The Y will soon extend a helping hand to children and teens in a place where needs are great. A new YMCA Youth Development Center is being created at the Little Red School House complex on Everett’s East Casino Road.
When the Casino center opens by September, it will be the second new YMCA space for teens in Snohomish County.
A YMCA Youth Development Center also is coming to the former Marysville Food Bank. Like the Casino site, that space is being renovated. The building is adjacent to the Marysville YMCA on 60th Drive NE.
The Casino Road youth center will be a first for YMCA in an area of high-density apartment complexes that are home to many immigrants and low-income families. “We didn’t have a physical presence on Casino,” said Scott Washburn, president and CEO of YMCA of Snohomish County.
South Everett’s Casino area is under the umbrella of the Mukilteo Y. “Access has been a challenge,” Washburn said Tuesday. With the new center, kids will be able to walk from school or home.
Both centers will focus on low-income middle- and high-school students. Homework help, computer access, mentoring and other after-school activities will be available. Both centers will house the Y’s Minority Achievers Program, which helps teens strive toward college.
While the facilities in south Everett and Marysville will share a name — YMCA Youth Development Center — they’re being financed differently.
Cory Armstrong-Hoss, associate executive director of the Mukilteo YMCA, said the Casino Road site is made possible largely by an $85,000 grant from College Spark Washington. Formerly the Education Assistance Foundation, College Spark provides grants from an endowment fund to help low-income students become college-ready.
The $85,000 grant, over three years, is helping renovate a building at the Little Red School House Children’s Village complex. The Y will be a tenant there, Armstrong-Hoss said. The project involves knocking down a wall to create an 1,800-square-foot center. It will include computer stations and a kitchen.
“We’re hoping to reach a whole new population with the youth center. We fully recognize that our main facility in Mukilteo is not reaching folks who probably need us most,” Armstrong-Hoss said.
Membership in the YMCA won’t be required at the center. Programs will be free to participants, he said.
Washburn said the grant won’t quite cover operating costs. Money to support the Casino center will also come from the Mukilteo Y’s Invest in Youth Campaign.
In Marysville, Washburn said, the old food bank building was built in the 1990s through a community development block grant. Washburn said the YMCA took over the building, assuming the last decade of a more than 20-year agreement. As part of that deal, Washburn said, “we agreed to serve a low-income population.”
The Marysville Community Food Bank is now in a large building on 88th Street NE near St. Mary’s Catholic Church. The Tulalip Tribes, Washburn said, made a $250,000, five-year funding commitment for the Marysville Y’s Youth Development Center. Much of that is being used for the renovation, he said.
Reeshemah Davis, executive director of the Marysville YMCA, said the building should be ready in August. Teens will continue to use the main Marysville Y’s athletic facilities, but will have a computer lab and meeting space in the Youth Development Center. The building also will house an Exercise & Thrive program for cancer survivors, Davis said.
Washburn said the Marysville Y has the agency’s largest Minority Achievers Program. In 2010, 166 students participated.
At Casino Road, between 30 and 50 students are expected to start this fall at the Youth Development Center. Armstrong-Hoss said the space can accommodate up to 97 students.
Tyrone McMorris is executive director of Casino Road Ministries, which offers evening homework clubs at the Little Red School House complex, Horizon Elementary School and a nearby apartment complex.
“It’s going to be a great fit,” said McMorris, adding that the Y’s after-school program will fill a need not addressed by his later sessions. “All of us help strengthen the area,” he said.
Armstrong-Hoss is excited to bring in guest speakers and arrange field trips to area college campuses. “It’s not just for the ones who are struggling. Everyone is invited,” he said. “It’s a safe place with positive activities, and a significant focus on academic support.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
New Y center
A grand opening of the YMCA‘s new Casino Road Youth Development Center is scheduled from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at 14 E. Casino Rd., Everett, in the Little Red School House complex. To RSVP, by Aug. 10, email mbabazadeh@ymca-snoco.org.
To help with renovations, contact Cory Armstrong-Hoss at the Mukilteo YMCA, 425-493-2414.
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