< Back | Home

Jason Caraway, senior recreation administration major, helps Bria Smith, sixth grader at Jefferson Elementary School with her geography homework Tuesday afternoon at Charleston Teen Reach.

Reaching out to teens

Charleston Teen Reach offers life skill activities for teens

By: Jennifer Hawes/ Staff Writer

Posted: 4/13/05

Charleston Teen Reach has been helping guide teenagers in the local community to better paths.

The Charleston City Council proclaimed April as Teen Reach Awareness Month at last week's meeting to help raise awareness of Charleston's program and the benefits it has had for the community.

"(The employees and volunteers there) do a good job," Mayor Dan Cougill said of the program. "They work with the schools and do a lot of focus on the elementary schools to try and catch (teens) before they get set in their ways."

Teen Reach has been present in Charleston for seven to eight years and consists of 15 to 40 students between the ages of 10 and 17 who are registered in local schools.

Students in the program learn a variety of life skill activities, some of which include doing their own laundry, playing sports and learning about the risks of drugs.

"This program tries to target at-risk youth and reduces some behaviors of teen pregnancy, teen smoking and juvenile delinquency," said Mary Gienko, director of the Charleston Teen Reach program. "The program provides the students with academic assistance, sports recreation, cultural and artistic activities and parental involvement."

The local program employs 11 people and has 24 volunteers, 95 percent of which are from Eastern.

"Eastern students give us needed time spent to help children with academics and provide a mentor service," Gienko said.

Teen Reach counselors believe in their mission as role models for the youth.

"The program provides a safe after-school activity where the youth can receive help with homework and get educated in life skills activities," said Josh Kroeger, a youth counselor for the Charleston program.

One of the most difficult problems students have are "anger issues" and "outbursts," he said. To improve the problem there's an anger management class where the students learn how to control their anger.

"There are many activities the students enjoy such as movie appreciation, working in the computer lab and hands-on activities," Gienko said. "The hardest part is to get the students to do their homework."

The teens participate in football and basketball games, and in the summer they enjoy fishing, Kroeger said.

Students also form their own groups and get involved in the community. The Teen Group is a group of students in Teen Reach who help with community service, volunteer at nursing homes and plan parties and fund raisers.

The Illinois Community Based Learn and Serve program is now planning a community service project called "The Take Charge Curriculum," which is funded by a $5,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services. This money will allow students to make improvements throughout the community.

Gienko said she can see how Teen Reach has affected teens' lives.

"The students have improved with their school work, their attitude and have become more involved with the community," she said.

And Kroeger said he hopes the things being taught will be things the teens will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

"Hopefully they'll learn to be positive adult mentors themselves," Kroeger said.