The Story of Kennett

About the Authors

It’s All About The Kids

by: Joan Holliday

When Bob George asked me if I would be interested in writing a book about Kennett, we both agreed that one prominent element of our community was programs focused on children and youth.  We started counting the number of youth programs serving the Kennett area and we were amazed.  Bob graduated from the Kennett Schools and is one of the founding fathers of the Kennett Education Foundation.  For thirty-two years I have served Kennett area children and youth as a public health nurse, working in concert with most of the youth programs.  We decided we were the right partners to write this book—The Kennett Story:  It’s all about the Kids.  As an affirmation, Bob amusingly remembered a line in Back to the Future, when Doc responded to Marty, who had concerns after returning from the future, by telling him, “It’s all about the kids, Marty! It’s all about the kids!”  As we’ve conducted forty interviews in the Kennett community, Bob and I are resoundingly saying, “It’s all about the kids!”  Beyond the historic accounts about our town, the new Kennett story for the past thirty years is one in which the community has focused on developing our kid’s potential and giving them equal opportunity.

In the following chapters, you will hear about the many ways Kennett community members, schools and non-profit agencies have wrapped their arms around the children in the Kennett area. They have been taking it upon themselves to start and implement children and youth programs, which cover the gamete of child life phases, from prenatal through high school.  Bob George and I have held forty one-on-one interviews with the directors or managers of these children and youth programs.  We have also have interviewed the leaders of Kennett, as we believe that they provide the surround that support the safety and youth’s growth and development.  From December 2015 until September 2016, Bob George and I have conducted one-hour interviews with a series of questions (included at the end of this chapter.) I took notes from our individual sessions and created a summary paper for each interview. The director or leader was then offered the opportunity to edit, delete or add to the summary story, and speak in the first person voice.  While the individual stories are inspiring and instructive, the collective story also offers some food for reflection.   Common themes, characteristics and challenges will be discussed later.

In 1997, the Kennett Episcopal Church of the Advent led a town “Listening Project” to assess the needs of the community.   It was this process that identified the void in community youth programs.  The leaders of the survey developed After the Bell, an after-school enrichment program for Kennett Middle School students, leading the way for the formation of many other community youth programs.   After the Bell received national recognition through a TIME magazine article and continues to be a shining example of a school and community partnership.

At the same time, Bridging the Community process was being developed.  With the changes that were happening around town—the corporate headquarters of Genesis Health Care Ventures moving to the center of town, and more Latino children entering the schools—a small group of committed and concerned citizens met to explore what the community could create and lead to assure a healthy town evolution.  They promoted the living philosophy of peaceful, progressive, inclusivity and held Bridging the Community meetings to generate new ideas, leaders and volunteerism.  These bi-monthly gatherings, held at different town sites, continue to create the inspiration and arena for community members to become more broadly involved and focused on our town’s resources and needs towards a healthy evolution. 

Study Buddies after-school tutoring programs “mushroomed” out of the Bridging the Community effort.  With four after-school programs held on consecutive days in different town churches, a template had been laid for the town.  The intent of Study Buddies was to walk-side-by-side with the vulnerable elementary children, who needed homework support and enrichment.   The community was in this together and understood the reciprocal benefit of working with the child.  There would be no more, “them and us” as we were all teachers and students. Today, Carter CDC has developed a non-profit neighborhood association on the street where Study Buddies started and their central effort is a Study Buddies four days of after-school tutoring and enrichment.  They see this effort as a pivotal neighborhood grassroots process for breaking the cycle of poverty.  Their motto is:  “It takes a child to raise a village.”

During this time, the idea of “bridging” caring adults with elementary children was started through Mentoring Youth in Kennett Elementary (M.Y.K.E.).   This effort was intentional about “bridging” the seniors from the Kendal and Crosslands’ Communities with the kids, demonstrating the benefit of intergenerational relationships in a town community.   Today, there is an Inter Gen Coalition, which continues to develop new processes to bring together all generations, capitalizing on the assets of each age group.  As for evolving the process of mentoring youth, in 2007 Together for Education program for elementary and middle school students was developed and received its non-profit status.  As an expansive element, this program has corporate employee involvement and support, which demonstrates the benefit of business as a “partner” in a town community.

