United Way program aims to build 'emerging leaders'

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterAdrienne Hall, left, operates "robot" Valerie Paris during a program Friday at United Way for students who were chosen for their leadership qualities.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterAdrienne Hall, left, operates "robot" Valerie Paris during a program Friday at United Way for students who were chosen for their leadership qualities.
photo Staff Photo by Angela Lewis FosterDavid Meredith, second from right, talks with Valerie Paris, right, Randy Brady, left, and Edrius Cameron during a program Friday at United Way for students who were chosen for their leadership qualities.

Blindfolded and with their arms outstretched, the teenagers shuffled slowly around a large conference room in the United Way's Market Street headquarters in Chattanooga.

They depended on partners standing behind them for guidance. A tap to turn left, another to turn right, a different signal to quit.

"Stop, stop!" one guide shrieked as two blindfolded teens appeared ready to collide.

The exercise was part of the Emerging Leaders MVP program, in which teens selected for their leadership potential are matched with adult community mentors. The teens, in turn, are sent back into their communities to help mentor younger children at community centers in the city's most at-risk neighborhoods.

With the help of a Tennessee Volunteers grant underwritten by the federal government and local agencies including 12 Family and Youth Development Centers, Northside Neighborhood House, the Bethlehem Center and the Salvation Army, 30 local students aged 12 to 18 will complete the training and gear up to work as mentors themselves.

Friday marked the beginning of training for the program. It was the teens' first chance to interact with their own potential mentors, who come from a range of professional fields.

"It's extremely important for young people to have someone listening to them," said Elizabeth Tallman, United Way's associate director of education and community impact.

She said each of the volunteers and students has committed to a year of service. Friday's schedule included coaching on the best ways to help younger students with homework, volunteering tips and a motivational workbook and message from Lurone "Coach" Jennings, administrator of Chattanooga's Youth and Family Development division.

Jennings offered students bits and pieces of his own story - a teacher and a coach were key in pushing him toward success, but he also had to keep an eye on his own goals, he said.

"Real, true and visionary servant leaders are the kind of leaders who are not afraid to do the right thing," Jennings said. "Even when your peers call you a nerd."

April Cowan, 55, said she volunteered to mentor in the time when she's not working as a remodeling designer.

She'll be assigned between one and three teens to mentor. She hopes her work with them, and their work with other children, will help battle literacy problems.

It's hard to break through to students, she said, "when they've got all sorts of outside influences going on."

David Meredith, 64, interim executive director at the Bethlehem Center in Alton Park, said young people should be taught to use their talents.

The youths trained through Emerging Leaders will be expected to work with elementary students who may not understand why homework is necessary, and who may be missing crucial school supplies as well as motivation. Meredith also signed on as a volunteer, and hopes the skills teens gained Friday will spread through their communities.

"I think we can train these youth to be leaders, and they can train other youth," he said.

Meredith nominated two students who already work at the Bethlehem Center for the MVP program.

One is Jasmine Brown, 16, who said she wants to be an example of the future Meredith sees. She learned important tools from her own time at the Bethlehem Center, whose volunteers were mentors to her along with her sister.

They helped her succeed, she said, but it wasn't always easy. Now she's working her way through the Howard School, and she wants to pass it on.

"I'm hoping I can help teach some children to make the right choices and go off and be successful in life," Brown said.

Contact staff writer Claire Wiseman at cwise man@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow her on Twitter @clairelwise man.

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