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| Long Branch Community Center, Stepping Up Thanks to a great collaborative neighborhood effort, the Silver Spring center is buzzing with a wide range of programs and activities for kids aged 3-teens. Great things are happening at Long Branch Community Center, where new and exciting youth programs for all ages and interests have the Silver Spring facility buzzing with activities. “When the kids come here, they expect us to do something for them,” said recreation specialist Morris Buster, director of Long Branch, with a big smile. Thanks to various groups such as Community Bridges, Gap Busters, Long Branch Athletic Association, Takoma Park youth sports and the Ghandi Brigade, among others, the center is now bristling with programs for sports, computers, life skills and afterschool studies. “A lot of kids here feel bad about themselves,” Buster said, “so when it comes to the center, we’re like Thanksgiving to all these kids.”
County Executive Isiah Leggett granted funding to the Long Branch Athletic Association to organize sports teams and eliminate some of the barriers to participation such as transportation, language communication and fees. Along with other groups, Long Branch is quickly building a viable infrastructure that not only offers opportunities for young kids, but allows teens to take an active role in leadership, mentoring, coaching and growing themselves. “You need a leader to consolidate with parents and how that’s done in the rest of the county is finding a motivated parent,” said David Morrison, head of LBAA programs. “But parents over here are working two or three jobs and not home a lot. So we felt the need to step up and be a driving force and help create an infrastructure.” It’s important to get kids off the streets and create a safe, friendly environment for social, cultural and recreational activity, Buster says. “But it’s also about life skills and character building. “We come to know these kids individually and personally and a lot of them call me Uncle Morris,” Buster said. “That’s how we try to make it personal around here. We’re trying to build a relationship with them. It’s something the department is doing that is really, really important for these kids. “All kids may not want to do everything, but we think we’ve found something for the interest of each particular kid.”
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Long Branch has become an essential gathering point for almost every youngster in the surrounding neighborhoods. With an increasingly diverse population and low-income kids needing a place and purpose for activity, the center, MCRD and County government have been aggressive in creating programs for Long Branch.