It’s a Center of attention

STERLING — School’s almost out. You watch those last few minutes on the clock that seem to take forever. Then the dismissal bell rings and you charge for the door. Finally! It’s the end of a long day and now it’s time for some fun — and there’s a place in Sterling that’s making the time.

If you’re a middle or high school student, Sterling Township’s Elevate Youth Center is a place where you can gather to have fun with friends, play a game, or engage in a little more enrichment.

Located in the township’s headquarters on West Lynn Boulevard, behind Kroger, the Center has a large, wide open room where students can be competitive or creative: enjoying recreational activities, playing video games, doing some arts and crafts, or learning more about life through guest speakers who talk about teen topics.

When Sterling Township supervisor Angela Schneider was elected in 2021, she saw a need in the community for a safe, nurturing and fun environment where kids could gather after school.

“One thing townships can do is have youth services, and we decided that was an area that not a lot was being offered, and we can have something to benefit youth,” Schneider said.

Schneider looked at examples of existing places, recruited help from community members and sought input from local students to find out what makes a successful youth center.

“I talked with a friend of mine in Rotary, Allen Przysucha, and told him about my idea to have a youth center. Together, we put together a committee of 10 people and worked on it for about a year with planning. We found out about Second Story, a youth center in Princeton, and we contacted them and they helped us out in the process of what they do.”

A place to hang out

The center opened in May 2024, funded with money from replacement taxes provided to townships by the State of Illinois. It is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday for all middle and high school students, and the high-schoolers have it to themselves from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursdays.

To participate, students must have their parents or guardians set up a free KidCheck account at sterlingtownship.com, and complete enrollment and code of conduct forms. Through KidCheck, parents are notified when their child has checked in and out at the center. As of late May, about 25 students have been using the center on a consistent basis, most from Sterling Public Schools, with a few coming from the local parochial schools and nearby school districts.

The township bought the building, formerly home to the Fun Jump indoor inflatable playground business, in 2022 and moved its offices there from its previous building near downtown Sterling. Where bounce houses and obstacle courses used to be are now occupied by craft tables, couches, a ping pong table, an open area for tossing bags, and a place to watch movies. There are also video games, a place to shoot hoops and and an air hockey table. There’s also a snack bar for students, and dinner is served each Tuesday and Thursday.

One of the committee’s goals was to get feedback and suggestions ahead of time, so that when the center opened it was ready to go, rather than starting out small and expanding.

“There was a lot of ideas,” Schneider said. “We were finding the right timing, figuring out whether we wanted to do high school and middle school together, what can we provide – those were all conversations that we had among the youth committee and that group of 10 people that first were a part of it. With the timing, do we do it after school? How long do we stay open? What nights of the week are we available? There was some trial and error, and waiting for the building to be renovated and really have the things in the space to be prepared for the students. We didn’t want to open it up and not be fully prepared.”

A place to learn

The center also is home to a separate after-school program for Challand Middle School students, done in a cooperation with the township and the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Office of Education. The program runs from 3 to 5:30 p.m. from Monday to Thursday during the school year, and 9 a.m. to noon on Monday and Tuesday during the summer. The program had about 10 students enrolled as of late May, and they are bused to the center from Challand during the school year.

Heather Waninger, the township’s youth coordinator and a career pathway navigator with the ROE, helps coordinate the program, which offers team building and learning activities such as gardening and robotics, both with help from the University of Illinois Extension. Through gardening projects, students are learning how to care for vegetables grown on a plot outside the township building for toppings on pizzas they will enjoy at a party later in the year. During the school year, the after-school program also utilizes the nearby Sterling-Rock Falls Family YMCA for workout classes on Monday and swimming on Wednesday.

“With the middle school, there are clubs and sports, but a lot of students are just going home by themselves,” Waninger said. “This is an opportunity to provide a space for them to come, have some structure, and also be able to use the Youth Center as well.”

There’s a another side to what the after-school program offers, too. About a half-hour of homework time is set aside each day, and Waninger makes sure they use that time. “They always swear they don’t have homework, but I know that they do, so we provide that quiet time for them to do their homework,” she said. Counselors and other mental health professionals are occasionally brought in to give talks that offer advice, education and some words of inspiration.

“They’ll teach the children something that’s going to be beneficial to them,” Waninger said. “We’ve had counselors come in and talk about mental health, conflict resolution, and basic things that everyone needs to learn that is helpful to them. We had someone come in and talk about 3D printing, so it’s any topic that we feel that can be interesting and beneficial to them.”

A place for hope

Having been open for a little more than a year, Waninger and Schneider have found out that by the center simply existing, they’re able to make a difference in students’ lives. They and the center’s volunteers find the time to get to know each student and help point them in positive directions if need be. Sometimes they’ll join them in playing games.

Getting to know students can also help lead to better outcomes, such as uncovering a personal issue or a problem like food insecurity. Waninger recalls one student who was struggling and was able to get the help and support he needed.

“We had a young man when we first opened that had food insecurities and is an unaccompanied minor, so we were able to make connections for him,” Waninger said. “We got him connected with the ROE’s Nexus support program, and he’s since been able to find a job. We’ve provided food from boxing up our leftovers at the end of the night and sending them home with some students, so we’re able to provide that kind of support and help support kids with shampoo, conditioner and soap and all of those things for him until we were able to connect him with other resources in the community.

Though that student doesn’t come by anymore, Waninger said she wonders how his life is now, but she at least knows that the center was able to make a difference in his life: “It was because we were able to support that next step and next thing for him.”

Schneider knows another student who struggled with social skills and making new friends, and having a place to hang out at helped him come out of his shell a little more.

“There was one student who started coming here who really didn’t have any friends at school, and he’s got a good set of friends now,” Schneider said. “It was a way to build friendships and connect with other kids that he wouldn’t have had if we weren’t open.”

Schneider and Waninger are looking at expanding the number of days the center can be open, and they are always looking for more volunteers who can help make each student’s day a little better.

What does it take to be a good volunteer? A willingness to build relationships with students, Waninger said. “Sometimes it’s just about being available, being able to have conversation. Each of us kind of have our own strengths and weaknesses, and students that we can connect with. If you’re just willing to have a conversation with a kid and build a relationship, that’s usually what they’re looking for.”

While most teens see the facility as a place to have fun, the adults see it as a place where memories can be made, issues can be overcome and lives can be changed, Schneider said.

“We envisioned this as a place to go where it’s safe, and they’re building healthy relationships with adults and other students,” Schneider said. “They’re having fun and learning things, and that’s basically our vision in a nutshell.”

The Elevate Youth Center at Sterling Township, 505 West Lynn Blvd. in Sterling, is open from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday for middle and high school students, and 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday for high school students only.

The center also hosts an after-school program for Challand Middle School students from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Find the Elevate Youth Center on Facebook, go to sterlingtownship.com/youth-center, email supervisor@sterlingtownship.com or call 815-625-3990 to register a child or for more information.