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Interview with Shermaine Gunter-Gary
Shermaine is the Director of the Atlantic City Health & Human Services. Interviewed by Michael Feagans on 02.17.00.
4npo: What volunteer activities are you currently involved in?
Shermaine: I am currently involved with 3 programs. One is the Atlantic City Rites of Passage program which is for girls and boys.
4npo: When was that founded?
Shermaine: September, 1996.
4npo: Did you initiate it?
Shermaine: Yes.
4npo: Tell me about it...
Shermaine: We have two classes a year and each class has about 40 girls and 28 boys. And basically what we did was take 12 principles, and with these we send the kids that are at that real tough age, 11 -14, through a 16 week program. The program teaches them about personal health and hygiene, sexuality, how to trace their history, career choices, how to set goals, teach them about etiquette and manners. We talk about ethics and morals; we get into song, dance and poetry; we have a creative workshop where they can try out their artistic skills. We try to do a whole group of things to try to find out where the young person is and what they can excel at; we try to find out where their area of excellence resides. After we find out where their interests are, we refer them to other programs in the city. For example, if someone has good artistic skills we refer them to Art Expression, which is a non-profit program that teaches kids art. We try to use our program as a stepping stone to other programs.
4npo: What are the twelve principals?
Shermaine: We have 12 principles that we adhere to as we are working with the kids in these different areas. Some of them are: anti-violence, pregnancy prevention, drug and alcohol prevention, self-esteem and others.
4npo: What is the purpose of the program?
Shermaine: The purpose is to get kids to start dreaming again; to set goals and move forward. Most of the kids we have in the program don't have a clue about where they are going in life what they are going to do. By the time they leave us they have some ideas about what they want to do and what kind of person they want to be. We've had a very good success rate with this program.
4npo: How long do the kids stay in the program?
Shermaine: The program is 16 weeks long. Two years ago we started an alumni association because the kids kept coming back. Some of the kids we couldn't find a niche for, so we started the alumni program to help them out. We take the 12 principles and expound on them, we get into things more deeply. Meeting with the kids for 2 hours a week does not always leave enough time for us to delve deeply enough. For instance with the sexuality piece, the kids are very curious about this topic and we have already had three sessions about it with the alumni group. We have guest speakers come in who are experts in each of the workshops we have. The kids interact with African-Americans who are doing well in the community. The community has been very supportive. We have never been turned down by a potential speaker.
4npo: Are the kids who participate from Atlantic City?
Shermaine: Yes, and the surrounding area. We are funded with some city money but also the casinos give us money that allows us to take 5 children from the surrounding community.
4npo: Do you have any paid staff?
Shermaine: We have one part-time position for 2 hours a day. Everyone else who works in the program is a volunteer. There are 15 volunteers.
4npo: What is the next program you are involved in?
Shermaine: The Atlantic City Theater Guild. It started in February, 1998.
4npo: Did you found that program?
Shermaine: No, a friend came to me with this idea and when he explained it to me I liked it so much I asked him if I could be involved.
4npo; What do you do?
Shermaine: I'm the producer.
4npo: What is the Atlantic City Theater Guild all about?
Shermaine: We train young people in the theatrical arts. The kids are from Atlantic City and range in age from 6 - 17 years old. We teach them backstage lighting, sound. Next year we are putting together a training program to teach them direction and other aspects of theater. We produce 3 stage plays a year; two 2 hour plays and one vignette that is about an hour long. We are currently doing A Year Without Christmas. Our Spring production was Baby That Ain't Love. And we do a production for African American Heritage Month. The kids are very talented. We are already booked for our African American Heritage Month production.
4npo: What is the purpose of this program?
Shermaine: For kids who are interested in theatrical arts we give them a chance to perform before a live audience, allowing them to get some stage presence. This year we had an opportunity to travel and we put on plays in Baltimore, Salisbury Maryland, and Philadelphia. We do it for the community, we do two plays for free and we charge about $5 for the others. This allows us to give the kids a small stipend of about $20 per production.
4npo: How many children are involved in this program?
Shermaine: Our total cast enrollment is about 52 but with each play we usually have about 33 cast members.
4npo: How many staff members do you have?
Shermaine: We have 4 volunteers.
4npo: What else do you volunteer for?
Shermaine: The Atlantic County Youth Council. It's a youth leadership program that was recently formed. We are a spinoff of the NAACP Youth Council. Each week we deal with a different aspect of leadership. It is primarily a leadership training program. The kids wrote the by-laws for the program. We just started in September and the kids are still in the process of organizing the program.
4npo: Shermaine, thank you for allowing me to interview you today. Good luck with all of your programs.
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