He comes to the private, nonprofit youth center to get help with homework. “We talk about things, how was our day,” Whitmore said. “The best thing about coming here is friendship.”
When his homework is done, he said, “I come outside and play.”
Inside the center, Director Julia Sleeper gave a tour to Lee Auto Malls’ Adam Lee, who was there to donate books. As she led the tour the group dodged smiling students coming and going.
Like most days after school, Tree Street Youth on inner city Howe Street was bustling.
A year ago, Sleeper, a 2008 Bates College graduate and Tree Street founder, didn’t know if her idea of a summer camp program for disadvantaged, inner city children would work.
It did. In the fall, Tree Street expanded with an after-school program. Seven months later, “It’s going great,” Sleeper said. “Word is spreading.”
On a typical day 120 to 150 students in grades K-12, many who live in the neighborhood, come to the after-school center. Since it opened, “we’ve had over 550 different kids come through,” Sleeper said. The numbers exceeded expectations.
“It’s almost overwhelming at times. It’s so many kids,” Sleeper said. “You want to give every single kid as much attention and support as they need.” She described them as “amazing kids who really are going places and have a lot of dreams and things they want to do, but need support to get there.”
Through donations and grants, Tree Street operates on a shoestring budget of $80,000 a year. “Rent and utilities are our biggest costs,” Sleeper said, the only full-time paid staffer.
The after-school program is free. Families are asked to donate supplies if they can.
What makes the center work, she said, is support from the community, both in donations, grants and volunteers.
Organizations that help include Trinity Church, Bates College and a sizable list of businesses, organizations and individuals. For (free) staffing, the center has “a committed volunteer base, people who really feel drawn to Tree Street,” Sleeper said. Because of them, “we really are able to maintain and support the kids who come in.”
Last summer, Tree Street opened with help from Bates students who teach and mentor. In the fall it received help from University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College students. During the spring semester Tree Street began “getting whole classes committed to doing several hours a day, which is great,” Sleeper said.
Other volunteers include other adults and high school students. In all, Tree Street has more than 200 volunteers, which gives it a student-mentor ratio of “5-to-1 on a good day, 7-to-1 on a bad,” Sleeper said.
Frank Wotton, 49, of Lewiston, is a junior at the Lewiston college majoring in social and behavioral sciences. Mentoring at Tree Street is part of his classwork, he said. “I like it. I’m getting a lot out of it,” he said, adding it helps kids stay busy with healthy activities.
Ngoni Ditima, 25, a native of Zimbabwe and senior at the Lewiston college, said he likes mentoring at Tree Street. It makes a difference and shows youngsters that USM LAC is a college they can attend. And Tree Street sheds light that the neighborhood “is not all bad down here,” he said.
Everyone benefits, said USM LAC Assistant Professor of social and behavioral sciences Michelle Jacobus. College students are learning more by mentoring than they could from text books, Jacobus said.
Tree Street youth “have all these adults in their lives. They get help with homework, play in a safe, nurturing environment. They get so much. What Julia is doing here is amazing.”
For more information: http://tree-street-youth.org/
or email treestreetyouth@gmail.com
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- Khalid Ibn, 11, looks to Tree Street Youth volunteer Sandi King for some help on a math problem recently.
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