Let's Face It, It's The People That Really - Events.org

In so many families, both parents work full time. How do the
Q? kids get from school to The Firehouse?
There is regular bus service from the Edgewood, Elm Place and
A! Northwood Middle Schools to The Firehouse, from one to five
days a week. It’s quite affordable: five days a week is only $170 per
semester. Then parents pick their kids up at The Firehouse by 6 p.m.
But Youth Services are available 12 months. In summer, our focus
changes to one-week specialty camps and programs after summer school
is out. The big finish is “Camp What’ll We Do?’ that offers a different
field trip every day of the final week.
Q?What about the kids who would like to work over the summer?
We do provide job placements through HIRE, which stands for
A! “help individuals realize employment.” Last year, about a hundred
students filled out applications. Staff interview the kids; we help to
identify their skills, recognize the abilities they already have and teach
them how to interview. Then we match them to the work orders,
which come in response to letters sent to local businesses. The kids
themselves call the employer and negotiate their own salaries.
HIRE certainly helps these youngsters develop life skills. What
Q? other programs give them a sense of the adult world?
The Peer Jury program is very important, coordinated by the police
A! department with our assistance. The jury deals with first-time
offenders who have already pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor such as
smoking or other substance use, vandalism and curfew violations. HPHS
students volunteer as jurors and determine the “sentence,” which usually
includes a certain amount of community service, plus an instructive
assignment. For example, a kid caught smoking might do a paper on lung
cancer. The kids are tough on their peers, but happily, just the
intervention of being caught is often enough to turn a youngster around.
In addition to your peer-to-peer programming, you also have
Q? some intergenerational projects.
Actually, we have won the Governor’s Award 2002 for Kid
A! Couriers. Youngsters take a senior’s grocery list and personal check
made out to Sunset Foods. This is a very detail-oriented effort; the seniors
often include labels and coupons, even specifying “paper or plastic.” The
kids do the shopping, then we load everyone into the van to deliver the
groceries. When the kids are invited in to help put groceries away or just
sit and talk a bit, it makes everyone’s day.
How can local business people support the Youth Services
Q? programs?
Many ways! Viccino’s often sponsors an event and always
A! gives us great prices on pizza; Signs Now reduces fees
substantially for us, too. Uncle Dan’s donates goods, and Artquest
takes care of floral arrangements. Highland Park Bank & Trust
supports some of our bigger events. First Bank of Highland Park pays
the supervisor’s salary for our bi-lingual mentoring program,
Estudiante to Student, while a grant from the Roy G. Kerr
Foundation underwrites the mentors’ salaries. There are typically 18
mentors matched with
mentees. Schools identify atrisk
bilingual students (low
grades, absences and so forth)
and we pair them with
successful HPHS bilingual
students. They are together
twice a week, an hour on
homework and an hour in
activities. The feedback
from the schools is very
positive; this program
makes a real difference.
Is The Firehouse membership
Q? a diverse group?
We have members from every area of Highland Park, a
A! microcosm of the City. The kids have diverse cultural and
socioeconomic backgrounds. The Firehouse is a very inclusive place,
where everyone is warmly welcomed and treated like a superstar.
What is the biggest challenge in terms of interventions? What
Q? kinds of success do you see?
One of our Staff Assistants was giving a new member a tour; later
A! he told me, “I met a kid today. That was me when I was his age.
Very shy, hard to talk to. And now, I’m here helping him.” Lots of grownup
members come back and tell us, “If it weren’t for The Firehouse, I
wouldn’t have made it through junior high.” Recently, a woman was
signing up her daughter, and asked me, “Do you remember me? My
mother sent me to The Firehouse, and now I want the same thing for
my daughter, to have that safety and supervision.”
My own son took a class here on using public access TV
equipment and editing tape. He decided to make that his career; today,
he works for a post-production company working on commercials for
Oscar Meyer and the like.
We understand that Youth Services also has programs and
Q? resources for parents.
We’ve taught Parenting Classes for more than 15 years. One
A! group from back then is still meeting every three months, even
though their kids are grown. The issues of parenting never change, so it
could be a lifelong group! We also have a Parenting Kit with good tips,
like what to say to your kid when they ask, “Did you ever….?”
What is the one thing that you most want for the Youth Services
Q? department?
Our programs are growing so fast, we could use a volunteer who
has experience in grant writing…that could be a real boon.
A!
Would you like to give a membership at The Firehouse?
Volunteer? Donate goods or underwrite programs? Please call
847-433-3090, drop by 1830 Green Bay Road or email
youthservices@cityhpil.com; http:cityhpil.com has links to
Youth Services and great parenting and kids web sites.
Summer 2007 / 33
PHOTO: Marla Schachtel