Migrant Education Program continues to be a first entry support for many Spanish-speaking students and their families. In 2007, Walk in Knowledge (WIN) program targeted high-school Latino students, who needed more support navigating the path to higher education.  Today the program is open to all students who desire academic support.  In 2009 Path Stone Migrant Head Start arrived in the area and with their focus on early migrant childhood education, they have added to the efforts of the long-standing Migrant Education Program and to the existing Head Start Program.

The Garage Community and Youth Center has become an established place in the center of town since 2001.  The mission statement on the front door announces the intent of developing our youth’s potential.  This is making a statement to the town that we care about our kids and we have a physical space for them to gather, study, be mentored and tutored and to be given the opportunities to become contributing citizens today and in the future.  This has been so successful that a branch has been established in the neighboring community of West Grove.

The establishment of the Kennett Area YMCA, which attracts families and youth to wholesome physical and character development, has been another town symbol of caring for our kids.  In the interview with the Director of the YMCA, you will hear how the leadership and its members continue to explore how to meet the next emerging need to help raise a healthy child.  Housing a Montessori School has been one of these successful ventures, which came out of an initiative by a community member.

Camp Dream catcher was included in this story because it is one non-profit agency that has chosen to work with a group that is probably the most isolated and faces the greatest stigma; these are children and families affected by HIV/AIDS.  The “therapeutic camp community “has become not only a haven for Kennett area HIV/AIDS affected families, but it serves other Eastern States.  Volunteers from Kennett support this effort, which in turn has a community ripple effect on our “care for all kids.”

Opportunities for youth to stretch their wings and make a contribution to the community are offered by Good Neighbor’s non-profit organization.   Every summer youth give up a full week of vacation to provide housing repairs for low-income senior residents.   The youth learn invaluable lessons about life while developing home repair skills and best of all joining the circle of community volunteers.

As the elementary, middle and high school youth are supported through strong programs, the Kennett community has also been provided services for the prenatal, postpartum, and early childhood periods.  The interventions of the Chester County Health Department Public Health Nurses, Young MOMS, the Maternal Child Health Consortium, Family Center, La Comunidad Hispana,  Kennett Area Community Services, Tick Tock Early Learning Center and Family Literacy will all be highlighted as significant contributors to healthy beginnings.

Let’s remember that at the helm, the schools and their direct partners play a fundamental role in preparing our kids for becoming our future.  Three superintendants (our current and two former) will share their experiences as leaders and the impact they have had on our present school system; we are now one of the top rated school districts in Pennsylvania.  Kennett Education Foundation and Chester County Futures will share how they partner with the schools towards higher education and two educators reflect on what comprises a good education.

The town surround story of having an effective community-minded Kennett Police Department and a vigilant Judge will be told.  We will get a glimpse of the town’s economic status as the stories are told by Historic Kennett Square, Kennett Borough Council and Mayors (current and former), and a leading Mushroom Farm owner.

To bring to life the effect of the many youth programs, you will be hearing Stories from the Youth.  They are the ones who will best demonstrate what it means to be a child growing up in Kennett Square.

A recent New York Times Bestseller entitled, Our Kids—The American Dream in Crisis by Robert C. Putman, focused on how the promise of the American Dream has a disturbing “opportunity gap”  between the have and the have-not backgrounds.  He explores this issue through a body of research about the current state of affairs and what can be done.  The good news is that he promotes community youth programs beyond the schools.  I quote:  “At the permeable boundary between schools and community are after-school activities, mentors, and above all, extracurricular activities.  America invented extracurricular activities precisely to foster equal opportunity, and we know from dozens of research studies that this strategy works.” P. 258.

Kennett Square community is discovering the benefit and ultimate importance of working with the kids; not only because the kids need us, but because they provide the hope for our community and our world’s future.   Focusing on the kids seems like an obvious approach to a healthy evolution of a town, and yet we see Kennett Square as unique in this manner.  Our community has stayed the course through many challenging transitions and changes in the past thirty years.  Leaders, agencies and volunteers continue to promote and expand additional programs or add new grassroots efforts to meet the emerging needs.   There is a tenacity, commitment and caring that doesn’t quit with one group of kids; peacefully, progressing and including the next edge of need and potential.  Now, this is worth writing about!