My name is Joe Neves. I was raised in Austin, Texas. I graduated from Del Valle High School in 1981 and attended the University of Texas. How I ended up working with children and living in a totally different environment and culture is a story within itself.
My father was raised in a city in Massachusetts named New Bedford. The City of New Bedford was the world’s most famous whaling era seaport and is currently the number one fishing port in America. This city is a wonderfully diverse, culturally rich community with a proud present, past and future. The city is populated with Irish, French, Portuguese, Cape Verdean and African-American descendants.
One summer while on semester break from the University of Texas, I contacted a cousin to find summer employment for me in New Bedford. Off to New England to work on a beach for the summer! How could you beat that! It seemed too easy and it was. After I had arrived in New Bedford, I was informed that the job that was promised to me was given to a State Senator’s son. I felt politics working firsthand in the wrong way. Now, what was I going to do? I turned down summer financial aid at UT to have a fun summer working up north and it was now all gone. I looked everywhere for jobs. I found a part time job working at a grocery store, but I needed more income to survive and to save money for school for the fall semester at UT. Another cousin that worked in a Day Care program offered to hire me to work as a substitute at a summer camp. My first thought was no way! I am nobody’s babysitter and I was going to school to become an Accountant. Children were not an alternative to work on a beach for the summer! Reluctantly, I went for a day to see what it was all about and really to see if I could tolerate the kids and collect a paycheck.
They say, “Things happen for a reason”. This is one of those reasons that people believe in that quote. Mind you before that summer, all my jobs during the semester breaks were retail and business oriented. My thoughts were to learn how business worked and use that experience to further my education in the accounting field. I went to the Day Care program and basically was told to walk around and just mingle with the children. Mingle with kids that I didn’t know or were related to? Yeah, this was going to be boring! Then it happened… All these children came up to me and started talking, laughing and listening to my every word! These children were interested in me and were happy that I was interested in them! Words can’t explain the uplifting joy this gave me. At the time, I didn’t understand it; but these children just wanted someone to listen to them and not judge them. Later I found out that a lot of these children came from broken homes and were involved heavily with Social Services. I remember being advised that if I showed them respect, they would respect and follow my lead. What an understatement! I felt like the Pied Piper! I ended working at the camp for the summer and then decided to take a semester off and work the Day Care Program in the fall. It was a hard decision, but these children affected me in ways that they will never realize. It wasn’t the fact that I felt sorry for them; it was the fact that they had someone that believed in them, no matter what had transpired in their lives. I had become a role model and did not even realize it!
The fall was over and I had promised my parents that I would go back to school for the Spring semester at UT. I left New Bedford with a heavy heart, but I was going to be an Accountant! Make money, drive a nice car, live in a fancy house, and be the one to make a difference in the financial world! My children from the Day Care would send letters to keep me updated on their lives. I read them but I wasn’t part of that anymore. I was trying to get back to the reason that I went to UT; get a great job in the Accounting field. I was torn. As a minority, I always wanted to make a positive difference. I thought by being this Accountant, I would have all that I wanted.
One day I’m walking on campus at UT, and I see this group of children on a field trip. I look at these children and I wonder what their lives would be if they didn’t have the support to become the best that they can be. My children up North only know New Bedford and their neighborhood. They only know what they can’t do; they need to know what they can do!
To make a long story short; twenty four years later I am still doing what I set out to do while at UT-as a minority, make a positive difference! I am the Director of an Afterschool Day Care Program in New Bedford. I have been the Director for the last 22 years. At the age of 24, I was the youngest Director of all the School Age Day Cares in the city of New Bedford. The greatest reward is to see these children succeed and to have their children attend my Day Care Program. Throughout all of this I have figured out that teaching children social skills and self-esteem is the greatest reward. Some people prefer fancy cars and fancy houses. I prefer the satisfaction of a child becoming an adult in the right direction, giving back to his/her community, and staying positive. Someone once said, “People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do”. At Dennison Memorial Community Center we do! Below is a brief synopsis of the Center.
Dennison Memorial Community Center has served the children and families of inner-city New Bedford well for over 183 years with a host of active programs and positive direction. Initially called the “City Female Tract Society” (1826), in 1857 the child, youth and family service agency was established to care for the poor and needy families of the city’s South End. In 1868, the institution was formally incorporated.
First organized as a women’s health center, programs were eventually developed as the agency grew which focuses primarily on helping immigrant children and adults to assimilate into the new country, culture and community. In the 1800’s, Tristan B. Dennison firmly established the human service agency by leading it for nearly 40 years. As the years progressed, the mission of Dennison Memorial Center evolved and became more directed toward serving troubled, at-risk children. Dennison then broadened its scope by reaching out to immigrants, disadvantaged children and the families of seamen. Today, the agency is exclusively devoted to providing child and youth programs.
THE MISSION: The mission of Dennison Memorial Center is to address the educational and social needs of children of lesser circumstances between the ages of 6 and 17.
To accomplish its objectives, Dennison Memorial Center offers social, education and recreation services from its inner-city facility. Dennison’s programs are structured to guide children and adolescents into maturity through wholesome programs and activities. The programs are aimed at increasing each child’s self-esteem in order to assist them during periods of difficult choices. At present, an estimated 250-300 predominantly minority children from low-income families are member of Dennison Memorial Center.
In light of the demographics of New Bedford’s South End and the serious need to serve higher numbers of socially-challenged children and adolescents, it became apparent to the leaders of Dennison Memorial Center that the 1904 program center had to be demolished and a new and more functional facility constructed. Due to the poor and unsafe condition of the upper floors, activities for the children were limited to the ground floor of the old building. Rather than renovating the 1904 building, the leaders of Dennison Memorial Center concluded that it would be more economical and cost-effective to erect a new center next to the gymnasium.
Upon demolition of the 1904 building, the new two-story Program Center was built on the same site. The cost of the new building was $900,000. All funds for the building were procured through donations and grants from numerous foundations.
The South End of New Bedford
Dennison Memorial Center serves one of New Bedford’s most economically-challenged and socially-underserved neighborhoods. There are few single-family homes in our community. Street after street of 3- and 4-story tenement houses blanket the South End, and most of the families who reside in these old wooden structures are low-income and disadvantaged. Most are at-risk. A high percentage of the primarily Latino, African-American and Cape Verdean families are headed by single parents.
Social discord is high in the South End. In fact, the highest rates of drug traffic, domestic violence, gang activity, unemployment and juvenile crime can be found in the many resource-poor neighborhoods immediately surrounding Dennison Memorial Center. Although some children are bused to Dennison from other parts of the city, most of the agency’s 450-500 young m embers reside with their families in the immediate vicinity. Dennison Memorial Center stands in the middle of the lowest economic census tract in New Bedford.
The Children of Dennison
The boys and girls of Dennison Memorial Center come from lesser circumstances. An annual fee of only $5 makes a child or teen a member of Dennison Memorial Center. However, due to the poor economic condition of most of the parents, only a rare few pay the annual fee. An estimated 77% of the children are minority with Latino’s (52%) comprising the largest group. Girls represent 50% of the 450-500 members. Other ethnicities include African-American, Cape Verdean, Azorean and Portuguese Caucasian children account for less than 23% of the members.