ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke nonprofit turned the Dumas Center into a stage for children Friday night, offering a public showcase of a new free dance program organizers say is designed to keep young people engaged and off the streets.
The Hope Center of 11th St. is a Roanoke community center that provides food and clothing distributions, as well as tutoring and after-school programs to children in need. Friday night, the Hope Center launched its first “Prevention Through the Arts” event.
“We have the arts program that is a prevention program to get the kids off the street,” said Yolanda Gibbs, who is identified by the kids as Mizz Yo. “Honestly, the first step in preventing violence is to give children something better to do and something to strive for.”
Many of the performers were dancing in front of an audience for the first time. The program provides a safe place for expression, helping kids build confidence and life skills.
“Our impact is to really give them a good footing, to be able to give them some instructions and help them grow up and decide what they want to do with their lives,” said Darlene Lewis, Founder and Executive Director of the Hope Center of 11th St.
Desmond Ffriend, father of two performers, said he has been bringing his kids to the Hope Center for years. “They give you hope, they give you after-school curricula, they help your kids, they dance, they eat, they go outside, you can’t beat that.”
“It lets go of good energy, and you know, dance is a good rhythm anyway, so as long as you have that, you can be happy, smiling.”
Organizers acknowledged barriers to arts participation in low-income communities and said programs like this help children develop communication skills and alternatives to conflict.
“We realize it’s difficult, it’s not an easy career to pick up even as a hobby, especially in lower-class communities, it’s expensive,” said Gibbs.
Lewis explained, “We wanted to get them to start being able to communicate with each other, which means that once that happens, that they can find ways that they can de-escalate themselves when they get into problems.”
“Creating programs like this is necessary, it is absolutely necessary. Children can adapt better when they have the opportunity to develop themselves with expression,” explained Gibbs.
The Hope Center plans to continue the dance program annually and expand to include additional art forms.