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Area youth, volunteers help feed those in need

Area youth, volunteers help feed those in need

A newly rebranded organization is helping tackle an old problem in the city of Jamestown.

Participants in the Sagewell Accountability and Responsibility (A&R) program organized a community outreach event to feed the hungry on Tuesday near the former Oriental Star Restaurant at 7 S. Main St. in Brooklyn Square.

"The kids here are part of our Accountability and Responsibility program," said Billy Torres, a Sagewell staff member with the A&R youth program. "This is a youth-run, but adult- and staff-supervised event and program."

"I've only been part of the program for three weeks, but serving those who are hungry has really changed the way I view things," said Jayden Walters, an eighth-grader at Washington Middle School. "It's humbling."

The program supervisor, Holly Deperna, said the sheer number of people who are hungry or need a meal was overwhelming.

"I'm kind of caught off guard at the number of people who've shown up here for food," she said. "This is a really good experience for the kids in the program to be a part of."

According to gafamilyservices.org, the Accountability & Responsibility (A&R) Program is an after-school intervention initiative offered by G.A. Family Services, which operates under the nonprofit organization Sagewell, formerly known as Lutheran Social Services, in Jamestown.

"We did not change what we do. We changed what we are called, so that people could find it," Deperna said. "For more than a century, this organization was known as Lutheran Jamestown, a name that told you where we came from but little about what we offered. Families looking for assisted living did not know we had it. Prospective foster parents did not connect us to G.A. Family Services. Residents at Edgewood were never quite sure whether they lived at Edgewood, at Lutheran Jamestown, or somewhere in between."

Based in Jamestown and serving the broader Western New York region, the A&R program is designed as a supportive intervention for local youth, providing structured guidance, behavioral accountability, and skill-building in a safe environment outside of school hours.

"I'm happy to be helping out," said Kirra B., an A&R program participant and mentor. "People really need help in our town."

Torres said both Kirra B. and Walters have excelled while enrolled in the program.

"Kirra is also a student pilot through the Jamestown Airport Program," he said. "Both these kids are amazing standouts. They're both natural leaders and have really embraced the community service portion of the program."

Deperna explained that Sagewell comprises three components: independent living for adults aged 55 and older, assisted living, and family services.

"We have three branches or departments in our organization," she explained. "Our program, the A&R, falls under our family services branch."

For more information about Sagewell, sagewellny.org.