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YouthHope Outreach Center: Facility expands size, mission

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By Mary Louise Speer | Friday, May 16, 2008 12:33 AM CDT | () comments

Diego Martinez, 6, plays air hockey with Anna Herrera, 8, (in foreground) at the newly renovated YouthHope Outreach Center in Moline. Buy this Photo

Just in time for summer, children will be able to shoot basketball and play other games in the expanded gymnasium at YouthHope Outreach Center, which reopened a week ago in Moline.

The facility at 3928 12th Ave., which neighbors fondly remember as Christian Friendliness Youth Center, recently underwent a $1 million expansion and renovation. And the name was changed.

“Our parent organization will always be Christian Friendliness, but we’re trying to get a more 21st century name,” said Executive Director Mark Drake.

With the addition of 15,000 square feet the facility now has a full-size gym, a recreation area for Foosball and pool, and a coffee shop. Christian Friendliness, which also operates a facility at 2707 11th St., Rock Island, reaches youth through street outreach, tutoring, leadership development and Camp Summit, a year-round retreat for low-income children just outside the Quad-Cities.

“We want them to think about the way things were meant to be and to give them long (healthy) lives, to give them productive lives,” said Drake. “We do computer training; we want to educationally help them.”

Tazia Murray, 11, has been hanging out at the center since second grade. Being there “is something to do” when she’s not in school, she said.

Agnes Teske founded Christian Friendliness in 1936 to reach out to people moving to what was then the Tri-Cities as immigrant workers. The agency’s focus remains on children whose families live on modest incomes and may not belong to a church.

Teenagers have opportunities to work at the youth center in a variety of tasks. The Moline location has a car detailing shop and a full service coffee shop that are open to the public. Jasmeen Bonner, 15, is in charge of marketing for the coffee shop, and she’s also tried her hand at lattes and chai tea.

Having a job “feels great. It lets me be more independent and save for college,” she said. “I contact churches and I make pies and pastries when we have an open house.”

Someday Bonner hopes to be an obstetrician/gynecologist doctor and have her own practice. “My mom just recently had a baby and when she was giving birth, I just sat in there,” she said.

Willie Burpo began attending Christian Friendliness events in junior high school and is now giving back to the organization. As camp director for Summit Camp in New Windsor, Ill., he trains staff and oversees the eight-week camping program that helps children from modest-income families get acquainted with nature and countryside.

“Christian Friendliness has had a huge impact on my life in a positive way,” he said. “Being director ... I look at it as an opportunity to help others who were going through the same things I was.”

He is looking for college-age staff to help round out the paid counseling staff for this summer’s camps.

For more information

For more information on the YouthHope Outreach Center in Moline, go to:

cfyouthhope.org or christianfriendliness.org or call (309) 762-4577.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.