Audio clip
Deborah Maddox
More than 50 area children will help plot their life’s road map this week during four sessions that combine fun and education in a free community-based program at Second Missionary Baptist Church.
Project Success, run by nonprofit Second Missionary Services since 2006, is offered to children from age 8 through 12th grade during spring, summer and fall public school breaks.
“We want them to have an understanding that they’ve got to have some sense of who they are,” said organizer Deborah Maddox.
Among the areas covered in the sessions are alcohol and drug awareness/prevention, anti-gang involvement, abstinence, teen dating, relationship building, community involvement, life choices, financial liability, the value of education and appropriate social behaviors.
Organizations such as First Things First, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, the Front Porch Alliance and the Community Impact Fund provide staff members to lead seminar topics.
Deborah Gunn, project director at First Things First, said this will be the organization’s second time to partner with Project Success.
“We teach teens ages 14 and up dating relationship skills,” she said.
This spring’s focus is cultural identity, said Ms. Maddox, who heads a staff of around 12 volunteers who work with the children in three age groups (8 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14-up).
Among the leaders of this week’s presentations are Yusuf Hakeem of Tennessee’s Board of Probation and Parole, a First Things First staff member, retired teachers, church members and volunteers.
Project leaders mix in activities with the seminar presentations to make sure the time doesn’t become just another week of school for participants.
As part of the Monday through Thursday sessions, students — the group had 77 one session — visit regional colleges and universities.
“We want to try to make sure you make a decision that can get you further in life,” Ms. Maddox said.
Participants previously have gone to Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala.; Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse and Spelman colleges in Atlanta; Meharry Medical College and Fisk and Tennessee State universities in Nashville; and Knoxville College in Knoxville.
This year, attendees will visit the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Foundation grants, donations from individuals, in-kind support from Second Missionary Baptist and fundraisers pay for the program, Ms. Maddox said.
PROJECT SUCCESS
Project Success will meet from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today through Thursday at Second Missionary Baptist Church, 2305 E. Third St.
Children and youths from the age of 8 through 12th grade may participate. There is no charge to attend.
For information, call Deborah Maddox at 488-4643.
Clint Cooper is the faith editor and a staff writer for the Times Free Press Life section. He also has been an assistant sports editor and Metro staff writer for the newspaper. Prior to the merger between the Chattanooga Free Press and Chattanooga Times in 1999, he was sports news editor for the Chattanooga Free Press, where he was in charge of the day-to-day content of the section and the section’s design. Before becoming sports ...
Or login with:
New Account