April 20, 2017—UT-Battelle, the managing contractor for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has pledged $30,000 toward construction of The Change Center, a new community activity center for teenagers and young adults in Knoxville.
The Change Center will be a “safe, strategically located center-city partnership facility” catering to teens and young adults who feel they may be too old for conventional afterschool and youth programs. The completed center will include recreation and artistic spaces, such as a skating rink and plug & play performance stage, along with vocational resources and leadership development through The Change Center Jobs Initiative.
“The Change Center is an important project for Knoxville birthed out of Mayor Madeleine Rogero’s Save Our Sons Initiative in 2013,” said Nicole Chandler, executive director of The Change Center. “The center was developed as a key strategy to reduce crime and violence related activities in inner city communities.”
The center was championed by Mayor Rogero, Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch and Pastor Daryl Arnold, members of the Save Our Sons Taskforce, and will be utilized by a partnership of more than 30 local agencies and organizations.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has previously partnered with the City of Knoxville and the Save Our Sons Initiative to connect Knoxville high school students to mentoring and support networks as part of the national My Brother’s Keeper Initiative in 2016. ORNL hopes to continue the partnership with The Change Center to promote diversity in STEM fields and address the opportunity gap in underserved communities.
“We anticipate using The Change Center to expand our outreach opportunities in the future,” said Leigha Humphries, protocol and community relations manager with UT-Battelle. “The center is the perfect venue to bring career awareness and education opportunities to the community.”
In addition to its fundraising pledge, UT-Battelle also donated and installed a FIRST Robotics playing field at The Change Center facility for local schools and robotics clubs to practice on for recent robotics competitions.
The groundbreaking for the center was held on April 3 and the center is expected to open in late 2017.