Students come in to play board games, do homework, undertake art projects, talk, hang out, play darts and pool and, once a month, participate in an open mic evening with presentations on poetry to music and other interests. There’s also soda and snacks the youth can purchase.
“This gives them a place to belong and to get connected,” Cooper said.
Cooper teaches music lessons, leasing part of the upstairs space for that purpose. She is a pastor through the United Methodist Church and appointed to the program through the church as well as playing music on Sundays and filling in as pastor at area churches as needed.
“I want Connections to be a place where the kids feel loved and accepted and are nurtured so that they grow to be all that God designed them to be. That is my goal,” she said. “They know they can come here and be safe, that I am going to stand up for them.”
One recent Friday, a handful of students were hanging out, mostly talking and joking with each other as they awaited the arrival of a former program participant who moved out of town.
Asked what they like about Connections, one teen girl called it her second home while a teen boy said he is comfortable at Connections hanging out with friends.
The newest project at Connections is a Miami Valley Youth Choir. The choir is open to those ages 6 through 18 and is led by Cooper with assistance from Julie Collins of Troy and Caitlyn Hood, an intern studying composition at the University of Dayton. The program is open to youth across the area with participants from Tipp City, Bethel Twp., Piqua and Vandalia, among others.
The center is funded “by grants and nice people and lots of hopes and prayers,” Cooper said.
More information on Connections events can be found at Miami Valley Youth Choir. The Connections website contains other information on the program. Donations are accepted with PayPal, at Connections of Tipp City, the most-used format for donations.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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