Amid closings across Atlanta, one community center thrives

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeAngelo Linton's pals gave him a hard time when he started attending the after-school program at the Rick McDevitt Youth Center in Peoplestown.

"They were like, ‘Why you sign up for that?'" said DeAngelo, 12. "I told them I want to stay out of trouble."

And he has, improving his grades from the previous school year. Then there's the fringe benefits, like a trip to New York to see "The Lion King."

"First time I rode on an airplane," said DeAngelo, smiling.

With recreation centers across Atlanta shuttered by the city's budget crisis, the McDevitt Center has managed to thrive. On a recent Tuesday the computer lab was filled with middle and high schoolers finishing their homework, working on projects or prepping for college entrance exams. George Epps, director of the Youth on the Move after-school program, patrolled the room like a kindly drill sergeant, making sure they were working, not playing, on their recently donated computers.

"Our  goal is to complete high school -- on time," Epps said.

Less than a year ago, the program's future appeared grim. Last December, one week before Christmas, Epps received word from city officials that the McDevitt center would be one of 22 (out of 32 total) in the  city to lose its funding.

Suddenly, the center had to seek replacement funding for Atlanta's $20,000 annual grant.

"They couldn't [even] afford the $8,000 annual utilities bill," said the center's namesake, Rick McDevitt, president of the Georgia Alliance for Children.

McDevitt had faced funding challenges before. In 1988 he raised close to $100,000 in order to transform an abandoned tin shack at Four Corner's Park, just a few blocks south of Turner Field. The modernized, albeit modest, facility emerged as an anchor in this working-class community.

To keep it open through 2009, the New York-bred activist solicited a mix of private concerns and community grants. Despite the bad economy, he succeeded again.

"If this place closed it would be a public safety disaster," said McDevitt. "[Peoplestown] is a tough place for people to live."

Peoplestown lacks the basic services most communities take for granted. There's virtually no commercial businesses -- not even a food store. Its zip code has the highest rate of repeat arrests in the city, McDevitt said.

"It wasn't an easy place to grow up in," said Epps, who was working Braves games at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium by the time he was 12. "There's lots of wolves out there."

Epps hopes to beat them to their prey, getting the neighborhood kids involved in the after-school program before they are drawn to criminal activities.

"We literally walk the streets, knocking on doors, doing whatever we have to," said Epps, who does the work of two men at the McDevitt Center. "We recruit at least three times a year."

While McDevitt's name is on the outside, Epps is the face of the after-school program, which serves up to 32 students at a time. "We want to deliver life skills to our kids," said the 35-year-old Atlanta native. "Exposure and inspiration is really important."

The students have seen Broadway musicals and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Most had never been out of Atlanta.

But schoolwork remains the priority. Epps gets permission from parents to collect report cards and monitor attendance records of those enrolled. Some students fail to meet the program's standards, "but we never sever a relationship," Epps said.

"When I went over to high school I hung with certain people I shouldn't have," said Ariana Battle, 17. "Then I started to get pulled down." She dropped out of Youth on the Move in 10th grade but before long was asking Epps for a second chance. Now she's preparing for college.

"I want to be a journalist, maybe a fashion editor or blogger," Battle said.

McDevitt said he hopes the program will serve as model for the city's other community centers -- assuming they are re-opened and funded.

As for the center that bears his name, "I'm happy we saved it, but I still want to grow it."