By Amainavt Vixama
I completed my volunteer hours at Teen REACH which is located at the Illinois Coalition for Community Services office in Charleston. Teen REACH is an after school program that is also open for the summer for children within the ages of 11 and 17. The program is organized by the coordinator CJ Porter, a staff of student counselors and volunteers.
During the school year, Teen REACH is open from 3:30 until 6:30 p.m. The counselors pick up the children either from school or at their homes and take them to their homes at the end of each day. The program provides the children with homework assistance, positive guidance from the counselors, and a variety of activities. Majority of these children come from broken, abusive homes; with parents that are not often present or work long night shifts. The purpose of the program is to provide these children with a safe and healthy environment where they can socialize learn and supports one another during the hours when most of their parents are either still at work or unavailable. The program provides the children with an abundance amount of activities, such as WII, pool table, big screen TV with countless of movies to choose from, an indoor basketball game, table hockey, field trips to the University, to the pool and many more. They often have special guest entertainment from the University such as dance teams, role model speakers etc.
As a volunteer, I helped prepare the snack for the children before they arrived to the office. I assisted one of the counselors in making a hamburger helper meal and Kool-Aid to drink. Once the children arrived, their first task is to complete any homework assignment that they have prior to eating and taking part in any activities. I sat in the homework room with four of the teens and helped each of them out with their homework. While talking to them, a few of them expressed that their parents rarely take the time to help them with their homework. Majority of these children struggle in school and have a hard time understanding concepts. It was evident that if these kids did not have Teen REACH as a resource, most of them wouldn’t have gotten as far as they are academically.
After homework is done, they all went into the kitchen to eat. I had a chance to speak to CJ, the coordinator and he expressed his feelings about the children and why he is so passionate about his job. According to Mr. Porter, for majority of the children, the snack that they receive at Teen REACH is often their last meal of the day. They are not being fed adequately at their homes and rely greatly on the program to provide these opportunities for them. This program has been a great asset to the community for the children because Teen REACH serves as a safe haven for them where they can feel at ease to play, eat, learn and enjoy being kids; which is something they don’t all receive in their homes. Talking to CJ was very inspiring because all of his reasons for doing his job are the same reasons as why I want to go into School Counseling. It’s nice to speak to someone working in similar fields and to see how passionate they are about what they do.
This service activity reflected concepts learned in the current FCS course because all of the Teen REACH kids come from Disadvantaged families. They each have their own personal struggle they undergo with their families on a daily basis and often have to deal with some of these obstacles on their own due to their parents’ lack of presence in their lives. As CJ said, many of them do not receive the proper amount of nutrition that is needed and often wear the same clothes for days. Some of the parents work several jobs in order to make ends meet for their families, and others just aren’t doing enough. These children all endure various types of abuse within the home and all struggle to live a happy care-free childhood.
Teen REACH is a wonderful program; going into it, you learn as much about yourself and life in general just as much as the children learn from you. Its great experience for anyone interested into working with children or going into any fields related to family services.
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