THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409090335
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 184 lines
AS MALISSIA LEE walked from room to room at the CARE summer Youth Leadership Camp, it seemed like she couldn't go two steps without someone calling her name.
``Ms. Lee! Ms. Lee!''
The call came from an elementary-age girl who suddenly ran up from behind Lee, tugged on her shirt and began begging for attention.
``Ms. Lee, did you see me dancing?'' the young girl asked. Lee smiled and explained how she was busy at the moment. But the child was determined to stick around. She followed alongside her all the way down the hall.
``We show them love and attention,'' Lee explained to her adult visitor. ``That's why you see them hanging on me, following me.''
The young admirer was one of 150 kids throughout the city whom Lee directed at the camp earlier this summer.
The camp paired children, ages 9 to 12, with teenage counselors for a six-week program designed to curb disciplinary problems and promote safety, self-esteem, respect and leadership. Campers were bused from their neighborhoods to Kemps Landing Intermediate School, where they participated in daily drama, dance, music and gym classes.
``We believe that all kids are good,'' said Lee, a neighborhood services supervisor for the city. ``We try to never use the word `bad.' ''
The two-year-old camp is just one of many activities run by CARE - Community Action Resource Empowerment - a program designed to help residents in targeted communities improve their neighborhoods.
CARE, formed in 1990, also was created to promote cooperation between the community and police to solve neighborhood problems such as crime, poor housing conditions and a lack of recreational activities for children.
``We're trying to bridge that gap between neighborhood, school and community,'' said CARE coordinator Carol R. Williams. ``It's a lot of love mixed with discipline.''
The CARE Committee is a year-round group staffed by workers from city departments such as housing, social services, health, schools, parks and recreation, fire and police.
In 1992, Virginia Beach received a first-place national ``Livability Award'' from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Waste Management of North America Inc. in recognition of CARE's efforts to create a positive environment in high-risk neighborhoods.
In addition to the summer camp, CARE's activities have included a boxing program, basketball and golf tournaments and a tutorial program, just to name a few.
Targeting kids in CARE neighborhoods is a primary goal, said Williams, a housing program administrator for the city. More than 2,000 kids attended various activities during the summer, she added.
``We wanted to listen to residents to find out what their needs were and what they could do to meet their needs,'' said Andrew Friedman, the city's director of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation.
In addition to community policing programs, where CARE committee members and residents work together to make the neighborhoods safer places, Friedman said they wanted youth services to be a primary focus. The idea, he said, would be to get youths off the streets and into programs like the leadership camp.
``By expanding and coordinating existing youth agencies inside the city, we see an opportunity to provide more opportunities for low-income youths,'' Friedman said.
Tylesha Knox, 17, has been a counselor at the summer camp both years it has operated. Camp director Lee points to Knox as one of the program's ``success stories.''
``I wouldn't say I was bad,'' Knox said. ``I always had respect for elders, but I wouldn't think before I talked. Now I use my talent to sing. The camp has helped me a lot.''
Knox, a senior at Bayside High School, said that by working with CARE she has been encouraged to work in the community during the school year. She said she wants to use her counseling to help other youths.
``It's a challenge as well as fun,'' she said. ``You have to have patience. There's a deep down feeling (in them) you can touch.''
Demont Overton, 8, said he liked the camp because of the activities and because it helped him stay off the streets.
``I get in trouble at home. . . get in fights,'' Overton said. ``When I come here I don't get in fights, and now when I go back to school I won't be like that.''
Eleven-year-old LaToya Lynch said going to the camp helped her learn about responsibility.
``Say you don't go any place in the summer, you can go to camp and they take you a bunch of places,'' she said. ``It shows you discipline and how you should act at all times.''
During CARE week in August, the committee opened its first neighborhood CARE Community Center in Pecan Gardens West. The center, a converted house that will be used for offices, classes and meetings, is something that Carol Williams said she looks to ``with a sense of pride.''
Frank and Teresa Henry head the neighborhood watch program in Pecan Gardens. With the help of CARE and the police department they were able to upgrade the quality of life in the community, they said.
``Two years ago, you wouldn't see people walking down the street,'' Teresa Henry said. ``It's now a wonderful sight.''
Though Pecan Gardens residents operate the house and organize committees, Frank Henry said CARE helped get some of the resources the community needed.
``The CARE committee jumped in and it's grown like wildfire,'' said Frank Henry, adding that a park is going to be built in the neighborhood.
``It has worked really good here. We've watched some of the kids actively partake in activities and turn out to be good kids,'' he said.
Like the Henrys, Barbara Blanding has seen her Princeton Lakes neighborhood go through a series of changes since she moved there 18 years ago. Drugs entered the scene in the 1980s and residents were afraid to sit outside their homes.
``CARE came in with the youth program, so when school's out they have something to do,'' said Blanding, who raised five children there and is now president of the neighborhood civic league.
CARE helped by organizing more activities for the children, she explained.
``It's working out very well,'' Blanding said. ``We have some control over the younger kids now.''
Eleven neighborhoods fall under the CARE umbrella, and Williams said the committee cannot take on any more neighborhoods at this time.
David McClenny, president of the Pine Oaks Civic League, said he hopes CARE's interests in so many neighborhoods will not cause them to lose sight of their true purpose.
``CARE's more of a widespread thing than individual, but you still need that hands-on.''
Pine Oaks, which won the Neighborhood of the Year award at CARE Day this year, used to be a complex filled with drugs and crime, McClenny said. When CARE came in 1992, all of the bad elements began to filter out.
``If you are a CARE community, you are a `pick' community,'' McClenny said. ``If we call the police, the area will get flooded.''
``Out of the three years since we've started, we're doing good,'' McClenny added. ``The key to any community working is backing from the government, from the community . . . and spiritual guidance from your church. If any of them are missing, it's through.''
Housing director Friedman said it is important for residents to realize that some areas need more help than others.
``We're not doing everything in every neighborhood,'' he said. ``Some areas have more social programs while some places need housing maintenance and other things such as that.''
Williams said she is pleased with the summer's activities and hopes to repeat and improve them next year. She said programs like the camp are so effective because they help youths see how they can better themselves.
Jennifer Lee, 12, said she is grateful to have taken part in the camp. If not for the CARE's help, she said, she would not be headed in the right direction.
``This is the only thing that's fun that I get to come to and know I'm not going to get in trouble,'' she said. ``I finally get to help kids out who are trying to get to the top.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
TAKING CARE OF CHILDREN
Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Children in Williams Village were targeted to build their
self-esteem with the CARE program. From left are Shakeeta Whaley, Ed
Hawks, Nicole Copeland and Victoria Baker.
Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Barbara Blanding has seen her Princeton Lakes neighborhood go
through a series of changes since she moved to the community 18
years ago.
Frank and Teresa Henry head the neighborhood watch program in Pecan
Gardens.
Photo by DAVID C. McCLEES
Joe Burden and Shauvon Simmons dance in the CARE and Centerstage,
Inc. production of ``We Believe.''
Carol R. Williams
CARE coordinator
CARE COMMUNITIES
Neighborhoods served by the CARE program include:
Williams Village
Princeton Lakes
Lake Edward
Atlantis Apartments
Friendship Village
Twin Canal
Pine Oaks
Bridle Creek
Pecan Gardens
Plaza Apartments/Townhomes
16th Street Corridor
by CNB