George Bray Neighborhood Center, Inc.
50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner

“50 Years and Still Relevant”

Keynote Speaker:

Congresswoman Gwen Moore

@ Bray Center

924 Center Street

Saturday, February 11, 2012
6:30 pm - Social Hour

7:00 pm - Dinner

Donation: $30 - includes Dinner

(Tickets available at Bray Center or call Jameel at 705-5583.)
***The event turned out great! Over 300 in attendance. Journal Times coverage on Sunday, February 12th touched many click here to see article The video record of this celebration will soon be posted here, and broadcast on CAR25.***

Bray Center, 50 Years of History

Established in 1961, the Bray Center, Inc., a truly grassroots organization owned by a neighborhood located in a community beleaguered by poverty, crime, neglect, and unmet needs, is also enriched with a strong and proud history of residents and activists who have not given up on achieving self-determinism and contribution to the larger society. The purpose of the Bray Center is to effectively serve the community through a variety of programs, advocacy, and mutual development with residents toward reaching a unique destiny among a long oppressed and neglected people. Community activism frequently requiring political mobilization led to many years of non-partisan election education and mobilization of the people traditionally under-represented among the powers that be...leading to the movement "VOTE! It's a Power Thing" through which thousands of otherwise apathetic and inactive voters were literally moved to the polls.

The Bray Center came into existence in 1961 when concerned area residents came together at kitchen tables and on front stoops, on a voluntary basis to begin attacking assorted social and economic problems in the area. In 1964, the Franklin Neighborhood Association ("The Pink House") based at 816 Tenth St., became a funded program under the YWCA. Through 1966, the Association operated as a pilot program assisting neighborhood residents in the areas of employment, housing, recreation, guidance, and education. Soon after, the program was recommended for continuance via United Way funds, and the Urban League became the sponsoring agent.


In 1969, the Franklin Neighborhood Association put on an independent fund drive and purchased the present site at 924 Center St. On April 9, 1980, the Board of Directors voted to change the name of the organization/facility to the George Bray Neighborhood Center, Inc. in honor of long-time neighborhood resident, Mr. George Bray, whose past service included Board President, Executive Director, and the force behind the purchase of the Center Street property.

After a rocky decade under new leadership (after George Bray) in the 1980s, during which a $100,000 debt accrued and all funders withdrew, leaving a balance of $100 in the agency account (before the current leadership), the current administration took control in 1993, effectively eliminating the debt within three months via negotiations and private fundraising, and once again attracting the old funders as well as new ones, putting together an annual operating budget to support programs and services.


Community wide enthusiasm for the dynamic leadership and program development emerging from the Bray Center was difficult to contain. Through the nominal process of bringing together neighborhood residents, parents and youth, priorities were established for the course of the agency program development, which was driven by the acronym R.E.A.C.H. (Recreation, Education, Advocacy, Cultural Competence, Health). Physical and environmental changes drew oohs and aahs from historic visitors as the huge and leaking dome roof was repaired, partial wall partitions removed, portable hoops replaced with wall mounted baskets and mats.


In 1993, having established independence from any sponsoring agency by producing fiscal accountability reported by an independent auditor, gaining its own direct community support from United Way, City Development, and others, the Board of Directors voted to do-business-as Bray Center, Inc. In effect, marking the shift to responsibility and accountability with a modernized DBA organizational name.


In years past, programs to which the agency should soon return include: the original "Sisters", which targets the unique development of girls for their success in a society which appears to display hostility toward their very survival; the nationally acclaimed F.A.S.T. (Families and Schools Together), which was successfully adapted for the first time by the Bray Center to the neighborhood base.


Maybe best known for the original R.B.A. (Racine Basketball Association) operating for nearly ten years under the gang diversion initiative "Operation Survival", the Bray Center sometimes struggled to generate an accurate public perception. While producing high school graduation rates beating those of the local school district, as well as college entrants and graduates among the proverbially least likely to succeed, not to mention access to hundreds of thousands of grant and scholarship dollars for youth to go to college, (even an NBA All Star), not all members of the community (mostly for political gain) were as excited as so many others (participant youth and parents). A dramatic and deadly increase in violence within the surrounding neighborhood areas during the summer of 2006, led the Bray Center leadership to make the difficult but correct choice to end the R.B.A. as it was known. Today there is movement afoot to bring back the R.B.A. for neighborhood kids....more to come.


