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Academy Offers Hope To Troubled, At-Risk Students

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By SHERRI PROCTOR and MARILU MUZZI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2007

Photo Gallery
Video: Interview With Founder/CEO James Evans
Video: Interview With Program Members

TAMPA - James Evans is looking for children with a problem. Those are the ones the former Buccaneer hopes to turn from hopeless to optimistic, from dependency to self-sufficiency through his 11-year-old organization, Tampa Bay Academy of Hope.

'We're fighting for the young people to maximize their opportunity in the education system,' said Evans, the organization's founder and president.

'It's a difficult life ... when our kids' parents are being arrested, their father's incarcerated, or they're without the material things that they need in their lives.'

Christina Stewart was one of those children.

Stewart became involved in the program at 11, when she was in sixth grade. She was forgetting assignments, which hurt her grades. Her mother got her involved in the program because she wanted to help her daughter improve her studies.

Now 17 and a senior at Blake High School, Stewart is president of the academy's youth leadership counsel. She said Evans and youth leadership coach Tallie Gainer III knew her potential more than she did and pushed her to challenge herself.

'Mr. Evans and Mr. Gainer prepared me for the future more than school did,' Stewart says. 'Sometimes I would just forget an assignment. They taught me the importance of listening to grasp information so that it could become imbedded into my mind. They showed me how to prioritize my schoolwork and manage my time.'

To reverse the cycle of poverty, crime and educational underachievement, the academy looks for students at risk of academic failure, who live in the economically depressed areas of Hillsborough County. Students range in age from 12 to 18. The household income level must be at or below poverty level and there must be a history of school misbehavior or misconduct.

'If the child says he doesn't have a problem, I can't help him,' Evans said. 'The child has to admit and acknowledge, as well as the parent, there is a problem.'

More than 400 youth are referred to the academy annually. Students selected attend the Skills of Hope Youth Leadership Conference.

Then they begin an eight-month program. The first phase is for children 12 to 14 years old, where they learn to improve basic academics. The second phase involves work experience for teens 14 to 18 years old. The academy partners with local companies to hire the young people. The academy also helps teens prepare for their SATs.

After successful completion, students with leadership potential participate in an eight-month School Leadership Program designed to teach leadership skills and raise students' level of academic performance, school attendance and positive behavior.

'When parents come into the program they feel hopeless and burdened with despair,' said Evans, the 17th of 21 children who overcame poverty in rural Alabama. 'Tampa Bay Academy of Hope lifts that burden, so that they have a chance.'

Keneeshia Wilson, 17, a senior at Jefferson High School, has been in the program for more than four years. She is now a mentor to her younger brother Kendrick, who just started the program this year.

'She used to be shy when talking to people,' mother Robin Smith said. 'It's opened her up and improved her leadership skills.'

Evans and Gainer, Wilson said, 'are aggravating at first, but the information is really helpful. Because of them, I can do anything that I put my mind to.'

The Harvest of Hope Banquet completes the 32-week leadership program, which recognizes the hard work of the youth, volunteers, mentors, corporate partners and government partners who participated in making the program a success.

Students who complete the School Leadership Program and show improvement in academics, attendance and behavior are eligible to join the Youth Leadership Council, where they take charge of student events and represent their peers at city council or act as mentors to their peers.

Ashley Ghent is no stranger to the academy. At 13, she became involved with the organization, but three years later, having fallen in with what she admits was 'the wrong crowd,' she was expelled from school. The academy helped her get her high school diploma and now, at 21, she is a paid staff member of the academy, handling its marketing and fundraising.

'Even though I made some turns on this journey, the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope helped me to realize my worth and that I am somebody,' she said.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report is part of a multimedia project produced by a University of South Florida journalism class in cooperation with The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8.

Reporters Jessica Hall, Brittany Jackson and Shannon Legrand contributed to this report.

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