In case you were wondering...

...what is happening with the Youth Center and why, here's a press release about it.

Press Statement-Ocracoke Youth Center Scales Back Operations

The Ocracoke Youth Center is a local nonprofit that has provided activities and services for youth and families on this island since 1995. In September of 2010 we received word that Ocracoke school had been awarded a 21st Century Community Learning Grant. The Youth Center had signed on as a collaborative partner in the application, so naturally we were excited about the possibilities of working with the school and having funding for some of our programming that the kids enjoyed. Our thoughts were that since we already offered programming that was best described as enrichment (music club, cheerleading, reading groups, art, etc) the school would allow students to participate in these programs with funding from the grant. We looked forward to and eagerly anticipated how we would collaborate with the grant. We never would have dreamed that four months into our collaboration we would be ceasing programming at the Youth Center.

As we learned more about the operational guidelines of the grant, we noticed a couple of warning signs. First, to be a participant in the grant you have to attend academic remediation from 3:30-4:30 followed by enrichment from 4:30 to 6:00pm. This is required Monday thru Thursday. Throw in dinner and much needed family time and there is no time for anything else. Secondly, the grant requires 100 participants to continue to receive funding. Since there are only 150 students in the school, the bulk of past participants of Youth Center activities would need to participate in the grant for it to remain viable. The demand on the kids’ time required of the grant simply does not leave them with the time or the desire to attend programming outside of school.

As for individual programs, any instructors that did programs for the Youth Center can now do them within the framework of the grant with the added benefit of being paid more money. The grant program has its own coordinator so there is no need to have a facilitator from an outside organization like the Youth Center. In short, this means that there is no longer a need for the Youth Center. Anything that could be done by the Youth Center can now be done with the grant. There simply are not enough kids on the island to support both organizations.

Our board met in early January and decided to place Youth Center programming on hiatus while maintaining our nonprofit status. We have given up our lease on the Youth Center facility on Highway 12, and by April will have released our staff. We will continue to operate Village Thrift, located behind Ocracoke Coffee Co., to raise funds for future community needs. We will re-evaluate next year to see if there is a need for our programming. There are a few gaps in what the school program can offer and the needs of the community and we will continue to evaluate that need. Should anything happen to the grant we will be ready to renew our efforts.

Bob Chestnut
Chairperson, Ocracoke Youth Center Board