Today, the agency maintains the basics of R.E.A.C.H. focusing on asset development among youth and families; pre-college preparation starting in middle school through post-secondary education placement (GEAR UP); and gang diversion ("Operation Survival") through street level intervention, mentoring, academic planning, and life skills training; and still plenty of recreational basketball. The agency continues serving as a placement site for Department of Corrections, Senior Employment, Developmental Vocation Rehab, and community service for earning school or court credit. For these placement services, the agency receives no monetary support for the staff hours invested, which makes it a volunteer supported community service. Working with community leaders, development of a new program initiative targeting young men for holistic development in the areas of academic achievement/self-regulation/spiritual development/community responsibility is to emerge early in 2010.

Agency Mission Statement

The George Bray Neighborhood Center, Inc. is committed to fostering harmonious relationships among persons of different cultural, economic, religious, spiritual, social, and political characteristics by offering programs of service and action as determined by the needs and interests of the people in the neighborhood.

Bray Center Programs History

"Operation Survival"

"Operation Survival" has provided myriad program services for neighborhood youth ages 12-18 for nearly 15 years. Historically perceived to be a basketball program, basketball has merely been the proverbial "carrot" with which to attract young people to the other more significant program services provided. Primarily, academic monitoring and assistance, study tables, career planning, Life Skills and Personal Asset Development, etc. have always been at the heart of the program, which funders support for its measurable accomplishments in diverting youth from gang involvement and other unhealthy choices.


A program service component emerging from the institutional realities of the local school system policies addressing young people who struggle in the typical school setting is something we call "Half Full Prep." Starting as early as sixth grade, some students are released from school after only a half day, reportedly due to behavior issues. Some youth are referred to complimentary programs such as an anger management class or the MAC (Mack Achievement Center), again for a half day of schoolwork. We find these students arriving at the Bray Center during a time of the day when we would not normally allow school-aged kids to be here, well, because they're supposed to be in school. Since they are officially released, however, and we do check on the legitimacy of each claim, we do not turn them away. Rather we enjoin them in initial conversation about the reasons for their status, the steps required to achieve re-entry into the full school day, and how we can work together with them to reach that goal. Sometimes this involves academic tutoring (though many of them are quite academically gifted, especially in math we find), and more often it requires personal asset development strategies to reinforce the individuals ability to fend off the temptations of taking "short-cuts" or making excuses for not doing the basics required to remain in school. An eye toward a future of productive and satisfying adulthood keeps the program focused on academic accomplishment, eventual gainful employment, and social responsibility among participants.


We all know that the program produced an NBA All Star, but few know of the hundreds of college graduates in countless professions who return to acknowledge the staff for the impact the program had on their success. Fewer still know about those who at minimum graduated from high school or simply completed a GED, allowing them to take classes at Gateway or use the remains of their hoop dream to go on to a junior college on scholarship. And then there are those who veered away from the program, wound up unemployed, disconnected, or incarcerated, then wrote or visited us saying, "If only I had listened to you when I had the chance." Given the agency programs offered, we are able to direct many "Operations Survival" participants into the pre-college preparation program activities also offered at the Bray Center through GEAR UP (described above). Originally funded years ago by Youth Fair Chance, then picked up by Department of Corrections, the program is currently supported by the State of WI Office of Justice Assistance.

R.E.A.C.H. program services are devoted to the development of personal assets among neighborhood youth and families who frequent the Bray Center. Categories/Names of Asset Development we use include: Boundaries and Expectations, Safety, Caring, Responsibility, and more. A densely populated neighborhood eliminates much need for the typical "outreach" most programs must facilitate. Our kids either tumble off the bus during the school year, some needing a snack or a tissue, or roll out of bed in the summertime, when some arrive sock footed only to be returned home for shoes. Often, parents stream in soon after the children arrive, either joining in the activities or scolding the child who left the house without permission. Of course, the first target of the children is the gym. To get there though they must make their way through a handful of agency staff who greet them upon every visit (safe & caring environment) and expect to be greeted in return. They know the rules they must follow to be allowed to stay: no cussing, hands to yourself (boundaries), no spitting in the bubbler, etc. Older ones begin pleading for time in the computer lab (My Space, Noggin, NBA.com and the like are closely monitored for time limits and content). Soon, Reader Rabbit, Learn to Type, V-Tech, and Leap Frog software preempts what brought them in. Impromptu spelling bees are a favorite, as is dodge ball.


