The Community Center for Youth is moving this month from its original location in the Walla Walla Armory to Paine High School after receiving a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The CCY program has been housed in the Armory since it started in 1999, and is looking towards their new location at Paine as an opportunity to expand and shift its focus from a largely recreational-based program to “meet the needs and desires of students, parents and community members,” said CCY executive director Catherine Broyles.

The process was initiated several years ago, when a board member made contact with a representative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. When Broyles starting working at CCY last November, her first task was to complete the grant. “What we are doing is moving to a place where we are asking, how many times a week are we seeing these kids? What kinds of activities are they engaging in? What’s happening with their school attendance, with their grades. What’s happening with their self-esteem?” said Broyles.

The grant money is enabling them to expand their hours, and in doing so, to provide skill-specific programming, like Excel to Excellence, a college readiness program that will enable CCY kids to work one-on-one with college students. “A lot of them don’t know a lot of people who have been through college so [this program makes it] much more accessible to them.” With the grant money they were also able to buy new vans, which will make possible college-centric field trips each month.

A video production class will be offered, which is going to teach the kids basic filming and editing techniques and culminate in a series of videos that are going to run on MTV and ESPN.
Art classes, a theatre program, soccer clinics, cooking classes: All of this will be possible at their new location, which offers smaller rooms that will serve to facilitate the development of skill-specific activities. “Here [at the Armory] we have a huge, huge gym, but what we don’t have are smaller rooms where we can do these small group activities,” said Broyles. “We’re going to have an actual computer lab, and green space. This is just so huge.”

Programming designed specifically for girls will also be offered in the new location. CCY has just added an all-girls soccer team, and is looking to have a lacrosse team next spring as well. “I am actively looking for a couple folks to come in and do that,” said Broyles. “Our girls tend to be a bit more mellow, they might not be the first to throw their hand in there…a lot of it means creating an emotional space for girls to really explore.”

One facet of program expansion is the “Youth of the Month” and “Youth of the Year” awards. Each month CCY volunteers, in conjunction with CCY programming coordinator Max Coleman, will be honoring one CCY kid as the “Youth of the Month” with a banquet. The Community Service House (The Co-Op) on campus has been working to raise money that will go toward a scholarship for higher education that will be given to one child at the end of the year as the “Youth of the Year” award. The Co-Op will be instrumental in the selection process, interviewing potential candidates and working with both Broyles and Coleman.

CCY is interested in heavily recruiting from Whitman for volunteer, hourly and work-study positions. “The volunteer spot works well for students because they can come in for only an hour a week and still have a really great experience and get to know a small group of kids,” said Broyles. All volunteers are required to participate in an 8-hour comprehensive training program that covers issues like sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, and gang and youth violence in the Walla Walla area. Broyles has worked in the past with groups on campus, enabling a sorority, fraternity, or club for example to volunteer specific skills and work around time constraints.

According to an employee that works in the Armory, there have been problems in the past working with the CCY program. There were several reports of drug-related incidents, specifically drug-delivery at the Armory. Coleman said, “I can say with 110% confidence that is not a problem now.” There was also recurring damage sustained to the building from stray basketballs and footballs in the gymnasium, which played a role in the decision to remodel. It was speculated that CCY was moving to avoid paying for damages, though this claim was not confirmed. “The construction definitely catalyzed the move. It was anticipated to be finished last May,” said Broyles. “It’s probably better for the kids to be at a school anyways,” said the employee.

CCY has been the only long-term program housed in the Armory, since it started in 1999. The space is typically rented out for special events, like quinceaneras, traditional birthday celebrations honoring Hispanic girls’ transition into womanhood on their 15th birthday.

“These are large-scale renovations,” Broyles said of the construction. “It was anticipated at the start of the project that it would be done last May, but my guess is that it won’t be finished until next year.”

“But at the same time we are outgrowing our space. We are excited about the opportunity to cater to some of our older youth that really want to hone some specialized skills. And having green-space is just going to be phenomenal for us.”

“We get a lot of non-traditional learners, a lot of them think really outside of the box. It is amazing to see what the world looks like through their eyes.”
If you are interested in volunteering for CCY call (509) 526-2571 and ask to speak to programming coordinator Max Coleman.