Program for kids gets grant

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Nov. 3, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

The Beltrami Area Service Collaborative has received a $356,000 grant to continue providing asset-building, after-school enrichment activities for kids in Bemidji, Blackduck and Kelliher.

The grant, according to BASC Director John Pugleasa, will fund the collaborative's Youth Choice program for two more years. The program will help fund art, science, social and recreational activities in the three communities.

The large grant was awarded by the state Department of Children, Families and Learning and will fund programs specifically designed to address the 40 developmental assets outlined in the work of the Search Institute of Minneapolis and locally by the organization Healthy Community Healthy Kids.

Youth Choice is a 1-year-old program that was initiated by another $100,000 Children, Families and Learning grant awarded to the BASC last year.

The difference between the two grants, Pugleasa said, is the first grant only partially funded Youth Choice. The new grant fully funds the program for two more years.

That also is what makes this grant award so impressive. Of more than 150 grant applications submitted, only 31 projects received funding, and the BASC's Youth Choice was one of only a few to receive full funding.

"This grant is a clear indication of the caliber of people working with youth in our local communities," Pugleasa said. "We initiated a very high quality program."

The collaborative has focused its efforts on helping youth because research shows that kids who are involved in after-school programs and have relationships with adults do better in school and less apt to commit crime later in life.

Youth Choice activities have included funding for the Bemidji Skate and Bike Association, Evergreen House activities, Headwaters School of Music and the Arts scholarships, Headwaters Science Center programs and after-school programs in Bemidji, Blackduck and Kelliher.

Pugleasa said the collaborative should be able to expand the program and bring more activities to the communities in northern Beltrami County.

The partners in the BASC grant include Healthy Community Healthy Kids, Bemidji Public Schools, Evergreen House, Headwaters Science Center, Land 'O Lakes Girl Scout Council, Headwaters School of Music and Arts, Blackduck Public Schools, Northwoods Coalition of Battered Women, Kelliher Public Schools and the Bemidji Area Council of Nonprofits.

The BASC is a joint powers agency that is a collaborative of Beltrami County; the Blackduck, Bemidji and Kelliher school districts; nonprofit agencies; and corrections agencies.

The goal is that through the collaborative, all of the agencies can pursue grant opportunities and decrease the competition for limited resources. Being most of the BASC's members try to help similar people, they are accomplishing more by working together. This produces less competition and delivers more of an integrated set of services.