Coatesville teens combine community pride, work, and service

Floyd Sarnor wants people to stop talking trash about his home town.

He's from Coatesville and proud of it.

To emphasize the point, the ninth grader at Coatesville Area Intermediate High School spent his summer helping to transform a former parsonage into a brightly colored, tech-equipped education center.

Coatesville, said the 14-year-old, is not "all about violence."

Sarnor is one of 30 teens who spent their summer working in the Coatesville Youth Initiative ServiceCorps, an employment program that aims to be more than a way to keep youngsters off the streets. It is an effort to combine work, community service, and training into a program for young people who could make a difference in Coatesville's future.

"We're doing this to expose them to people and experiences they wouldn't have been exposed to," said Chaya A. Scott, director of the initiative. "We want to open up their minds."

The eight-week program, conducted for the first time this summer, ends Thursday night with a ceremony at the Inn at Chester Springs in Exton.

On Mondays through Thursdays, the teens, ages 14 to 17, have worked at nine locations in the area, including an archery-target manufacturer, an apartment building, a library, a day camp, and a YMCA. They were paid $7.50 an hour.

On Fridays, they gathered in a classroom for training sessions on subjects as wide-ranging as leadership skills, job interviews, financial budgeting, and nutrition.

"This is an opportunity for them to view themselves differently, to increase the likelihood that they will see themselves as leaders in a broader community," said Frances M. Sheehan, president and chief executive officer of the Brandywine Health Foundation, which sponsors the youth initiative.

Coatesville has long struggled with poverty, crime, and stagnant economic development. A series of arsons that began in 2008 prompted the community to work together to coordinate the town's fragmented revitalization efforts, Sheehan said.

The youth initiative, which seeks to increase graduation rates and reduce risky behaviors, is one of the programs that has expanded the agency's mission beyond providing health-related services.

The ServiceCorps' $111,000 costs this summer were underwritten by the foundation, which partnered with the Coatesville Area and Great Valley School Districts, New Life in Christ Fellowship Church, and the Chester Youth Collaborative.

At New Life in Christ Fellowship, Sarnor and coworker Veronica Ashby, 14, of East Fallowfield, helped spearhead the transformation of the parsonage.

Under the supervision of Ken Allen, a church deacon, they planned the center layout, consulted with vendors, and even met with Coatesville School Superintendent Richard Como to talk about the needs at a neighborhood education center. Then they got to work, painting and installing window-unit air conditioners.

A few miles away in Thorndale, five teens worked at Handi-Crafters, an employment service agency for people "with employment barriers." Five teens worked alongside the agency's clients, many of whom are physically or mentally disabled.

Sarah Beck, 16, of Coatesville, learned something about acceptance while packaging hair clips and office supplies there. She bought a book on sign language so she could communicate with one coworker, and visited another at her home.

Asked about them, she pulled out pictures she carries in her handbag.

"That's Pat," Beck said. "I did her hair - in a really big bun."

The lessons at BigShot Archery in Modena were learned in a huge warehouse, sweltering on a recent workday.

Three teens helped co-owner Al Pirelli take discarded Styrofoam, window screens, and burlap sacks, and turn them into archery targets.

Brianna Bookman, 15, of Coatesville, said she has learned that having a job means "sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do." Ultimately, she said, she plans to be part of a youth effort to help Coatesville "start over."

For Raymire Christmas, 15, of Coatesville, the goal was more immediate: "I wanted to help my mom. She struggles to find jobs sometimes."