FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Many folks in Fort Valley say the city is lacking a place for the young people.
Now, the Fort Valley Youth Center of Excellence is open and working give the city's kids a boost.
Now that the doors are officially open, they hope to offer that.
"Our Peach County schools, right now there isn't an after-school program so we're going to help the parents out,” CEO Belinda Baker said.
Belinda Baker, the center's CEO, says this was once a Boys & Girls Club.
It lost its charter in 2018, and a year later, they rebranded but it failed to reopen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the demand for help high, they stepped in.
"Our parents were saying we need help with homework, we need help with remediation, so we thought we need to do a lot more for our kids in our programs, so we thought we need to become a licensed facility," she continued.
Kids can get picked up by the center and it will stay open later for working parents.
For the summer, it'll serve as a camp for kids in kindergarten up to eighth grade, and when school returns, it'll be an after-school care for K through fifth.
"One of our main focuses is helping our children with their homework, and also, we will still continue with remediation because here in Peach County, we have several of our students who are reading below grade level,” Baker explained.
Mayor Jeff Lundy is one of the city officials supporting the new youth hub.
He says this is a step toward keeping more kids out of trouble.
"With the doors of the Fort Valley Youth of Excellence opening up, we believe that it’s going to deter crime in a sense, it’s going to give them a safe place to go, and it’s going to give them a place to go where so many resources will be available," the mayor said.
Some of the things the center plans to offer sports, STEM, and financial literacy. There will be an open house Saturday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 500 Riley Avenue in Fort Valley. Parents can sign up their children in grades kindergarten through 8th for summer camp.