Downtown church helps kids with reading, homework

Twelve-year-old Geneece Gandy goes to the Third Baptist Church twice a week. But, she doesn't go to the worship sanctuary. She heads for the 4th floor computer lab.

The 7th grader at EHL Middle & High School Academy attends twice-a-week tutoring sessions with the YRead reading program.

Geneece Gandy (foreground) and tutor Toni Love

She's one of a growing number of city kids who find Third Baptist a good place for extra help with their education. The church's 4th floor has several individual rooms as well as a lab room that all are equipped with computers.

The historic church is located right in the middle of the city's Grand Center Entertainment District. It is flanked on Grand Avenue by the Fox Theatre and the Saint Louis Symphony Hall.

Vicki Swyers is the director for children and youth programs at Third Baptist. She coordinates the tutoring and homework outreach efforts.

The downtown church has had a tutoring program for nearly 15 years.

But, the church's effort got a big boost recently. A church member who died left money in her will to remodel the 4th floor. From a storage area, the space has been turned into a series of study rooms and a computer lab.

Money from the will also financed 16 new computers. Now, the computers are used to run literacy software.

A next step is to link lab computers to the Internet.

YRead is a unique tutoring program sponsored by the YMCA of Greater St. Louis. That program started in 1990 and now has about 70 tutor-student pairings. The tutors and the kids' parents agree to meet twice a week for a year to help the kids learn to read better.

YRead began collaborating with Third Baptist about two years ago. Tom Frillman of YRead said Third Baptist facilities are a "perfect match" for YRead's tutoring efforts.

Third Baptist Church in Grand Center entertainment district

The church also has formed a partnership with the Rockwood School District and Saint Louis University to offer homework help. The students are city kids who attend Rockwood schools under a volunteer integration program.

When kids finished classes at Rockwood, they come to Third Baptist before they go home. For two hours twice a week, they get homework help from SLU students.

SLU provides enough tutors so that other kids from the community also can get homework help.

The SLU tutors are business school students who take part in a Service Leadership Certificate program. That provides volunteer community service opportunities for SLU students.

Ms. Swyers said her church is big enough to provide an added after-study "perk."

When the two hours of homework study is done, the kids get a chance to let off steam in the 5th floor gym. There's even a snack time.

Ms. Swyers said the goal is to have one tutor for each student, just like the YRead program.

The backbone of both the SLU program and that of YRead are the volunteer tutors.

Geneece Gandy meets twice a week with her tutor, Toni Love. Ms. Love's "day job" is as an information specialist for Ameren, the local electric utility. She volunteered when YRead came to Ameren looking for new tutors.

After some tutor training, Ms. Love was assigned to tutor Geneece. The two have been together since May, 2005.

Geneece said, "I love it here." She added, "There's stuff I didn't know last year that I know now."

But, she added, "I know I need to practice more."

Ms. Love said she likes to do volunteer outreach. She said she also teaches Sunday School at her church.

SLU senior Mary Kate Morley is the coordinator of the Service Leadership tutors.

Ms. Swyers said between 15 and 20 college tutors are available each homework session. She said the development of the tutoring and homework outreach has been an "exciting thing" for Third Baptist.

To learn more about 3rd Baptist's outreach, visit www.third-baptist.org. To learn about YRead, call the Carondelet YMCA at (314) 353-4960 and ask for Kathy at Ext. 33.