New Directions Academy freshman Tim Foster has learned a little about the construction business this year at school.
He’s torn down old floors and poured concrete to make a new one for a new weight room in the basement of the school building. He also helped put up drywall. But perhaps most importantly, he’s learning to work well with others as a team.
Tim logged in most of his mandated community service hours this way, so far, but he’s not complaining.
“I had 50 hours done in three weeks,” he said. “It’s easier and a lot faster.”
Students at New Directions routinely work on projects at the school and in the community to work off community service hours, mandated by the juvenile court system. In recent weeks, the service-learning group has helped out at the Dickson County Public Library and Dickson County Help Center.
The work benefits the students and the community, said Ed Simmons, daily supervisor at NDA. Simmons works with New Directions teachers Nancy Gautier, Michelle Street, Rosemary Lee and Edith Davidson in the service-learning program. Karen Willey is the program director.
“I think it’s a real good program,” Simmons said. “It gives the children an opportunity to work their hours off in a meaningful way.”
The service-learning program, which is funded with a $15,000 grant from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, also gives students at New Directions a fresh start, Simmons said.
“It helps the community to see young people as a person who made a mistake but who is willing to give back to the community,” he said. “Some people look at kids like, ‘I don’t want you around.’ These kids are decent people that made mistakes. If we would all look back at what we did as teenagers, you’d remember what you did when you were a kid…but you just may not have gotten caught.”
New Directions sophomore Chris Pippin has worked off more than 100 hours in the service-learning program. He spent a number of those hours at the Humane Society of Dickson County. While he was there, Chris walked dogs and helped with a remodeling project. He tore up carpet and linoleum, moved desks and computers, swept and mopped floors and took out the trash. He also helped to lay new tile on the floors.
Omar Hamed also helped out at the Humane Society. He helped to walk the dogs and even got to be a little creative there, helping to paint a mural of dogs on the wall.
Nancy Gautier, a teacher at New Directions, serves as a group monitor for the weekend service-learning projects. Gautier said the program has been so successful, in part, because the students enjoy the work they are doing in the community.
“They want to do good work for the people they’re working for,” she said. “They enjoy it and they are glad to be doing the work they are doing.”
While New Directions students are rolling up their sleeves, they’re also working to build trust with others, Gautier said. It’s the redemption aspect of the program that seems to have the most meaning for the kids, she added.
“Some people are hesitant about letting them go into a certain area of the establishment,” she said. “But once they gain their trust, you can tell it makes the kids feel so good, that they’re not being looked down on or anyone is being suspicious of them or anything like that.”
Chris said the program has helped him learn about responsibility and about giving of himself. At the same time, working after school and in the community has helped out his parents and people in the community.
“It’s more convenient,” he said. “It helps our parents. It helps us finish our hours and it helps the school out. The projects are teaching us about responsibility and how to help others. It also helps people in the community to get work done that they won’t have to do.”
Gautier said the group is always interested in new opportunities to serve. If any establishment in the county is interested in participating in the program, call New Directions Academy at 740-6070.
