Their location choice of their historic meeting was symbolic — The Edge Teen Center in Liberty Twp., near Lakota East High School.
But officials said they are eager to move beyond symbolism through linking their various and diverse efforts all geared to helping local students in grades seven through 12 succeed, stay safe, healthy and active.
“We want to focus on this specific age of kids and how can we surround them with the support and services they need to be successful and set them up for success after high school,” said Brenda Yablonsky, president of the Edge Teen Center Board, which along with Lakota co-sponsored the meeting.
The meeting, which included some Lakota school board members, was also attended by representatives from West Chester Township and Butler County Sheriff officers, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, West Chester and Liberty Faith Alliance, Envision Partnership, MidPoint Library, Junior Achievement and Butler County Children’s Services and others.
The new alliance discussed several issues concerning teen success — not the least of which was the need to link together the sometimes isolated “silos” of each organization’s work to increase information exchanges, focus, resources and eliminate duplication of efforts to help local youth.
“These are some great organizations and we (meeting participants) just barely know what they do,” she said.
“Our goal includes learning more about what each organization does because we all have different skills and expertise,” said Yablonsky, whose teen center serves about 700 area teenagers each school year by offering a facility for after-school recreation, study and peer socializing.
“None of us can be experts in all areas. At Edge (Teen Center) there are needs our teens have that we can’t help them with so we want to be able to partner with organizations that can come in and help us with those needs,” she said.
Lakota Local Schools is Southwest Ohio’s largest school system with more than 16,500 students and the eighth largest district in the state. The 22-school district includes two of Ohio’s largest high schools — Lakota East and Lakota West.
Sue Mahlock, director of outreach for the Faith Alliance, praised the unusual meeting.
“If you are going to get something done, we need to focus … and when we do that, we can do anything,” said Mahlock.
The new group’s members said they plan to meet again and build on their initial connections.
“I would predict a lot more collaborative efforts are going to occur,” said Yablonsky.
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