Sycamore Youth Center thriving, growing

STEUBENVILLE -- It's free, fun and fulfilling.

And local students love it.

That's part of the beauty that is the Sycamore Youth Center at 301 N. Fourth St., according to Bobbyjon Bauman, its founder and director.

"The number of students who take part in programs at the Sycamore Youth Center has doubled since last spring," Bauman said. "We have more than 200 young people taking part in 35 different programs each week."

Bauman describes the center as a place where students have an opportunity to learn new life skills "in a setting in which trusted adults mentor and teach them how to live life with purpose and peace of heart and mind."

The center is for students in grades kindergarten through 12, "but we focus primarily on fifth- through eighth-grade students Wednesday through Friday after school, and Mondays and Tuesdays we work with our elementary school-aged students," Bauman said. "We will take anyone who would like to come and don't have any residency restrictions. Almost all of the youth come from the Steubenville City School District, and they bus the kids down after school each day, and the parents pick them up when the programs are done," he added.

"We provide 35 after-school classes Monday through Friday from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.," Bauman said of classes led by volunteer instructors and running the gamut from art, tumbling and dance to drama, cooking and sewing.

"We also have a number of programs such as the Connect Youth Ministry, Vagabond Missions, LeMasters Martial Arts Academy and the Dream Big Music program that meet during the evening so the center has youth-oriented activities going on until at least 9 each night Monday through Friday," Bauman continued.

"We also often host the home-schooling swing dance group twice a month on Friday nights as well as a host of other groups that use our facility with community- and youth-related events, so there is almost always programming going on every night of the week as well as weekends," he said.

New programs this fall include the Legacy Project Home/Auto Repair Boys Club led by Steve Forte of the Fishers Council.

"This program teaches young men carpentry and home repair and other skills often taught by fathers at home to (mostly) students who don't have a father present in their home," Bauman explained. "They have learned how to check the oil, jump a car, make a bench and much more. We also started a singing class taught by vocal instructor Laurie Labashak. A new Business Builders/Young Entrepreneurship program was started which teaches students money management and how they can launch their own business. This class is taught by Tonica Crawford, who owns and runs three businesses locally," he said.

The center officially opened in October 2018 on the heels of a late September grand opening -- the fulfillment of a dream, in Bauman's estimation.

"It was a dream I had years ago that, by God's grace, just fell into my lap when I saw that it was available," he said in explaining how the center came to be. Bauman initially had asked the Rev. Ashley Steele, executive director of Urban Mission Ministries, what would become of the building after the church there, Sycamore Tree United Methodist Church, ceased to exist.

At the time, Steele referred Bauman to the Rev. Jim Winkler, at the time superintendent of the Ohio Valley District of the United Methodist Church, East Ohio Conference.

"He was the leader of the United Methodist Church district the church was in, and they graciously donated the building to us," Bauman said. The center is owned by the nonprofit 501c3 Ohio Valley Youth Network led by Bauman, its president. OVYN is an alliance of church youth workers, educators and social agency leaders who work with youth. Its members plan events and share ideas on ways to improve the lives of local students through Biblical principles.

Constructed in 1892, the former church building was deeded over to the OVYN in May 2018 at no cost by the East Ohio Conference, United Methodist Church. In its history at the corner of Fourth and North streets, the building was Calvary United Methodist Church, a merger of First Church and Hamline. When Urban Mission was newly formed decades ago, it was located in Calvary Church.

"Although it was free, it took us nearly a year to clean up, fix up, get a new roof, a new boiler and get it up to code, which cost us probably around $50,000," Bauman said. "Fortunately we have a new roof and a new boiler so we should be good to go for a number of years without having to incur any major expenses. We also are thrilled that we finally had a chair lift put in through a grant which will allow greater access to our disabled students and adults."

The chair lift was paid for through a grant awarded by the Mary Jane Brooks Charitable Trust Foundation.

Aside from strong student participation, the center enjoys strong volunteer involvement.

"We have 62 volunteers who donate their time assisting the children in our classes, up from 40 last year," Bauman said, noting Paula Stevens is the building manager.

Continued growth is anticipated.

"In the future we are looking to expand our programming as we have now partnered with the Quest program from the Educational Service Center of Jefferson County, which is going to partner with Sycamore on Fridays to provide educational assistance to students and allow us access to a dozen laptop computers the students will be free to use every day after school to assist with their schoolwork," Bauman said. "They also will provide rides home for students free of charge every Friday. We are looking for increased collaboration with the ESC Quest Program, which is funded through a 21st Century Grant from the state of Ohio."

Bauman explained where funds are generated to operate the center.

"We get some resources from groups that use our facility, but the main source of income is through our fundraising banquet which is once a year and had 320 in attendance last year, and we hope to have at least that many or more this year," Bauman said of the event set to begin at 6:30 p.m. on March 12 in the Commons at Steubenville High School.

It will feature a number of young artists who will perform as well as students and adults who will be sharing what the center has meant to them during the past year.

Although the dinner is free, "we ask all in attendance to make a one-time or monthly donation to the center," Bauman said.

The center gets financial support from a few churches and accepts donations, which can be made online at www.sycamorecenter.com/giving or by sending a check made out to the "Sycamore Youth Center" and sent to Sycamore Youth Center, 301 N. Fourth St., Steubenville, OH 43952.

Another fundraiser on the horizon comes March 24, beginning at 7 p.m. when the center hosts three-time Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated artist Kathy Troccoli.

"We also look to have more programming available this year during the summer for students," Bauman added.

"What's beautiful is that the kids love coming here, and it gives them something positive to do to keep them off the streets and out of the gang life and gets them off on the right foot in life," he said. "I also love that all the after-school programs we provide are free of charge so anyone can come as well as the 62 volunteer staff members who donate their time by pouring their time and love into the lives of the students."

For information about the center or its programs, call or text Bauman at (608) 556-3068 or visit the website at www.sycamorecenter.com.

"We are on Facebook by typing in Sycamore Youth Center," Bauman said. "We also are on Instagram."

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronline.com.)