History of Community Club

Community Club is one of the longest-lived tutoring and mentoring programs in Washington D.C. The Club, however, began in the early 1940s as a gathering place in New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for soldiers stationed in the nation's capitol and the young women who came from around the country to fill government posts vacated by men who had joined the military.

Many of those wartime arrivals stayed in Washington for careers with the government. By the 1950s Community Club had evolved into a program for children who met in the basement for friendship and recreation. With expansion of the business district and demolition of nearby homes, however, the number of neighborhood youngsters dwindled.

The church began to focus on meeting the needs of adolescents, as youth gangs became a problem in the city. By 1959, nearly 100 teenagers were participating in activities at the church on weekday afternoons. In 1962 Community Club opened its basement to gangs of teenagers who came to the neutral territory to play basketball and other games.

During the 1960s, church members supported the civil rights movement in various ways. Some actively participated in the movement here and in the South. Some enlisted in the District's fight for self-government. Other members of the congregation formulated the idea of a Community Club Study Hall. The young basketball players had to attend weekly study sessions if they wanted to use the court in the church basement.

The first Community Club student graduated from high school in 1968 – six years after Study Hall began. The program celebrated its first college graduate in 1973. Stay-in-school scholarships requiring good grades and attendance, as well as trophies for improved academic performance encouraged students and tutors to focus on their studies. Today most Community Club students graduate from high school, and nearly 100 have earned college degrees.

Community Club continues to evolve in response to changing needs and trends. Our library has become a hub of Study Hall activity with the help of an expanded collection and two librarians. Meanwhile, the corps of tutors has grown in leadership capacity as well as in number. In 1983 a Tutor of the Year program was instituted in which an honored tutor presents a speech at the Awards Ceremony each spring. The tutor-of-the-year speeches provide perspectives on a program that has served an estimated 1,800 students in the 40+ years since its founding.