THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT

We’re pleased to see community groups and city-based school districts coming together in an effort to reach troubled kids.

As the data we published Sunday clearly show, there are an alarmingly high number of kids in Johnstown who need someone to care about them.

The effort to develop a mentoring program in the Ferndale Area, Conemaugh Valley and Greater Johnstown school districts is the brainchild of retired businessman Steve Purich. To us, it seems the only thing bigger than Purich’s heart is his willingness to try to make a difference.

Purich teamed up with Mike Kane, executive director of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies. They connected with leaders at the schools and have been meeting with community groups across the city. They will even be bringing nationally known author and motivational speaker Orrin Hudson to town on Nov. 19 to launch their effort.

We wish them well, and we recognize that this is an effort worth supporting.

“These kids have no hope. We have to create hope for them,” Purich, an Upper Yoder Township resident, said of his hopes for the mentoring program.

Purich, Kane, the schools and the community groups need one more team to step up – the caring people of the region who might have something to offer as mentors.

As we hope you read in Sunday’s editions of The Tribune-Democrat, the picture right now is grim.

State Department of Education statistics show that:

-- More than 64 percent of students in the three targeted districts came from low-in-come families in the 2008-09 school year, according to the state Department of Education. That compares with

42 percent in Cambria County and 36 percent statewide.

-- Nearly 74 percent of the students in Greater Johns-town School District were classified as low-income. At the district’s East Side Elementary School, the number was a staggering 81 percent.

-- Greater Johnstown had more than a third of all student dropouts reported in Cambria County in 2007-08.

Purich and Kane say their effort is more than community benevolence.

Youngsters who come from families facing financial hardship are less likely to complete school, less likely to further their educations, less likely to land good jobs.

The fear is that while our region is working hard to create jobs and provide opportunities for residents to earn a living, a growing number of people may never develop the skills or the inclination to fill those positions.

It would be a tragedy if we’re creating opportunities for nurses, welders, construction workers, information technology professionals – and then bringing in people from other areas to fill those jobs. That is a very real scenario in Johnstown.

“We have young people graduating without fundamental skills,” Kane said.

And there are kids across the region, and especially in the city, who just need a chance to show what they can do.

The aim of the program is to get those kids together with adults who can help them see their own worth, and assist them in gaining the confidence to overcome their obstacles.

One activity the adults and children will share is playing chess. Hudson has seen positive results elsewhere with that approach.

Perhaps chess alone will make a difference here. More likely, it will be chess mixed with other activities where young people are challenged and also encouraged.

“What we kept coming back to,” Kane said, “is kids need caring adults in their lives.”

We think this program has great merit.

Will it eradicate all the city’s problems? Of course not.

But every parade begins with a single step.

The kids are out there waiting to be reached.

To the people of the region, we offer this simple statement heard around every chess board:

It’s your move.