Helping youth, their families and each other is the point of the new Northern Lights Youth Center on the East Side of Aurora.
The center has been open since earlier this summer, but about 200 people gathered on Monday for a ribbon-cutting and grand opening for the center in the former Emmanuel Lutheran School building at 551 Fourth Ave.
The center was developed by the Aurora Housing Authority and its development arm, Northern Lights Development Corporation. Ralph Jordan, the director of both, said this week the programs at the center are designed to help kids learn how to collaborate with each other.
“We’ve really had a really good time doing all this work to help our kids and our families,” he said. “We’re just here to help people.”
The school building has been vacant for almost 20 years, although it was a private elementary school for many years before that.
Ald. Ted Mesiacos, whose 3rd Ward includes the new youth center, grew up down the street, and remembers playing stickball in the school’s parking lot.
“I swear we never broke anything,” he said. “This building has a lot of emotional strings for me, like a lot of people.”
The Aurora Housing Authority is in partnership with several other organizations to provide programs and services in the center. The partners include the Fox Valley Park District, the Quad County Urban League, SPARK Early Learning and the APS Academy.
A full-service center for pre-kindergarten through postsecondary students, the Northern Lights Youth Center features early childhood initiatives, STEM training programs, construction trade programs, arts programs, athletic programs and a workout room.
Mayor Richard Irvin said these types of programs prepare youths “to be responsible adults in the future.”
Irvin and the city honored two East Aurora High School students who have been working with youths through the Aurora Housing Authority for a while. Damond Williams and Harmonee Farris received the Mayor’s Award of Youth Excellence for their involvement in the Aurora Housing Authority’s Summer Youth Employment Program and commitment to working with younger youth at the new center.
“They represent not just the future but the present in the city of Aurora,” said Clayton Muhammad, the city’s chief communications officer and senior advisor to the mayor.
The former Emmanuel School is the third closed school in Aurora that has been reopened this year, repurposed for another use. The former Lincoln and Todd elementary schools, once West Aurora School District properties, have been reopened as workforce housing.
slord@tribpub.com
