Michael Carlisle
Photograph by Gary Harwood, '87

Michael Carlisle is a graduate assistant for Kent State's Upward Bound program and a volunteer at the King Kennedy Community Center.

Good Neighbors

Kent State and King Kennedy center work to overcome poverty

By Sarah Bowen, Kent State communication studies major

Located on the north side of Ravenna Township, just 15 minutes from Kent State University, is the McElrath community, which used to be the third worst rural ghetto in the United States. In the 1970s poverty reigned as residents lost jobs, housing deteriorated, hunger invaded and crime increased.

Fortunately, the story didn’t end there. In 1978, the community came together to improve this situation.

A joint venture by local churches, the McElrath Improvement Corporation and Kent State University built the King Kennedy Community Center. It featured indoor plumbing, garbage pickup and access to city schools — all of which had been lacking in the area previously. Today the building also includes two offices, a computer lab, a small kitchen and a main room for activities.

According to Dr. George Garrison, president of the community center and Kent State professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies, the center is essential to the lives of the children and in meeting the needs of adult residents. “It is a bridge or conduit to the larger community. It represents hope for many, a resource for others and a central place for nonresidents to come and interface in various constructive ways,” he says.

The center provides organized recreational programs for the estimated 300 to 400 people who take advantage of the services each month. Programs promote cultural awareness and also provide help with everyday needs, such as day care, tutoring, senior citizen support and a food pantry. Occupational success is encouraged with an adult computer literacy class and information about job opportunities.

Because most of the children in the McElrath area still come from low-income families, considerable time and energy are spent on programs to prepare the next generation of community members for academic, social and financial success. Students from Kent State tutor and mentor the younger students and also introduce them to other cultures through activities and field trips.

“The programs give kids aspirations to go further,” says Richard Brantley, who works full time as King Kennedy’s program director and is known affectionately by the kids as “Uncle Richard.” Sometimes, after they are grown up, they come back and say they enjoyed it, and some come back to help.”

Brantley coordinates programs such as “Gamer’s Night,” held on Fridays for kids to come and play video and board games, with as many as 50 in attendance each week.

One of the children’s favorite things is the opportunity to attend concerts at Severance Hall three times a year because of a partnership with Kent State’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. The School of Theatre and Dance provides the children with tickets to the Porthouse Theatre every year, and students and staff members chaperone the trips.

McElrath is still an economically challenged area, and unemployment is high, but the King Kennedy Community Center’s partnership with the university has helped immensely and remains one of the largest social service projects ever created by students. Over the last two-and-a-half decades, a continuous stream of Kent State students has been involved with the center, and the relationship between the university and the center is unique: Nowhere else in the United States have students created and funded this type of endeavor, says Garrison.

Still, the road to success has been long and difficult and is ongoing. The center closed for a short while in the late 1980s because of lack of funding. Since 1990, it has been funded mostly by the United Way of Portage County, and now receives about $35,000 a year. The second phase, an addition of a multipurpose gymnasium, will be kicked off this year with a capital fund campaign for $450,000.

The advisory board hopes that Kent State student organizations will assist in the fundraising efforts, and the entire student body now has the option of checking a box on their tuition form that will donate $2 to the center.

The university community can take pride in the relationship and collaborative efforts with the King Kennedy center that have resulted in the facilitation of educational and social programming and reduction of crime and poverty in the area.

“The relationship has sent a strong, positive message to the residents of the McElrath community,” Garrison says. “It shows the youth that racial and ethnic harmony is possible; all people have good hearts, and are willing to help where needed; and the road to the university is open to them as well.”