THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 157 lines
Cecelia D. Rountree is a teen with a dream. This summer, a path to that dream runs improbably through the crowded office of the Tabernacle of Prayer Christian School and Child Care Center on Colley Avenue, where Cecelia works weekday mornings.
She greets visitors. She answers the phone. She files papers. She types documents into the school's new computer.
And she dreams. The polite, easy-smiling 16-year-old Booker T. Washington High School junior who likes science wants to be a pediatrician.
A summer youth jobs program is helping give Cecelia permission to dream her dream.
In turn, the program's organizers have a dream of their own: to find funding to expand it beyond its normal five-week summer run and continue full time, year round. This way, many others can learn how to dream, and to work toward making their dreams reality.
This is Cecelia's second year in the jobs program, where teens are matched with volunteer businesses and other workplaces to gain hard-to-get job experience, make a little money and develop a belief in their future. It's operated by the Children of the Sun Athletic Education Foundation,a decade-old grass-roots community group, using grant money from the Norfolk Department of Human Services.
The program was a natural outgrowth of Children of the Sun's original efforts: expand the poverty-cramped world of inner-city children through new experiences - soccer, tennis - and keep the kids busy and away from the temptations and dangers of idle time on the streets.
The foundation later saw a need for tutoring and added it. Then it started the jobs program to help prepare teens for the workplace and to show them a positive alternative to the quick cash of drugs and other illegal ventures.
``We realized we need to be concerned about the whole child,'' said Millicent L. Riddick, educational coordinator for Children of the Sun and co-coordinator of the summer jobs program.
Everything is aimed at getting the youths to plan productive futures. This can take some doing. These kids generally can't look forward to summer camps or jobs mowing lawns for neighbors. For many, tomorrow is about as much of a future as they dare to think about.
Children of the Sun pays the wages for the program's 26 teens, who are 13 to 17 years old - often too young to find other jobs. The participating businesses, non-profit outfits and public entities like libraries and the Norfolk Sheriff's Office donate workplaces and supervision.
Participants do everything from helping out in lawyers' offices to watching children in day care centers to cutting weeds for two or three hours each weekday morning. Then they attend afternoon classes teaching workplace ethics, money management and related skills, along with tutoring in writing and math. The students' pay rises through the summer and from year to year, ranging up to $100 a week.
Foundation officials found that, even during the school year, youngsters have a lot of free time and a desire for work experience and money to save. The officials are hunting for additional grants or other funding to make that happen.
They also want to increase the number of city teens they're trying to help keep out of trouble, stay away from drugs, not get pregnant, and remain focused on school and careers - on a future. On dreams.
They'd also like to add other components they see the need for, such as classes in conflict mediation and parenting skills.
``Family, community, school - the holistic approach,'' said Abdul L. Aswad, co-coordinator of the jobs program and a Children of the Sun founder. ``We feel five weeks of summer is not enough.''
The foundation has its dreams, too.
The computer in the Tabernacle of Prayer Christian School's office is new. Cecelia used to be new, too, to this now-ubiquitous office technology.
``I knew how to type, but she's teaching me how to use the computer,'' Cecelia said, nodding toward school secretary Andrea A. Hawkins.
It's Cecelia's second year in the program.
``I would probably be sitting home doing nothing,'' she said. ``This is making me a well-rounded person.''
``We saw it as a way to help our at-risk children,'' Hawkins said. ``That's the purpose of our school, as well, to reach out to the community and our children. . . .''
One of the goals is to have some businesses hire students for real.
``And they have,'' Riddick said. ``This is sort of our banner year. We know three or four of the employers said they can continue working when the program's over.''
Downstairs in the Tabernacle school, Jason A. Howard helped in the summer school class where Riddick teaches. Howard, like Cecelia a 16-year-old Booker T. junior, hunkered over a paperback with Derek Barnes, 12.
``Anx . . . anx . . . ,'' Derek faltered while reading aloud.
``Anxiously,'' Jason prompted.
Later, Jason helped Derek at the chalkboard with multiplication. Math is Jason's specialty.
``I've got something to do, while there's nothing to do where I stay,'' he said between classes. This was his third year in the program - he said he's done everything, from trimming trees to making trophies to painting rooms to working in a library. He tried unsuccessfully to land a fast-food job earlier this summer.
What's the program taught him? ``To be responsible,'' he said quickly. ``And just how to keep money. . . . And not to give up, not to quit. My first year, I wanted to quit. I was cut up, scratches.
``It's paying off now, because I'm getting paid more this year than I was last year.''
In the afternoon class, Jason and the others discussed the good parts of their jobs - ``Playing with the toys!'' ``Getting a break!'' - and the not-so-good: ``Cleaning up bathrooms!'' They complained about the pay and getting wet in the rain, which turned one boy's socks purple.
Burnell Williams, an accountant volunteer who instructs the youths on money management, offered to help them learn how to save money, using self-discipline and Christian principles. He proposed a goal of each of them being worth $1 million by the year 2020, when most of the kids would be entering their 40s. To participate, he told them they'd likely be sacrificing today's Nike and Timberland shoes ``for tomorrow's dreams,'' and undergo monthly financial evaluations.
It was a hard sell. Out of 25 students, six hands were raised. Cecelia's was one of them.
``Well, I appreciate your honesty,'' Williams said.
``Today,'' co-coordinator Aswad said, ``it seems that most youth like things that are kind of automatic: fast food, nice clothes. Nothing wrong with those things. But the price you have to pay is work - honest, hard work.''
And dreams must be tempered by reality.
``Everybody you ask, say, `What do you want to do?' they say, `Be a doctor or a lawyer,' '' Riddick said. ``It's unrealistic to be a lawyer if you don't like to read.''
Stephen G. Peters, principal of Lafayette-Winona Middle School, which donates the classroom for the afternoon session, praised the jobs program. He recommended some of his students for it this summer.
``I think we're about the business of restoring hope,'' Peters said. ``Because a lot of these kids have lost hope because of their experiences.
``I see what they do with these kids. And few people - very few people - have a passion for kids, and consistently show up. Kids pay more attention to what you do than what you say.''
At a time of continued calls for funding cuts in government social services, professionals welcome the help of the community, the broader-based - business, church, neighborhood - the better. And sometimes more likely to succeed.
``I think they're really spawned by the unique needs seen in the community,'' said Suzanne Puryear, director of Norfolk's Department of Human Services.
She's seen more such efforts in recent years as needs grow and the government can't keep pace. She can see bureaucrats like those in her agency developing over time into facilitators to such local groups, offering technical assistance and advice.
``There is plenty of work out there for all of us,'' Puryear said.
``I think we're getting a much clearer idea that we need to get out of the way of these local groups. . . .
``They know what these youngsters are like and what they need. They know what these parents are like and what they need.''
What many need are dreams.
``You can have a good soccer team, but when soccer's over, then what?'' Riddick asked.
``That's what we're trying to get them to focus on, the `then what?' '' MEMO: For more information about the Children of the Sun's youth
job-training program, call 543-2502. ILLUSTRATION: Cecelia Rountree is one of 26 teens in the Children of
the Sun's program. by CNB