Proposed Northern Berkshire Teen Center Secures $100,000 Grant

Courtney Randall, pastor at the New Hope United Methodist Church in Williamstown and head of a task force charged with the creation of a Northern Berkshire teen center, speaks about the future of the center.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A proposed Northern Berkshire teen center has taken a giant step forward with the acquisition of a $100,000 grant.

Courtney Randall, pastor at the New Hope United Methodist Church in Williamstown and head of a task force charged with the creation of a teen center, told the May meeting of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition on Friday that the $100,000 - received from the shuttered United Methodist Church in Great Barrington - has been secured for work over the next three years. That work will include the transition of the task force to a formal board of directors, an identical youth board of directors, a retreat for the youth board, a part-time executive director and a lease for space for the center.

"It is a wonderful thing moving forward," Randall said. "The next step is, it's going to happen."

"It" has been dubbed the "Northern Berkshire Youth Center" until a more suitable and creative name can be decided on, preferably by the youths themselves.

"It's a generic name. We don't want a bunch of adults naming it," Randall said, echoing a recurring sentiment about the importance of this project being driven by the youth it will serve. "We can walk alongside them and give thanks for the inspiration they are."

The center's strategic plan included input from a "youth unite" event in December as well as a youth conference held in 2013 at Mass MoCA. The Berkshire Hills Internship Program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts also did a summer project in 2014 that involved the creation of a blueprint for the formation of the center.

The mission of the center is "to be a place in Northern Berkshire County where youth ages 14-22 are heard, encouraged and empowered," according to the strategic plan. Or, as Randall said, it aims to be a "safe place, or a space where they can come and it's OK not to be OK."

How exactly the teen center ends up looking will again be up to youths it will be serving, not the adults needed to volunteer on the board of directors. They are not "re-creating the wheel," Randall said, but are studying similar models in the area, including The Youth Center Inc. in Adams and Railroad Street Youth Project in Great Barrington.

Amber Lafogg, the Youth Center's enrichment coordinator, joined the discussion on Friday and outlined how she had restarted a dormant teen program in Adams. First she created a once-a-week teen night for teenagers to hang out, have dinner and talk. That worked for a while, she said.

"That turned into they wanted their own space," Lafogg said. So she found one room in the Youth Center building, and the teenagers helped paint the walls, choose furniture and install a television. Now on any given day there are more than a dozen teenagers utilizing the space. "It's kind of their spot."

A spot like that would have helped Robert Foster, a member of the Youth Leadership Program who has been one of the young people assisting with the beginnings of the project.

"During my teenage years, there wasn't a place for me to go like this," Foster said. "This would have helped me when I was in high school."

What else would help teens in high school? In breakout groups at the Friday meeting, the 50 or so people in attendance came up with many suggestions on what should be included in the center. Ideas pitched included kitchen space, game rooms with arcade games and pool tables, outdoor space, a library, a music space and more.

The breakout groups also discussed the challenges to getting the center up and running, including finding suitable space, securing funding for long-term sustainability, engaging the greater community and finding volunteers.

"We need people, we need volunteers," Randall said. "We need this to be something that the community can be invested in."

Jess Sweeney, UNITY program associate for the Coalition and moderator of the panel discussion, echoed that sentiment when introducing the people that joined Randall in talking about the needs of the center.

"This is a community effort," she said before introducing her UNITY colleague Adam Tobin, who spoke about some of the Youth Leadership Program's goals for a teen center.

"Giving them a platform, giving them an ear to listen and helping them flourish," Tobin said. "That's what we can bring to the teen center."

The strategic plan calls for the board to be formed in June, an executive director hired in July and a space leased in September. A soft launch is planned for June 2016, with a program director being hired and nonprofit status being secured in 2017 and a fully functioning and fully funded center operating by January of 2019.

Randall admitted it's probably not soon enough for the eager youths who have been involved in the planning of the center.

"One of the things we kept hearing is that the teens want it yesterday," she said.

Alan Bashevkin, executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, said he was excited about the possibilities despite the fact that similar projects have not been brought to fruition in the past.

"That doesn't mean there's not a need," he said.

Bashevkin, presiding over his last meeting as the head of the Coalition, ended the meeting thanking the work of all the people involved and said he had two closing thoughts: the need for sustainable funding and the idea of teens policing themselves.

"I think for this to be successful, that's the only way it's going to happen. I don't think that adults can make it happen like that," he said. "The participants themselves can make it happen."

Gesturing toward the students from the E3 Academy at Drury High School who attended the forum on Friday, he said: "When the youth center happens, be part of that. Because I think that's really important."

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