Published: November 01, 2009 09:41 am      

'We have to create hope': Schools, residents team up, reach out to troubled kids

They’re calling it a “Great Conemaugh Valley Disaster.”

This time, though, it’s not a reference to a devastating Johnstown flood.

Rather, it’s a deluge of a different kind: Hundreds or even thousands of young people who are leaving school without adequate social or academic skills – teens whose “readiness for future success in life is virtually nonexistent.”

The trend has troubling implications for the Greater Johnstown area, its job market and its social fabric.



Two local residents have spent months laying groundwork for a potential remedy:

A large-scale mentoring program that will involve hundreds of adults, dozens of local agencies and three school districts.

It’s an ambitious project that will require support from the entire community if it is to succeed and survive.

But advocates say they have no choice but to undertake the project.

“These kids have no hope. We have to create hope for them,” said Steve Purich, an Upper Yoder Township resident who is leading the effort.

The project targets three Cambria County school districts: Conemaugh Valley, Ferndale Area and Greater Johnstown.

Statistics show why they were selected:

• More than 64 percent of students in those districts came from low-income families in the 2008-09 school year, according to the state Department of Education. Countywide, only

42 percent of students were classified as low-income, and the statewide number – 36 percent – was even lower.

• Greater Johnstown had the highest percentage of low-income students of any district in Cambria County: Nearly 74 percent districtwide, a number that rose to 81 percent at East Side Elementary.

• While Conemaugh Valley and Ferndale had few dropouts, Greater Johnstown recorded 36 in the 2007-08 school year. That’s more than a third of all the dropouts reported in Cambria County.

• Statewide, 75 percent of graduating seniors said they were pursuing some sort of post-secondary education at the end of the 2007-08 school year. But fewer than 54 percent of Greater Johnstown’s seniors planned to further their education. Ferndale and Conemaugh Valley also were below the state and county average for post-secondary education.

Young people ‘at risk’

While those numbers may surprise some, they are not shocking to the leaders of those schools. “We have known for a number of years that our poverty rate is around 80 percent,” said Barbara Parkins, Greater Johnstown’s superintendent. “And for students who are economically disadvantaged, it does put them at risk.”

Ferndale Area Superintendent Carole Kakabar said the district wrestles with problems including “attendance, lack of discipline, lack of achievement” and kids who come to school hungry or wearing dirty clothes.

“We all are looking for programs to help feed kids, and we have a breakfast and lunch program and offer snacks,” Kakabar said. “We’ve been introducing fruits and vegetables that kids have never seen or tried.”

All three schools have instituted programs to reach those pupils. Greater Johnstown, with the biggest enrollment in Cambria County, also has been making big efforts through after-school and summer programs. The district’s “Summer in the City” initiative attracts 500 kids every weekday.

Beyond school property, there also is no shortage of nonprofit-based educational, tutoring and mentoring programs aimed at children of all ages.

A project that recently made headlines is Goodwill Industries’ YouthBuild Johnstown, in which “at-risk” youths ages 16-24 get classroom instruction and on-the-job experience in construction.

But some say those efforts, while admirable and effective on a smaller scale, are not nearly enough. Without prompt intervention, they say, a significant portion of Johns-town’s youth will “drown” in the next Great Conemaugh Valley Disaster.

“We have young people graduating without fundamental skills,” said Mike Kane, executive director of the Johnstown-based Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.

‘Good intentions’

Purich’s own experiences have been a source of intense frustration: The retired financial planner formerly served as chairman of the Trojan College Access Program’s advisory board at Johnstown High.

“My main function was to raise money. So we had good intentions,” Purich said. “And then I saw that money isn’t going to help this.”

The bigger problem, Purich said, is that too many students were not prepared for college or even interested in attending.

“Raising money to go to school, and nobody wants to go to school – it’s useless,” he said.

Purich and Kane extensively researched the problem, and they believe that the Johns-town area’s poverty plays a big role. But there are other social factors, and Kane believes the trouble has such widespread roots – in schools, neighborhoods, families – that it is pointless to assign blame.

“You can’t point a finger,” he said. “It’s a complicated problem, and that doesn’t help.”

Instead, they’ve come up with an idea that is simple on its surface: Connecting students with adult mentors who can work with them one-on-one.

