stayed at Sharon High School and Reynolds Elementary School for the week, spending their days working on the homes of low-income and elderly Shenango Valley residents and coming back to the school each night, dining in the cafeteria and sleeping on the floor in classrooms. Mr. Adams said the camp here would be expected to draw about 600 people from across the United States. About funding The church doesn't want any money from the Youngstown schools, only a place to house and feed the participants, he said. The foundation will pay for the use of district custodial and other necessary staff, he said. The kids pay their own way, usually contributing between $300 and $400 for the privilege of serving others. That money is used to buy the supplies needed to run the camp and the building materials needed to repair the homes they work on. The foundation will help the church find local co-sponsors to help with the building supplies. The church will work with a local community action group to get referrals for the houses to be repaired, Mr. Adams said, estimating the camp will work on 60 to 80 homes. Although Group Workcamps is a Christian-based organization, the camps are really nondenominational, Mr. Adams said. There is no liability on the part of the school district for providing a place to stay, he said, noting that Group Workcamps carries its own insurance. Michael Write, board president, said the district will try to help. He referred the request to the board's business committee for review and a recommendation. "This is a win-win for us and the community," said board member Dominic Modarelli. Dr. Wendy Webb, superintendent, said she is impressed with the Group Workcamps concept. It teaches young people about responsibility and giving back to their community, an important lesson, she said. gwin@vindy.com