R.E.A.C.H. (Recreation, Education, Advocacy, Cultural Competence, Health) originated as the program service umbrella of the "new" Bray Center over 18 years ago when the current administration came on the scene. Then, it was the only funded program as Uniteed Way agreed to provide probationary resources after the previous administration led to defunding by all sources. As the three month probationary period wrapped up in 1994 leading to official "Partner Provider" status. Today focusing on the asset development of young children, starting at age six, and their families. Over the years, changes in social service lingo and buzz words have been successfully absorbed and disseminated by the Bray Center, bringing all its participants to greater levels of achievement. In 1994, when contracts issued by most funders to most agencies were based on entitlement, the Bray Center was working 24/7 to help the children and families in the neighborhood identify and put to use their natural gifts and talents, which appeared to be underestimated by the world around them. It seemed as though it was 1964 or 1974 in the formative years of the organization, whose mission statement then, remains virtually intact today, as the founders of the organization envisioned.


Between then and now, R.E.A.C.H. took on a heavier than expected focus on the collection of grades, attendance, and progress reports from the schools attended by children in the neighborhood. While not a bad idea with regard to establishing benchmark data to achieve viable measurement of outcomes, those years were rough on staff and youth. First, this was a much more staff hour intensive approach, which actually reduced face-to-face time with the kids. Then, the young people struggled to understand why after a full school day (including an hour and a half round trip bus ride each day), with no homework assigned for so many designated to "Learning Disabled" classes, with 97% attendance, and no disciplinary slips for the day (we frequently did random checks with school personnel), they were relegated to study tables as the gym stood in darkened quiet. They did not have to stay. They were free to come and go...and go they did... the unsupervised park around the corner, the corner store selling both bruised produce and rolling papers, the street corners sometimes supervised by officers with lights whirling. We worked with UWRC support staff and leadership to revamp R.E.A.C.H. We went back to the beginning...now we know what to call it...youth and family asset development. We found the Search Institute website. Here and other places we also found affirmation in what we always knew the Bray Center existed for...providing direct and personal services and development to neighborhood youth and families.

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is the Bray Center's pre-college preparation program serving students in grades six through 12. For close to 10 years, nearly 200 students annually receive a wide variety of support and mentoring in the effort to prepare them for college entrance upon high school graduation. The end goal combines enrollment in a post-secondary education facility (four-year university, two-year college, technical school, etc.) with the resources (grants and scholarships) necessary to pay all costs. All they have to do is the school work to get there. Parents are engaged as well as school personnel, creating a team of support for each youth. Eligibility requirements include low-middle family income qualification for free or reduced lunch, and willingness to participate.


Starting in sixth grade, students and parents are introduced to ideas about what courses to select as electives to best prepare them for the pre-college coursework in high school. They are given opportunities to visit college campuses, and some stay for a week during the summer in dorms - attending workshops in college classrooms. The physical and emotional experience of being "in college" plants seeds which are near impossible to contain. Also in middle schools, agency GEAR UP staff present bi-weekly Life Skills sessions in the schools during lunch/study period. Although elementary age students aren't technically enrolled in this program, GEAR UP staff also drop-by elemntary school lunch periods just to be seen and to interact with up and coming GEAR UP students. For all on-site school activities, school staff are extremely supportive and take the greatest care to insure proper district guidelines are adhered to.


Once in high school, GEAR UP program participants are steered not just toward completing the basic requirements for high school graduation. Details of the over-and-above requirements including Geometry, and extra courses in foreign language, literature, etc. for college entrance are emphasized. Building a resume of extra curriculars and community service is encouraged and facilitated based on student interests. For those who are more likely to attend a two-year college or technical school, another focus is designed to accomodate the pursuit of their skills and talents. Students who complete the Bray Center's GEAR UP program achieve a 97% high school graduation rate.


During their Junior year, GEAR UP students are encouraged to sign up for and take the ACT test. Preparation workshops are offered to help achieve the best outcome for these test scores. Waivers for the cost of these tests are arranged for active GEAR UP students.


As graduation approaches, Bray Center GEAR UP staff meets with students and parents to help identify where they will apply for college and how to complete the application process. Come January of the Senior year, financial aid paperwork begins. From assistance for parents needing to file federal tax returns to completing the FAFSA (Pell Grant), and other grant and scholarship forms, the Bray Center GEAR UP staff is able to access enough resources for parents to be able to pay for full tuition and expenses for up to five years of full-time college enrollment for their child.


