Coatesville Youth Initiative ServiceCorps participants Lucas, Noah and Aaron Willett with their mother, Debbie Willett

CYI’s ServiceCorps: Meaningful Employment, Community Service, Life-Long Skills

For the past two summers Noah Willett worked with disabled workers at Handi-Crafters in Thorndale, then as a summer camp counselor at Bernardtown Baptist Church. “I learned everybody deserves respect, no matter who you are,” the ninth-grader says of his Handi-Crafters experience.
 
The Coatesville Area High School freshman and track team hurdler wasn’t alone in experiencing such meaningful growth. Noah, as well as his brothers Aaron and Lucas, was among the 40 Coatesville Area School District (CASD) 14- to 18-year-olds who spent the summer of 2011 involved in the Coatesville Youth Initiative’s ServiceCorps – which provides full-time, meaningful summer employment with community service agencies, as well as life-skills learning.
 
The ServiceCorps is one key element of the CYI, one of the foundation’s most ambitious projects. After a year-long community planning process, the CYI program launched in October, 2011 and since then has brought 40 organizations together with CASD schools, parents and children to help our young people grow into healthy, productive citizens.
 
Aaron Willett has worked the past two summers as a camp counselor for kindergarteners through 5th graders, first at Regency Park Apartments, then at the Bridge Academy & Community Center. “I liked working with the kids and their activities and being able to connect with them,” says Aaron, who hopes to major in clinical psychology in college and – thanks to his ServiceCorps experience – work with children. “Community service really makes me feel good.”
 
Aaron, a CASH senior track & field hurdling star who in 2012 will compete in Australia, learned one important lesson: Patience. “I never really worked with kids before,” says the senior. “Sometimes it was loud, and I learned not to lose my cool.”
 
That’s also the biggest lesson learned by his younger brother, Lucas, a 2011 first-time participant who worked as a camp counselor at the Regency Park Apartments. “Taking care of kids isn’t easy,” agrees the junior. “It showed me the importance of responsibility. I had to guide them. I was a team leader, the one they looked up to for the summer.”
 
After the program’s concluding appreciation dinner, Lucas – who spoke to the audience and was publicly acknowledged for his accomplishments for the first time in his life – confided to his mother, Debbie Willett: “This was the best night ever.”
 
“Coatesville’s so lucky to have this program,” says the boys’ grateful mother. “Especially for Lucas, I really believe in my heart that this experience was life changing.”
 
Concludes Noah: “I can’t imagine a better way to spend my summer, getting involved by doing something that’s productive and really helps your community.”

View a short video featuring the Willett family.

Coatesville Youth Initiative and ServiceCorps

A network of evidence-based programming founded and nurtured by the Brandywine Health Foundation and its more than 40 partners to help young people grow into healthy, productive citizens.

By The Numbers

2009
Year the CYI launched

Over 400
Number of youth impacted

55
Number of students employed in ServiceCorps

12 - 24
Ages the Coatesville Youth Initiative addresses

24
Number of corporate and foundation partners