PROSPERITY — During Tuesday’s Prosperity Town Council Meeting, Council heard from two different organizations who are looking to work with the town.
Xavier Baez, founder and president of Club 180 Children’s Feeding Center, spoke before Council in regards to bringing the club into Prosperity.
Club 180 is an after school feeding center which is opened from Monday-Friday 3-5 p.m. Ages of children range from kindergarten to 12th grade, although Baez said most of the youth who attend are elementary to middle school age.
The club is free to attend with trained and prepared staff on hand — all youth must be registered by a parent or guardian. If a child who is not registered comes to Club 180 Baez said they would allow the child to come, but send them with a registration form when they left.
There are currently Club 180 locations in Lexington County, Richland County and in the Town of Whitmire.
“Not only bring in a club, but have a place where our children here can come visit. Children come, we help them with their homework, help them with their confidence,” Baez said.
Baez, a former gang member, said Club 180 is not only a feeding center, but a bully-free zone where youth are taught leadership, mentorship, guidance and are served a warm meal.
For the 2018-19 school year, Baez said they ended the year serving 6,000 meals.
Baez asked Council if they would consider letting them use one of the rooms in the Civic Center as a place to dedicate for the youth.
Council did not see an issue with the club, but wanted to make sure moving forward that Club 180 did not interfere with the program the Newberry County School District already has in place. A decision was not made, but Council asked Baez to put together a plan for Council with more details as far as transportation, number of youth, etc.
For more information on Club 180, visit www.club180kids.org.
Next up was McKeva Kinard-Shelton, founder of Women on a Mission, who came before Council to discuss a possible space for a Teen Task Force Center.
“Mine is going to be different from his (Baez), my age range is going to be from 13-17, working with at risk youth, youthful offenders, etc. on an 8-12 week program starting from 4-6 p.m. daily, depending on the child or circumstance,” Kinard-Shelton said.
She said this is a program youth can go through before they are sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice. Referrals can be made by law enforcement, school resource officers, school staff or parents, to name a few.
“DJJ would send kids to this organization and it will be kind of like a community service type thing,” she said.
She added that with the Teen Task Force Center, it will hold youth accountable for their actions. Youth will have the chance to attend art, music, dance, acting and cooking classes provided by the Task Center — an arcade-type room, which kids would have to earn, may be incorporated. Kinard-Shelton is also hoping to partner with schools in regards to transportation, but does have transportation (a van) of her own.
Kinard-Shelton told Council that they would start out with 12 youth and that the program would conclude with a graduation ceremony — those same youth can come back and be teen leaders if they would like.
Parents would also play an active role in the program with parent check-ins every Friday.
Like Baez, a decision was not made on Kinard-Shelton’s request.
In other business, Town Administrator Karen Livingston advised Council that the Department of Social Services has asked the town to partner with them to use the Civic Center in the event of an emergent need to administer SNAP benefits during a disaster.
“It would only be if something was wrong with their building, a catastrophe came, tornado came through Prosperity and several people needed to sign up for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, it would just be a place they could come in Prosperity,” Livingston said.
She also told Council that We Care, out of Chapin, was interested in bringing a mobile food pantry in Prosperity, providing the pantry once a month, possibly twice. The mobile food pantry would possibly be in the park near the picnic shelter.
“The truck would come in, people would get the food so they don’t have to go to Chapin to pick it up. Nothing on the town, except putting it on the bills that the food pantry would be here on this day, in conjunction with the food pantry,” she said.
Livingston added that the town is working toward a kickoff event for the town’s Brick Campaign. The town is looking at October 5 as a possible date.
Other business:
• Prosperity National Night Out will be held August 6 from 5-8 p.m. Corporal Corey Jones said the location has been changed to the softball field. There will be a band, vendors, games and more for youth.
• A motion was made by Councilman Robert Martin and seconded by Councilman Mike Hawkins to send the highlighted list of properties to be changed from R-7 to R-10 to the Newberry County Planning and Zoning for review.
• A motion was made by Mayor Derek Underwood and seconded by Councilman Chad Hawkins to approve the annexation ordinance — Crystal Lynn Howard and Frances C. Howard tax map number 517-44 to include 150, 152 and 156 Forest Hills Boulevard.
