Nuthin To Do? Teen Night Fills The Gap Community Programs Help Keep Kids Off Streets

On a warm summer night, James Choi’s headphones blared rap music as he watched his buddies play basketball.

Choi was one of several teens watching the basketball game inside Spokane’s East Central Community Center gym.

Watching his friends play ball while listening to Bone, Coolio and Snoop Doggy Dogg was an ideal way to spend a summer night, he said.

“I come here every Teen Night,” Choi said. “Me and a bunch friends come down here, play basketball and conversate.”

Conversate?

“You know, like, talk to each other,” Choi said

For the fourth summer, Spokane’s community centers are offering teens and pre-teens special nights of their own, which include field trips, basketball, speakers and dances.

The city set aside about $53,000 for this summer’s evening programs at all four community centers collectively.

The kids who attend get a chance to learn, see friends and have fun at no cost. But the goal of the program is to give young adults something to do in a supervised environment so they stay out of trouble and stay safe, organizers said.

Choi said other places to go, such as movie theaters, arcades, and malls, get old. Plus, teenagers can’t move from one activity to another easily like at the community center, where youth play pool, watch movies or shoot hoops, all in one evening.

Near the basketball game, Shana Cook, a Teen Night coordinator, sat at a table filled with paints, brushes, water and wood figures, watching the players and the onlookers.

“If we’re acting like we’re having a good time maybe they’ll come over,” she said.

Eric Frazier, 16, said he enjoys attending Teen Night, in part because he enjoys discussions with the Youth Enrichment Security, a group that discusses drugs, alcohol, goals and self-esteem.

The group helps him stay inspired to fulfill his goals of one day becoming a performer and a good father.

Frazier said the Teen Nights are very useful for kids.

“It keeps us off the streets,” he said.

East Central holds its Teen Nights three times a week from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

“Kids are always saying we don’t have anything to do,” said Diane Jennings, the center’s director. “It’s an alternative to being out on the streets to enrich the kids’ lives.”

East Central organizers try to make their activities fun, educational and useful, even teaching kids how to make bread.

“Bake Bread! I don’t even know how to bake bread,” Jennings said.

While East Central caters to an average of 30 to 40 teenagers, other community centers run their programs a bit differently.

For example, the Peaceful Valley Community Center runs a small session averaging 12 young people on Wednesday nights.

The center serves a smaller community than the others, said Kathleen Stevens, the director at Peaceful Valley. The small center cannot handle many more young people.

“If 100 kids came we’d have to lock the place up and send everyone home,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo