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Spotlight On: Eastside Student Center

TM RushJanuary 31, 2025

796 7 minutes read

Spotlight On: Eastside Student Center

As part of our ongoing series, we are interviewing people of interest in the area who are having a positive impact on our community.

This time, we reached out to Executive Director Jordan Rose of Eastside Student Center.

Can you describe the mission and vision of the Eastside Student Center?

The mission of the Eastside Student Center (ESC) is to empower the youth of our community. This can mean many things, and depends on the individual. For example, for one kid empowerment may be gaining the courage to speak up for what they believe is right or for something they feel needs to change in our community. For another, it could be as simple as feeling empowered to get caught up in school or make new friends. ESC provides safe and supportive spaces outside of school where youth can feel they have a voice, and where they can be themselves.

What specific programs and activities do you offer to support youth development?

ESC offers two out-of-school drop-in centers for local youth. Our Fowler Street location serves youth in grades 5 & 6, and our Line Street location serves youth in grades 7-12. Both locations are open every school day, Monday-Friday. All programs that ESC offers are free of charge for anyone who attends, and as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, we rely heavily on the support of our community to make this happen. Since 2021, ESC has served over 500 youth and their families through our drop-in youth centers.

In regards to youth development, we never explicitly call our programs “Youth Development” or “Leadership Training” or anything along those lines, and we do that intentionally. By the time they reach middle and high school, a lot of youth in our community have had some pretty negative experiences when it comes to academics and/or behavior issues in a formal school setting. Many have been told, either explicitly or through various actions, that they are inadequate or not cut out for leadership roles or for making a positive impact in their community. These thoughts become ingrained, so trying to convince a kid that believes these things about themselves to sign-up for a “youth development” or “leadership” program is usually pretty fruitless. Our programs at ESC are modeled on the Positive Youth Development Framework, which involves lots of community resources, including schools, families, and social networks. At ESC, we focus on providing youth with a safe space to explore, question, and grow in an informal setting. We provide a lot of different activities and workshops throughout the week, including our Youth Arts program, cooking classes, group games, Youth Outdoors program, baking club, Community Change Makers (community service club), and many more. While these may not seem directly related to youth development, these activities and spaces are critical to youth gaining confidence, creating strong bonds with trusted adults and peers, practicing communication skills, and so much more. Youth may not even recognize that these positive developments are happening in this sort of environment, and that’s pretty ideal for the population we serve. Playing a silly game of “Spoons” or “BS” and laughing and screaming with your friends and trusted adults, or spending time baking cookies after school, can have a huge impact on a youth’s development.

How do you ensure that the center remains a safe and supportive environment for all participants?

We work hard to make sure that all youth that show up at one of our centers feel welcome and safe. We have a super diverse group of kids that attend, and we want all of them to feel equally cared for, seen, and valued. We do this in a few ways, but the main way is through our amazing staff and volunteers that always go out of their way to make students feel good about their time at ESC. We try really hard to make sure that our staff reflects the diversity of our students, and that there is always someone that a student will feel comfortable talking with. As a former teacher and educator, I’m well aware that one adult can not be everything to every kid that comes to ESC. While some students will really connect with a bubbly, fun, outgoing staff member and prefer to run around and play crazy games, another kid will prefer to sit down with an adult and a small group and draw or color for hours, saying very little, but that’s what makes that particular student feel safe and comfortable.

What age groups do you primarily serve, and how do you tailor your programs to meet their needs?

Both spaces utilize a “drop-in” model, so youth can show up whenever they need or want to. There is no set day or time that a particular kid needs to attend, so some days we’ll have 30 kids show up and the next day we’ll have 65. The drop-in model, while more difficult on our end in its unpredictability, provides families and youth with a consistent space if something comes up. Life is hectic and crazy, things come up last minute, and providing families with the peace of mind of knowing that their kid has a safe place to go makes the inconsistency worth it.

Aside from the drop-in model, our two centers run pretty differently. Fowler Street, our 5th & 6th grade space, is a little more structured and planned out day-to day. We provide a designated “academic time” at the beginning of each day where kids are expected to quietly work on homework or read quietly. Then they move into some kind of structured activity, and there are usually a few options to choose from. One group may go outside and play capture the flag, while another group works on an art project in the activity room. The activities are always changing to keep it interesting for the kids (and staff). Then kids have free time where they can play games, continue doing art, play MarioKart, or try to convince a staff member to take them to the park. At about 4:30, we bring in a hot meal from the school cafeteria for the kids if they’re hungry (which they always are). The school district also provides late bus transportation at 5:00, so that’s a really great resource for any families that need it. Shout out to the amazing late-bus driver, Alex Gonzalez. That dude’s a saint and an always kind welcoming face for kids that take the bus.

At Line Street, the 7th-12th program, we’re a lot less structured. We want kids to want to show up and hang out, so mandating homework time or activities at that age doesn’t really work. We always have staff that can help with homework, and honestly a lot of kids work on homework anyways. We’ll also provide a few activities a week that youth can choose to participate in if they want. Otherwise, they can just pop in, grab a snack, play a game, take a nap, whatever they need. We have a pool table, foosball table, video games, a bunch of board and card games, art supplies, quiet areas, a library, a kitchen, and more. It’s definitely calmer and chiller vibes than Fowler Street, which we like to call “semi-organized chaos.”

How do you measure the success of your programs in empowering youth?

The success of our programs is measured in a few ways. One of the many reasons we started ESC was a means of youth substance-use and risky behavior prevention. Studies show that the hours of 3PM-6PM are when youth most often engage in risky behaviors, start using substances, and have negative interactions with law enforcement. When we have 90 students show up on any given day between our two spaces, we can measure success by knowing that those 90 students are not using substances during that time, are not engaging in illegal actions that would get law enforcement involved, or engaging in any other risky behaviors.

The most important and valuable measure of success is hearing directly from the youth themselves, whether through words or actions. We’ve been open since November 2021, and we’ve seen a lot of kids who started with us in 6th or 7th grade continue to attend into their high school years. Youth aren’t always good at vocalizing or being open about their experiences, but when they keep coming back and connecting with friends and adults, it’s a pretty powerful message. We also love hearing from parents or guardians, as they have insights into their students’ lives that we don’t. They’ll notice positive changes in confidence, or school performance, or behavior at home, and it’s really nice to hear that from families.

Can you share some success stories you’ve had?

I’ll share two that come to mind, although there are many more. I won’t use names or any identifying cues as I didn’t check with the students before sharing. We have one student who started attending in 2021 when they were in 7th grade who is now a 10th grader. This student still attends ESC at the Line Street Center, but is also one of our high school employees at our Fowler Street location. They shared that ESC has been their safe space throughout these really important developmental years, and getting to work with younger students and provide that same experience that they had is super cool and inspiring.

We also have a new student this year who has really struggled in a formal school setting. This student has had really poor attendance for years, and has been in trouble at school a lot. His parent shared recently that since attending ESC this year, he has been going to school almost every day because he gets to go to ESC after school and doesn’t want to miss it. That pretty much says it all.

Lastly, what is the best way that someone who is interested in your program can contact you?

Definitely not via social media (sorry Tanner). I’m really not good at checking those regularly. Best way is to shoot us an email to one of these addresses, as we are usually good at responding quickly: