The lights are on at all 16 of the city's recreation centers and they have staff. But if residents want entertainment, reading programs and dance at the centers, then volunteers are needed, city officials said.
"If adults want to have a great future, then they better start to step up and connect with these youth because they are our future," said Missy Crutchfield, the city's Department of Education Arts & Culture administrator.
Ms. Crutchfield is seeking volunteers for the city's Most Dangerous Time of the Day campaign. The campaign focuses on keeping young people out of trouble from 3 to 6 p.m., the after-school time when many parents still are at work and hundreds of children have no parental supervision.
"Gang violence, teenage pregnancy, drugs, all of that has its biggest opportunity to strike between 3 to 6 p.m.," Ms. Crutchfield said. "It may be too large a scale to say we're going to tackle gang violence, but what difference could we make if each adult commits one hour a week to working with youth?"
The campaign announcement comes as January was designated as National Mentoring Month by President Barack Obama. As part of the campaign, organizations across the country are encouraging adults to become mentors to youth.
City officials are in the process of signing up volunteers for the local centers, said Dorothea Richardson, the city's volunteer coordinator.
Volunteers already signed up include a local police officer who is offering to read to students and a local artist offering to teach arts and craft classes. All talents and time are appreciated, Ms. Richardson said.
GET INVOLVED* To volunteer at one of the city's recreation centers, call Dorothea Richardson at 425-7823.
"We're looking for someone who wants to teach an arts and crafts class or, if you're good at math and you want to tutor kids, you're helping them grow," she said.
Ms. Richardson said she started reading to children at the Shelia M. Jennings Westside Recreation Center about five months ago.
"You can travel to 100 countries and never leave your bed when you read," she said.
She was encouraged when she was late one day and children asked if she still planned to come.
"It made me feel good that they noticed," she said. "With children you can come all day and they don't care, but I wasn't more than five minutes late and they were asking if I was coming."