Walton Park Manor Youth Council

By Altoria Bell Ross

Nakkita Webber used to be a reserved seventh grader with average grades at Jefferson Whittier Middle School. Then a year ago, the 12-year-old got involved with programs offered at her co-op, Walton Park Manor in Pontiac, Michigan. “I used to be quiet. Now I’m outspoken. I used to sit at home,” she says. “Now I’m out there.”  

Nakkita is out there working in the community as vice president of the Walton Park Junior Board, as a Big Sister to a three-year old girl and seven-year old boy, and as a volunteer writer and desktop publisher for a community newsletter through the Venturing program of the Clinton Valley Boy Scouts Council. “These programs have had a big impact on my life and educational skills,” says Nakkita, who is now an honor roll student.

The ability of Walton Park to offer these youth programs for 5 to 18 year olds, along with a score of others, is possible through a $75,000 three-year grant from the United Way of Oakland County. Based on Walton Park’s work with its junior board, the United Way in partnership with Michigan State University Extension approached the co-op, along with three other low- to moderate-income communities, to participate in the Pontiac Neighborhood Youth Initiative, a pilot program that provides neighborhood community center support services. Michigan State trained co-op members to go door-to door conducting surveys to determine the type of services members needed and later recruiting youth to participate in the programs. Michigan State also assisted the co-op’s adults and youths in asset mapping, a process whereby the participants used household items to illustrate what their community would look like if they had designed it.

“We wanted the community members to tell us what programs they wanted in their communities,” said Rose Culpepper, community outreach coordinator at United Way of Oakland County, the only United Way in the state to offer this program. “The intent of the grant was to empower the residents.”

This empowerment came around the same time HUD gave Walton Park permission in 1999 to convert a two-bedroom townhouse into a youth center with the bedrooms as staff offices, the basement serving as a meeting place for youth programs, and the living room as the YAPO Computer Learning Center. In addition to Nakkita’s groups, Walton Park provides other youth services and programs onsite through the Michigan Metro Girl Scouts Council, Campfire USA, Big Brothers & Big Sisters, Oakland Family Services, and the MSU Extension 4-H Club.

Nine-year old Aaron Barnett enjoys the 4-H, an organization that takes youth on cultural field trips and work with them on coping skills, making positive decisions, anticipating change, and maximizing their skills and interests to benefit their communities. “I like how we get to learn about different countries and languages,” he says of a recent field trip to the 4-H club at the Kettunen Center in Tustin, Michigan. “It’s a fun experience.”

Barnett also likes using the Internet on one of the 10 computers at the YAPO Computer Center. His brother 14-year-old Alton Barnett, II, who is well versed in several software programs, helps some of the 20 students who come to the center with their computer skills after school. “You really learn leadership skills,” said the 12-year member and president of Walton Park’s junior board who also spends five hours a week studying at the center.

The center, which is opened every day but Sunday, is not just for youth, says program director Yolanda Terry, who was hired by the co-op’s management company, Huntington Management. Seniors are encouraged to tell children stories from manuscripts they have typed on the computers, and the center has open lab time for the community. The Clinton Valley Boy Scouts Council, through its Explorer program, also uses the center to teach youths and adults how to build and upgrade computers. Technology Integration Group Services and U.B. Consulting, companies that have existing relationships with the co-op, donated the training and the memory for the computers. The computers then were given to the community.

Joe Bradley, board president, says facilitating the grant has been a learning experience. “Year one was overwhelming,” he said. “It was a new initiative. We had too many programs at the same time.” As a result, two of programs serving the same age group competed against one another. However, Bradley said by the second year, the co-op had worked out the scheduling problems.

In addition to the various youth organizations that operate at Walton Park, the co-op’s junior board, which receives United Way dollars, is vibrant. The first board petered out in 1997 when its members went to college; the current board was born again two years later and now meets twice monthly to discuss strategies to recruit more youth for programs, organizes fundraisers for such educational opportunities as attendance at the NAHC annual conferences, and holds annual management meetings.

Walton Park’s leaders suggest co-ops that are seeking similar funding should organize youth into councils and survey them and other members to find out their needs. Then build goals and visions around them, while including the youth in the process. Walton Park’s leaders also recommend contacting the local United Way, youth service organizations, area schools, universities, and businesses to ask if they would be interested in doing community outreach programs. This initiative just might garner young leaders for your co-op like Nakkita, Aaron, and Alton—valuable resources for the future.