Empowering Darke County Youth may never be big enough to change the world, but it is a tool that is helping to change Darke County
By Jenette Stark
Empowering Darke County Youth, Greenville After School Program Coordinator
Living in Darke County is an experience that is very different from other parts of the state or even the country. I am from Austin, Texas, a city that has 84 elementary schools. The city is so big children become a number. Outside of school, it is very unlikely that you will see them in the community. Darke County is different. When you work with the kids, you see them playing on your street, or in the grocery store, or waving at you when you are both in the drive-through. You watch these kids grow up every year, and yet many of them are slipping through the cracks.
There can be a million reasons why they are slipping. Some of them we cannot prevent. However, some we can. Greenville, for example, has great teachers, staff and intervention professionals. They are dedicated to their students. Parents care about their children, but for a variety of reasons may be unable to help with their child’s academic challenges. Enter Empowering Darke County Youth.
The benefit of having a program like this is we are here to catch these kids or help the ones who have fallen get up and become stronger. I have now been part of EDCY for several years and have watched transformations that I never thought possible.
I worked with a little girl who I met when she was in the fifth grade. She was reading at a first grade level. She had been determined to be dyslexic. Reading with her in a classroom of kids in our Summer Tutoring Program, she struggled. One day she mentioned that it was too loud, so we crawled under the table so that we could block the noise while reading. Within a few weeks, she was up to a third grade reading level. Now three years later, she is only one reading level behind and has noise-canceling headphones in class. She is now thriving.
I worked with a boy who was a behavior problem: defiant and rude. He thought no one cared and everyone wanted to get him in trouble. Every time he came to our program, we told him that we were glad to see him. That was all he needed to want to try. He worked very hard to get back up to grade level and has now been on the Merit Roll for two years.
As much as all of us – teachers, staff, volunteers, Empowering tutors – are here to help these kids, and we have all of these tools and curriculum, none of it matters if the child does not want to learn or work to improve themselves. We show them that we care. We help them want to learn. Seeing them in the store, excited to tell us they read a book to a younger sibling or a parent, is a reward beyond measure.
We have kids who need to get their homework done with us because their parents don’t understand what the kids are learning today. EDCY has done that for hundreds of kids, helping them thrive emotionally, mentally, and educationally. Our impacts become those life-changing moments that we take for granted. When you look back, you may see having a child, meeting your spouse, graduating from college as your life-changing moment. These kids get that moment from being able to read a whole book or getting a ‘B’ in a course they’d been struggling in. This program may never be big enough to change the world, but it is a tool that is helping to change Darke County.
If you would like to help us help our future citizens, email empoweringyouth101@gmail.com, message us on Facebook or drop a line to Empowering at P.O. Box 1113, Greenville, OH 45331.
The Empowering Mission: Empowering Darke County Youth is a 501c3 United Way Partner Agency providing After School and Summer Tutoring programs to assist students in the areas of reading, language arts and math with the goal of Strong Students for a Strong Community.
Photo: Jenette Stark, Empowering After School Program Coordinator for Greenville, right, accepts a donation from Dianna Wagner, President, Harry D. Stephens Memorial Trust.