ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
WITH EVERYTHING from conflict-resolution sessions to field trips, the Safe Haven program in a Bedford apartment complex gives kids and some adults a chance to see life in new ways.
Jennifer, a 13-year-old sixth-grader at Bedford Middle School, had an altercation at school recently. Now she has to go see the principal.
"He bumped me against my locker, so I bumped him back," she told the five other teen-agers gathered around the table.
"We need to resolve this problem," said Trudy Jones, an assistant teacher at Bedford Middle who leads Peacemakers, a program that helps kids deal with anger and conflicts.
"Do you think you did the right thing?"
"He has no right to bump me," Jennifer replied. "That's why I bumped him back."
"What's another thing she could have done, other than bump him?" Jones asked the others.
The group ponders this, and the youths offer their suggestions. "Tell him it's wrong to bump other people," says one. "Tell an adult he bumped you," another says.
"If you would have done that, you wouldn't have to see the principal," Jones said. "Now you're the one who has to suffer the consequences. Right?"
Peacemakers is just one of the programs being used to help young people at Safe Haven, a special after-school gathering place in the Raintree apartment community in Bedford.
Safe Haven opened in September after the City Council and the county school system received one of 10 one-year federal grants worth $100,000 intended to raise graduation rates and combat substance abuse among teen-agers across the nation.
Safe Haven is housed in a double-wide trailer in the middle of Raintree, an apartment complex with a tough reputation.
Many youngsters who live in Raintree come from single-parent, low-income families; some have family members with drug problems. There's a high dropout rate in the community, and until now, there hasn't been much outside pressure for kids to succeed.
Since it opened its doors, Safe Haven has taken young people on field trips to Virginia Tech football games, Roanoke Express hockey games, movies, skating rinks and swimming pools - places many of these children and their families wouldn't have the resources or transportation to visit alone.
It provides after-school tutoring for youngsters of all ages and GED instruction for adults. It held a battered-women's symposium in February, and last year it co-sponsored a fashion show to build self-esteem. Safe Haven has also set up dances and provided counseling, computer and job-skills training, and awards for academic achievement.
Along the way, it's become a big part of the community, too.
"Our goal is to work with people on the front end, to provide educational opportunities and life skills that will give them greater opportunities for jobs in the future," said Bill McGuire, Safe Haven's part-time administrator.
There's no guarantee that Safe Haven will stay around after its one-year grant expires, McGuire said, but he's hoping that local governments will agree to pick up the funding after they see its value.
"Don't too many moms come over here, but I like to," Deborah Barlow, a single mother with three children, said of Safe Haven. "It's a nice place to come. There are nice people here, caring people."
She brings her children - Barry, 15; Ladonna, 10 and Michael, 8 - to Safe Haven almost every afternoon after she gets off from her job at Longwood Industries. The children get help with their homework, and, when they're done, they play games and do activities.
Barlow and her children have lived in Raintree about seven years. "It's OK if you just stay to yourself and watch your kids so they don't get into bad groups," she said.
Barry plays basketball at the middle school and hopes to play for the Liberty High School Minutemen next year. A few months back, he received an award from Safe Haven for having the most improved attitude.
``When he first came in here, he had that macho, `I-don't-care' attitude,'' said Karen Herndon, a Bedford County social worker who was an assistant administrator at Safe Haven. ``But now, it's `What can I do? Where are we going?'''
Safe Haven isn't reaching all of those in its targeted 12-to-18-year-old age group. Only about half of the 25 or so youngsters that age in Raintree come to Safe Haven.
Of the ones who do, however, most of their outlooks have changed for the better since Safe Haven moved in, Herndon said. "These kids have a lot to offer. A lot of hidden talents are starting to come out."
On one recent afternoon, Jennifer, the 13-year-old who had the altercation at school, used a computer at Safe Haven to work on her entry for the Young Authors contest - a short story about a girl who has a friend with AIDS who dies.
Jennifer has lived in Raintree for more than three years; it's "OK" to live there, she said, "but Safe Haven's made it better. There's stuff I can do over here that I can't do outside, and I stay out of trouble."
Elizabeth Myers, a parent who volunteers her time at Safe Haven, said, "I came from a town that's bigger than the whole of Bedford County. We had tons of things for kids to do." But in Bedford, the nearest movie theaters or bowling alleys are in Roanoke or Lynchburg, she said, and many of the children in Raintree can't afford transportation.
Myers works full time and goes to school full time, so her 14-year-old daughter, Velisha, is often left to care for her younger sister. At Safe Haven, Velisha gets to be around children her own age and her mother doesn't have to worry.
Even adults can find something to learn at Safe Haven. Barbara Raintree, Safe Haven's GED instructor, recalled a recent experience with a 40-year-old student.
"I taught her to subtract, multiply and add in one day," said Raintree, who has no connection to the apartment complex. "She was so excited. I felt so badly that she had wasted so much time in being afraid to come back to school."
The younger students receive lessons that are just as valuable and lasting, the instructors say.
Ginny Huntington, a certified prevention specialist with Central Virginia Community Services in Lynchburg, leads "Ginny's Group" at Safe Haven - a rap session that allows teen-agers to talk about such problems as substance abuse, violence and low self-esteem.
"Some of the best groups we've had have focused on family [drug] addiction, on addiction going on in their families and the choices they have to make coping with it - understanding that it's not the child's fault, that they can't cure it, and most importantly, that they didn't cause it."
In Ginny's Group, as with many Safe Haven programs, students learn anger management, team building, and how to increase their sense of self-worth.
"It's real basic stuff," Huntington said. "But these are not things that are taught in every family."
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Trudy Jones helps LaDonnaby CNBBarlow, 10, with her math homework during an afternoon tutoring
session at Safe Haven in Bedford. The federally funded site offers
several programs in a mobile, after-school classroom inside the
Raintree apartment community in Bedford. Program supporters hope
local officials will pick up the slack on the funding once the
one-year grant is exhausted. color. 2. Trudy Jones leads a
problem-solving session with JaJuan Lowry (center), 13, his brother
Tavon, 11, and other children. The program, called Peacemakers,
tries to resolve conflicts.