“We looked at a variety of things,” Kane said.

“What we kept coming back to is, kids need caring adults in their lives.”

What’s been termed the “Great Conemaugh Valley Intervention Plan” is scheduled to kick off Nov. 19 with an event at Pasquerilla Conference Center in downtown Johnstown.

And it will start with chess.

‘It’s about brainpower’

Orrin Hudson, a Georgia-based author, motivational speaker and founder of Be Someone Inc., will bring his chess-based program to local kids. He believes the game teaches analytical skills and patience so that students can “make the right moves” in their own lives.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity,” Hudson said, adding that his program is sustainable in any community.

“It’s something that wouldn’t cost much, because it’s low-tech, and it’s about brainpower,” he said.

Hudson’s visit – he plans to stop at all three targeted school districts and speak to seventh- and eighth-grade students who will be bused to the conference center – will make a big splash.

But Purich and Kane want to expand the program far beyond chess, and they’re asking for at least 150 adult volunteers who will be trained to mentor kids in a variety of ways.

“The program has to create passion and excitement. It can’t be driven by one person or two people,” Purich said.

“This is like a puzzle. We need pieces, and without the proper pieces, it won’t work.”

The time commitment will be modest, Purich said, but the payoff could be huge.

According to the Virginia-based National Mentoring Partnership, studies have shown that “high-quality” mentoring can improve a young person’s emotional well-being and cognitive skills.

Students who have been mentored also do better in school, drop out with less frequency and have less involvement with drugs and violence.

“We want it to work, and I think it will work,” Purich said.

‘Safe havens’

Purich has pitched the idea to schools, neighborhood groups, nonprofits and others.

So far, he said, the response has been largely positive.

The Rev. Sylvia J. King, who leads Christ-Centered Community Church in Johnstown’s Kernville neighborhood, signed on immediately. She’s even learning how to play chess.

Mentor interaction “will become safe havens, so to speak,” King said. “These will be safe places, and also places where children can grow.

“The way I see it,” she added, “there’s not a negative side.”

Mike Hruska agrees. The local businessman, who also is on the Young Professionals of the Alleghenies board, said he envisions working with kids using his skills as a musician and amateur magician.

“Artistic expression and creative freedom is a good confidence-builder, and it enhances curiosity,” Hruska said.

“As a businessperson, I’m going to encourage my employees to participate,” he added. “And the opportunity will be presented to the Young Professionals as well.”

All three school districts also have enthusiastically embraced the idea.

“It’s unique to have three school districts working together to solve a common problem and working to address the needs of the kids,” said David Lehman, Conemaugh Valley superintendent.

“We are doing this as a partnership and we can share resources. To see the lines crossed is just great – it’s not the Blue Jays or Yellow Jackets or Trojans like it is Friday night or Saturday morning.”

‘Long-term commitment’

Organizers acknowledge, however, that maintaining that enthusiasm will be a challenge.

And the program’s duration will be key to success or failure.

“Ten-percent improvement really doesn’t mean much,” Kane said. “This is a long-term commitment.”

Money also may become an issue. The National Mentoring Partnership estimates that such programs can cost as much as $1,500 per child per year.

That’s where Goodwill Industries of the Conemaugh Valley Inc. may come in.

Phyllis Bandstra, the organization’s president and chief executive officer, said the federal government has allocated $19.1 million to Goodwill for mentoring nationwide.

The local effort will receive some of that funding, Bandstra said. The cash could help set up an administrative framework so that “we will be able to marshal and continue to mobilize large numbers of volunteers,” Bandstra said.

In the end, though, it will be about bringing adults and kids to the same table.

And those students must be willing, enthusiastic participants – such as Marcus Seals, a 17-year-old junior at Greater Johnstown High School.

Seals this year has participated in an after-school program that he said has improved his grades.

“I was hesitant at first, but it wasn’t all work and we were able to go outside and play football, and my friends were there with me,” Seals said. “I think I’m going to start going back because it really helps.”

He pinpointed the biggest issue in his neighborhood: Kids with nothing to do getting into trouble with drugs or criminal activity.

Seals lived in Washington, D.C., and Tennessee prior to moving to Johnstown, and he believes the problems kids face are universal.

“We all just want a sense of belonging,” he said.