Rosalyn Wright passing the torch

July 27--FARRELL -- Rosalyn Wright never planned to spend her life working with children.

"I started my career off in banking," said Wright, program administrator for the Community Based Family Intervention Program.

Wright, however, found herself unsatisfied and doing some deep soul searching.

"I wanted to leave this earth feeling like I had left my mark on something," she said. "I prayed and asked the Lord, 'Where are you going to lead me?' "

When a friend asked Wright to quit her job in finance to take a position in the intervention program, she realized the answer was with children.

"I never regretted it," Wright said.

Two decades after that fateful decision, Wright is ready to retire and has found her replacement in Leigha Chapman-Nevil, an intervention specialist in the program.

As the administrator, Wright runs the Community Based Family Intervention and Keystone Adolescent Center's Summer Enrichment Program for six weeks every summer. The program teaches youth between the ages of 12 and 17 self-concept, esteem, character building, respect, boundaries, anger management, social skills, relationships and decision-making.

It's a job Chapman-Nevil assumes next summer alongside family intervention specialists Terry Harrison, Brittany Yoho, Reggie Davis, and LaShelle Platterborz.

Wright said the change in positions is nothing more than a formality as Chapman-Nevil and the other intervention specialists ran this year's program.

"I was just the servant," she said. "I served kids food and checked them in, that's it. They really worked the camp."

Chapman-Nevil said Wright was being modest and had high praise for Wright's devotion to children.

"I feel like I definitely have huge shoes to fill, but I believe we share the same vision for children," she said. "One of the things I love about her is she will never turn a child away."

Chapman-Nevil said Wright refuses to turn children away because they might have been turned away from other programs. She makes sure they fit in, Chapman-Nevil said.

"That is what I love about her vision," she said. "She will never turn a kid away from our camp despite any of the trials or things that have happened. She will sit down and talk with them and make sure that things are taken care of."

Wright, who grew up in Pittsburgh, said she wants children in the community to have the same opportunities she had growing up.

"I lived in projects and I remember my mom and other parents investing in us," she said. "They did things with us.

"I think my passion comes from when I see kids and hear communities say, 'There is nothing to do for kids, there is nowhere to go.'"

Working with local schools, probation officials and the Mercer County commissioners, Wright helped launch the summer enrichment program 24 years ago.

She said prior to that, 46 percent of the children they worked with were repeatedly running into trouble with the law.

"We have taken their recidivism rate down to as low as 5 percent and maintained it at 7 percent for the last four years," Wright said. "You can't beat that."

Keeping children busy, keeps them out of trouble, Wright said.

But one of Wright's greatest accomplishments is finding people who share her love for children.

"God has sent me people that I know have the same passion for kids that I do," she said.

People like Chapman-Nevil, who is originally from the area and returned to Farrell from Chicago following the death of her husband.

"She is so innovative, she is a motivator, she is creative, she brought so much to this summer," Wright said. "She is young. She has new ideas and vision of where she thinks things can go."

Like T.L. Miller on Facebook, follow her @TL_Miiller or email her at tmiller@sharonherald.com.

___

(c)2017 The Herald (Sharon,Pa)

Visit The Herald (Sharon,Pa) at www.sharonherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.