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Second Story Teen Center gets $9,500 grant to expand rural bus service · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Second Story Teen Center gets 9,500 grant to expand rural bus service.
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  Written by Michael Urbanac This article is being read by an automated
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  voice brought to you by Everlit. Second Story Teen Center received a
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  9,500 community grant from the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation to expand
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  its bus program into rural Bureau County, according to a news release.
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  Many teens have no way to get to the center according to
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  the release, especially after 8 30, when public transportation such as B
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  Part is not available. The added rides also give more teens access
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  to the center's food pantry, the center said. Second Story began providing
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  transportation to and from the center in 2020 so teen could attend
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  programs and get home safely after dark. Jeff and Dana Venatrieve founded
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  second story in 2009, turning the second floor of their flooring shop
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  into a place where plit where teens could gather outside of school.
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  They started it after the community saw a rise in teen suicides,
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  according to the center. The name refers to the shop's second floor
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  and to the idea that everyone has a second story and a
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  chance to rewrite their future, the center said. Second Story became a
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  501C3 nonprofit in 2014. It now offers free after school. Programs
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  four times a week and serves fifty to one hundred teens each
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  night, according to the Center. It estimates it reaches 8,000 teens a
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  year. Teens take skill based classes in cooking, sewing, guitar, woodworking, art
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  and other subjects. The Center also runs a food pantry for basic
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  needs items and a scholarship fund for teens continuing their education after
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  high school.