Putting kids in their place

Whether she’s standing before a classroom, driving around the city in a police cruiser or walking through her neighborhood, Darlene Chapman Cummings is surrounded by kids.

Having already raised four of her own, Cummings, 45, is dedicated to helping youngsters stay off the streets and away from drugs. She reaches hundreds of children as a police officer in the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.

But Cummings looks around her neighborhood and sees a need for something more.

Independent of her work as a police officer, she founded PAPA (People Affecting Positive Attitudes Inc.).

Cummings is also the president of the 15-year-old youth activity group, which is now expanding its reach with a proposed community center on the 2000 block of Fernon Street.

PAPA is looking at several properties on the block, and has a design team performing a feasibility study on the small street while group members raise funds.

Cummings hopes the community center will be home to track and fencing teams, computer and game rooms, a music and dance studio, and a kitchen that will teach youths to cook. The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will be invited to run troops out of the center.

Plans also call for the organization to have its own van or bus that could shuttle youths to other community centers, Cummings added.

"It’s up to the community members to save our neighborhoods," the affable officer said. "It shouldn’t be up to the schools or the teachers to look after our children all day and night long. Parents need to come out of the woodwork, join together and make a difference."

PAPA will serve children living west of Broad Street to 25th Street, between Washington Avenue and Jackson Street.

Presently, that area encompasses only two community centers — the Dixon House, 20th and McKean streets, and the John Gloucester House, 22nd and Federal — and one Girl Scouts center, Cummings said.

"It’s a shame, but a lot of kids just have nowhere to go. By the time they turn 17 or 18, they’ve fallen in with the wrong crowd and are doing bad things," she said.

PAPA’s goal is to reach out to children while they’re still impressionable and surround them with positive experiences.

"If you get a hold of a kid when he’s 6 or 7 years old and let him experience good things, it makes a difference when you come back in 10 years," Cummings said.

Born in New York and raised between the Big Apple and Los Angeles, Cummings didn’t return to the East Coast until 1982.

She moved to South Philly in 1987 and began working as a credit collection loan officer.

A family tragedy inspired her to take a new direction, and in October 1997, Cummings enrolled in the Police Academy.

"My friends all thought becoming a cop was a great idea. Of course, they weren’t thinking about chasing people down alleyways," Cummings said, laughing.

After her graduation, Cummings was assigned to South Philly’s Fourth District, where she worked a field beat for four years.

Although she enjoyed meeting "some real interesting characters" in the field, Cummings said her people skills led her to work in the police department’s community relations unit.

"Next thing I knew, I was working with D.A.R.E.," she said.

The anti-drug unit has Cummings traveling the city on a daily basis, making stops at all of the city’s schools to deliver positive messages while fielding a wide-ranging barrage of questions from kids.

"Sometimes, I couldn’t believe the questions they came up with," she said.

Cummings’ experiences with D.A.R.E. only reinforced her desire to keep children active and out of trouble.

She already had her group in place. In 1989, Cummings had created PAPA — an acronym that was also a nickname for her son — after she realized that she couldn’t afford to put all of her children in daycare. She figured other parents had the same challenges.

Despite a lack of experience in leading youth activities, Cummings started holding arts and crafts nights at the Dixon House.

"First of all, I had no idea what arts and crafts night actually involved," Cummings said, letting out another one of her trademark laughs. "But what really shocked me was how none of the other parents turned out. They didn’t have any interest in doing something with their kids."

The arts-and-crafts nights eventually grew to include dances and Halloween parties, the latter of which Cummings still holds each year for 500 children on the 2000 block of McKean Street, just outside her home.

Within the past few years, Cummings started tossing around the idea of developing a community center with her 15 board members, including her husband, Wayne.

The group contacted Council President Anna Verna’s office, and was informed the city would purchase the properties if PAPA could raise 5 percent of the cost to build the community center.

That total figure is still up in the air, but the group raised only $1,700 so far. PAPA has explored bringing partners like Wachovia Bank and Universal Companies on board to help shoulder some of the cost. State Sen. Anthony Williams and state Rep. Harold James also have offered their support.

"I keep saying, if the parents would help us out more, the money would come," Cummings said. "When you have a large group of people, a lot can happen."

With more participation, fundraisers also would be more successful, she added. Still, she is confident her vision will be realized.

"I feel like our mindset is in line with the needs of the community," she said. "We want to fill the void that’s there and give the kids something positive to be a part of."