Community Learning Center Provides Resources for Teens, Adults

Close to 30 people filled a room at The Hub Community Learning Center on Thursday evening. 

All of them had visions for businesses they want to create — businesses that will have names like Beauty Box and Mommy Central. 

The group of aspiring business owners is participating in a series of seminars called "Becoming an Entrepreneur." The free seminars are just one of the services The Hub offers. 

The Hub, a nonprofit learning center funded by Right Direction Community Development Corporation, is fulfilling its mission to be an educational resource in the community, said Dwayne White, director of The Hub and youth Pastor at . 

"Our goal as a ministry is to empower the community as much as we can," White said. "We want to provide them with as many spiritual resources as well as natural resources as we can. And part of our mission as a church is education."

The Hub's motto is "Connecting students to academic and life success."

Many of the center's services and programs focus on helping middle and high school students. They offer free tutoring, college counseling, small groups and summer camps and activities. 

But the entrepreneurship seminars and other recent job-related workshops have gained a lot of attendance by adults, White said.  

More adults than teens showed up at the first entrepreneurship seminar — a sign of the need for this type of training in the community, White said.

With the hovering around 10.3 percent since June, people in the community are looking for new ways to find employment, he said. 

"I think people are looking for ways to make money," White said. "If you're having trouble finding a job, why not create your own?"

The seminars, led by Terris Riley, CEO of NewVenue Technologies, are divided into four topics: Preparing Your Money and Mind, Launching Out, and . 

Two attendees have acquired businesses since the seminars started, White said.

Riley, like most of the people who give seminars and tutoring at The Hub, is a volunteer. In 2010, volunteers gave 780 hours of service to The Hub and close to 750 people visited the center.  

White started The Hub in November 2009 after seeing Internet cafes during a Right Direction mission trip to Ghana. He wanted to create the same type of atmosphere for students in the community, who may not have access to Internet. 

After talking with his pastor, he set things in motion. The Hub received a donation of 10 computers. The church already had the space at its administrative location at 1234 St. Andrews Road. 

White, who has a master's in education, did some research into the schools in the area and found that middle and high school students were falling behind. The Hub mainly helps students from Columbia High, St. Andrews Middle and Sanders Middle, but students from any school are welcome, White said.

"As a youth pastor, my heart goes out to kids," White said. "I just want to service the kids in our community and reach out to others in the community." 

The Hub strives to be an educational resource in the community — for teens and adults, White said. 

"Part of The Hub is my life mission: helping people meet their goals."