GEAR UP is a federally funded (US Department of Education) national program (in several states), which is administered in Wisconsin through the state Department of Public Instruction at seven locations state-wide.

The latest Bray Center program development..."Holistic Man" is as much a long running effort as it is a new program because it now has a measurable structure to it. For 15 years, Bray Center staff has been fielding nearly daily inquiries from among young men, mostly late teens and early twenties, ranging from ages 14 through 24. They ask for assistance to find work, to finish high school/GED requirements, to get or recover a driver's license to be able to get to a job, to manage family dynamics/relationships/childcare/etc., and to find their niche in society, their personal strength, their inner spiritual base. This year, the Bray Center has these young men complete intake forms identifying demographic data, personal situations in academics and/or the justice system, goals which define their Individual Action Plan. Staff provides encouragement, guidance and mentorship, daily measures of the steps of action identified for success.


There is no traditional funding for "Holistic Man" as of yet, so Bray Center staff operate as volunteers in the effort. This target population is maybe the least attractive to program funding sources, even though their plight affects so many; their children/our children, their sense of value/our moral value, their future/our future. We just couldn't wait any longer to begin in a structured and measurable manner to help address these issues facing a growing number of young men who find themselves in a threatening environment, both of their own making and of a society which seems to have them pegged as failures. The program goal is to assist as many as possible through a combination of high expectations (taking steps to help themselves, leaving the street activities, enrolling in schooling/training of some kind, taking responsibility for self and community) and authentic encouragement/guidance. For the record, young women have always asked for and received attention as well. We'll keep you posted as to the success of the program.

As an independent non-profit 501(c)3 social service agency and not a city run center, the Bray Center relies on grants and donations to operate. The programs described above are in large part funded, helping to pay for staff time, supplies, utilities, etc. Then there are the activities and services we provide the community which are not officially funded, in fact the staff time would be considered volunteerism and the supplies and other costs to provide this support must be absorbed by small fundraisers and unexpected donations. The Bray Center can be rented for private activities during hours in which official program activities would not conflict. In fact, rentals are a significant necessity to pay for the "unfunded" activities and services of the agency.


Significant in the non-funded area of Bray Center activities and services are the partnerships which have developed over the years with Department of Corrections Transitional Employment (serving recently released non-violent offenders still on probation) and Senior Employment (serving senior citizens in need of employment) programs. Through these efforts, those organizations place their clients at the Bray Center, to be trained, mentored and supervised in the area of employability skills development and eventual job placement in the community. Bray Center Staff facilitate the basics of employment expectations, time and task supervision, dealing with every day challenges in the lives of those placed with us in order to help them overcome any barriers to their success. Ultimately, these clients and the organizations which place them depend on us to implement the program. Clients are paid by the DOC & SER programs. The Bray Center receives no monetary compensation. It has become evident over the years, that increasing numbers of these placed clients are sometimes the parents and sometimes siblings of the children we serve. This of course affords us even greater access to the avenues of success for program children and their families.


Daily information and referral services provided by the Bray Center benefit callers and visitors who seek assistance with food, housing, employment, social justice, counseling, transportation, transitions of many kinds, and more. Daily crisis intervention occurs whether staff is called on to mediate conflicts or emergencies within families, on the street corners, or in school settings.


When food supplies are available during the summer, 50-75 neighborhood children up to age 18 are served lunch Monday through Thursday. The Bray Center staff pick up or prepare the lunches each day, transport and store them until it is time to serve the children. Without the help of some neighborhood parents and teen volunteers, the agency staff would be responsible for the entire summer lunch operation.


Holidays, block parties, cook outs, wheelbarrow races, and side walk chalk competitions coincide with neighborhood spelling bees, spring clean-up days, and flower planting. A recycling education plan is in the works to focus agency staff, visitors and neighbors on the importance of the new three Rs; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to go along with the classic Reading, Writing and Arithmatic, which the structured agency programs continue to promote.


UW-Extension Nutrition Experts and Junior Master Gardner programmers from other agencies call upon Bray Center staff to help recruit, enroll, and supervise their work to provide special activities for the children. Many church ministries use agency staff and facilities to reach out to children and families in the neighborhood. Other agencies send their staff to the Bray Center to help reach their specific target populations with program services and benefits. Area child care centers bring their young clients to the Bray Center to use the gym (air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter). So to, the public school down the block finds the Bray Center gym to be more conducive to teaching their physical education students than their own space.


