OCTOBER 30, 2003
The Story Newspaper

BY CAMILLE GOSWICK

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, East Atlanta Kids Club member Elizabeth is debating a very serious issue: should she use purple or blue glitter on her drawing?

This and many other such pivotal decisions take up the several hours East Atlanta neighborhood kids spend with the Kids Club each week, and that's exactly the point, coordinator and founder Jill Sieder says.

"A real driving force in the Kids Club is we want the kids to want to go there," Sieder said on a recent morning from a comfy couch at Joe’s Coffee Shop in the East Atlanta Village. “When they come in, it’s 'What are we going to do today?' Not, 'This is a daycare situation where I have to go.' (Kids) are choosing to go here because it’s fun and they get something out of it."

Sieder and other neighborhood residents founded the East Atlanta Kids Club in 1998. A freelance writer, Sieder has lived in East Atlanta since 1997 and works from home. That summer of '98, she said she noticed the number of kids who seemed to be wandering around the neighborhood with little to do.

"They were sharing with me how bored they were—they had nothing to do—and then I would go to the community association meetings and I would hear about juvenile crime and property crime," Sieder explained, adding that residents were talking about installing burglar bars on their homes and forming community watches.

"It was very reactive," she said.

Sieder's house backs up to Brownwood Park, and she noticed too that the recreation center wasn’t utilized perhaps as much as it should have been. She had worked with kids through other Atlanta organizations, she said, and so she embarked on a kids group for her own neighborhood.

The East Atlanta Kids Club is designed for disadvantaged kids, those Sieder and others call "at risk." Generally, she said, kids come from lower income families and in most cases are living just with mom or a grandparent. These kids, Sieder said, tend to have a lot of time of their hands—unsupervised.

The East Atlanta Kids Club is open to anyone, and though the vast majority of kids who attend are African American, occasionally kids from different backgrounds will join in as well.

Although the focus at the club is having fun, Sieder said that she and other volunteers always try to incorporate some element of learning. For example, because most kids are from African American backgrounds, the Kids Club often includes discussions of African American history and racial issues. Sieder said she will often sit down with a newspaper and go over with kids the issues written about inside.

In the past year, the East Atlanta Kids Club has built a computer lab, and judging from the reactions during one recent meeting, it’s wildly popular. It has even led to a new venture for the group. Last year, the Brownwood Recreation Center was renovated, and Sieder got permission for the group to meet at Branan Towers, a high-rise residential building for low-income seniors. While the computers were set up there, Sieder said, seniors would wander in and ask if they were going to be getting lessons.

"I thought, it's already chaotic enough, but I said I guessed we could try that!" Sieder said with a laugh.

The first evening Sieder hosted the computer lessons, she said 18 people "popped out of those elevators and came in!" Even though the computer lab is now back at the renovated Brownwood center, Sieder and the volunteers are continuing to offer lessons, stressing intergenerational ties.

"As many older people are,” Sieder said, "they just turned out to be these really wise and wonderful people with incredible stories. They really appreciate what we’re doing. These are people who live mostly on Social Security and they can barely cover their basic bills, so anything extra like going on a field trip or just getting a ride to the grocery store is a plus."

Kevin Banks is officially the Kids Club's technology director, but Sieder said he does a lot more. He said recently that he got involved with the club after wanting for a long time to see a computer center in the neighborhood. He echoed Sieder’s comments that local kids have little to do with their spare time, and said that they faced a choice of doing something positive with that time or doing something much worse. The Kids Club, he said, helps make that choice a good one.

The Kids Club and the technology it offers, Banks said, helps develop kids socially in that they can use computers to see outside Atlanta, something they may never do much of physically, and to grow as people.

Technology is their tool to express themselves,” he said.

The Kids Club also takes field trips once or twice a month to museums, theatres, nature parks and other recreational or cultural venues. Membership is open to kids ages 7 to 12, and about 70 children are currently participating. About 30 volunteers help out with the club; Sieder and Banks are the only salaried staff people.

Expression is a big part of the club, Sieder said, and members spend a lot of time drawing, painting or doing some other kind of creative activity. The club, in fact, is now selling a calendar that is part of a documentary project the kids are working on to reflect their community. Kids are taking photographs of people and places in the neighborhood that mean something to them, and interviewing area seniors.

For East Atlanta Kids Club members, Sieder said, the club at a bare minimum provides a place to go that’s safe and to have fun.

"To be listened to and have somebody pay attention to you, just to really feel heard, fundamentally is the most basic thing they all get," she said.

She said that some kids form strong bonds with volunteers, who run the gamut of professions and ethnicities, so kids can learn a lot about different cultures and careers. Kids have confidants to talk to, and get to express themselves through art, something they may not be able to do otherwise. They get to play and physically exert themselves, she said, and work in teams.

"There's a lot of stuff that's not really spoken as much," Sieder said, "which I think is really profound, of more racial understanding."

The East Atlanta Kids Club meets on Tuesdays from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Brownwood Park Recreation Center, (607 Brownwood Ave.). Membership in the club is free. For more information, or to purchase a calendar for $10, visit www.eastatlantakids.org.