Families and community groups depend on the Bray Center for a place to hold events, meetings, and celebrations. Individuals rely on access to things like a copy machine and fax service to help facilitate submissions of medical records and utility subsidies. The Bray Center, its open doors and attentive staff assure that all these community needs receive the best attention possible.

Agency Staffing

JAMEEL GHUARI
Since 1993, Jameel has been the Executive Director of the Bray Center. Before this post, he was Program Manager for the Urban League's Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse prevention programs. In prior years, Jameel worked with youth for the Racine Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (now F.O.C.U.S.). His professional social service career started at what was The Taylor Home for Adjudicated Youth.

After graduation from Washington Park High School, he attended UW-Parkside and later, after several years of traveling the world and playing international basketball (was once contracted to play NBA basketball with the Buffalo Braves/now the LA Clippers), Jameel graduated from UW-Parkside with a degree in Communications. He developed writing and speaking skills, which he has fine tuned over the years on behalf of the people and causes to which he is committed, displaying skill at grant writing and program development. For ten years Jameel wrote the monthly column, "A Minority Report", for the Racine Journal Times. He then developed video media projects, most recently airing on Racine's local cable access channel, CAR25.

Jameel was once a teacher, professionally, at The Prairie School as well as at schools in Tokyo, Japan and Manila in the Philippine Islands. His passion remains in the genre of teaching, whether it be those communication skills, basketball and all the life skills related to competitive sports, or mentoring young men always with the eye toward further education.

Various awards and volunteer community service highlights in Jameel's past include: Inductee - UWParkside Basketball Hall of Fame, first annual UW-Parkside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award, Mayor's Gang Task Force (80's), NAACP Committees (Executive Committee, Prison/Drug Subcommittee).

Personal details: The loving son of Charlie and Annie Mae Chambliss (both deceased), Jameel is devoted to his faith, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and his family.

JEHAN GHUARI
Recently moved to new position as Assistant Head Start Director with Racine/Kenosha Community Action Agency(yet still helping as a volunteer), Jehan began her work at the Bray Center in 1993, part-time as the Associate Director responsible for helping lift the agency into renewed strength of programming and financial stability. She grew into the administrative position of Operations Director, combining managerial and program service delivery responsibilities. She kept a trophy on display in her office commemorating her accomplishment as RBA Coach of the Year after an undefeated season and an unlikely championship fielding players from the neighborhood who never played varsity basketball. Jehan was a frequent program staff participant in varieties of direct service activities. This seems in keeping with her history of teaching (RUSD & UW-Parkside), and working at the Urban League as Program Manager for Gang Diversion programs, all of which was preceded by positions working with young people at the Racine Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and earlier the YWCA.

A teacher by profession, Jehan graduated from UW-Lacrosse with a degree in English and Teacher Certification for grades 8-12. She later received her Masters of Science in Cultural Foundations in Education: Race/Gender/Class from UW-Milwaukee. As a long-term substitute teacher for Racine Unified School District and an interim instructor in the UW-Parkside Multicultural Education Department (Cultural Differences in Language/Learning/Teaching Styles) providing continuing education coursework for educators in Racine and Kenosha, she then took time from her teaching profession to be a mother. She still volunteered on behalf of youth as a volunteer for six years serving on the board and a weekly shift on the Crisis Hotline at what was then Innovative Youth Services (now Safe Haven).

Jehan was deeply involved in the operation of the agency's GEAR UP program. The main focus of GEAR-UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), is to encourage and support students to remain in school, graduate from high school, and go on to obtain a post-secondary education. Support and mentoring has included:
- Post-secondary Admissions
- Financial Aid and Scholarships
- ACT preparation, Pre-testing and Fee Waivers
- College Tours and Field Trips
- Academic Support
- Life Skills Training
Jehan's daily presence and impact will be missed.

VINCENT THOMAS
The Bray Center's Building Supervisor, Vincent came into regular full time employment through determination, a strong work ethic, and the ability to lead. His dependability, loyalty, and willingness to solve problems are strengths benefitting the Bray Center and those it serves. (picture and more bio details to come...)

Pictures & Videos

Bray Center Picture and Video Archives can be seen if you click here.