AFES annual fundraising underway
Clayton discusses value of youth programs
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Helping local young people stay out of trouble and experience more fulfilling lives has been a longtime goal for Charles Clayton -- the founder and CEO of Athletics for Education and Success, located at 712 Third St. N.W. in Fort Dodge.
As a nonprofit organization providing sports team participation and mentorship for local youth, AFES focuses on academic, athletic, and personal development through a wide variety of activities, such as tutoring, teamwork and leadership training.
AFES receives some grant money, but mainly depends on individual contributions. The organization is currently in the middle of its annual fall fundraising campaign, known as 100 for $100.
"We’re doing a big communitywide fundraising drive until late December," Clayton said. "We are asking that 100 people promise to donate $100. We're wanting 100 people to step up. If it’s more than 100, even better. Our goal is to raise at least $10,000."
He said that AFES is in good financial shape overall, but still sometimes has temporary financial shortfalls because grant reimbursements are sometimes delayed.
"We depend on fundraising so that we can still pay staff, pay bills, feed kids, and keep all of our programs alive," he said. "And we also are desperately in need of getting a new roof on our AFES building. We are hoping to put some of that money aside for our roof replacement."
Born and raised in Fort Dodge, the 55-year-old Clayton played on Fort Dodge Senior High School's championship basketball team in the late 1990s. After playing basketball for a year in college, he returned to Fort Dodge and has been living here ever since.
However, he readily admits that he made some mistakes in his youth, and even experienced a brief stint in the county jail as a consequence. He credits his family and mentors for helping him overcome his criminal past.
“Having my mom and family here in town, and a related support system, were very helpful. I didn’t want to ever disappoint my mom again,” he said. “And Jerry Patterson was there for me, giving me my first job when everyone else was not going to hire a 21-year-old with a felony on five-years’ probation.”
Clayton's successful reintegration into society as a young man led him to establish AFES in 2004. He decided to create AFES to guide local young people away from making similar mistakes, thereby avoiding the criminal justice system altogether.
"That was a time where I became focused on life and decided that I wanted to work with youth," he said. "I wanted to give back to the community and become more of a positive influence."
The origins of AFES go back to the early 2000s, when Clayton started brainstorming with some of his friends who were also former high school athletes.
"Can we figure out a way to give back and help youth, especially young men in middle school and high school, from getting into trouble and on the wrong track?" he recalls wondering out loud to his friends. "We all knew sports, and decided that would be a good starting point."
This led to Clayton and a handful of his friends conducting their first basketball camp for kids, which soon led to the development of a new competitive basketball team with its own Midwestern circuit league. The team regularly travels to other towns for games with other youth-based teams.
AFES next established similar teams and summer camps for other sports, such as football, wrestling, baseball, and eventually soccer.
"We were intent on giving these kids a good message about staying in school, staying away from drugs and alcohol, and respecting their neighbors," he said.
However, Clayton soon discovered that even though sports teams were a motivating factor for kids, athletics alone were insufficient to make a positive change in their academic performance.
"The sports teams were great, but we weren’t seeing the educational impact we wanted, so then we started after-school programs," he said. "And then the community embraced us, and here we are almost 25 years later with all the programs that we offer today."
Clayton said that the after-school program is licensed for kids from preschool to eighth grade. Kids are safely transported five days a week to AFES from every school in Fort Dodge. Children are also provided a ride home from AFES if they are in need of transportation.
In the after-school program, kids participate in educational programs such as creative arts or STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities. They are also given time to work on homework or engage in reading retention sessions. Recreational activities are included too, including video games and board games.
Even though the afterschool program is reserved for younger children, high school students are allowed to participate as volunteers.
"Many high school kids come to volunteer at the afterschool program as a result," he said.
During the school year, AFES offers food-based services such as "backpack buddies." Any of the kids enrolled in AFES qualify for a backpack food box every Friday, Clayton said. AFES also provides "pop-up food pantries" on a regular basis that are open to the general public.
Additionally, AFES offers a summertime program that runs from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. five days per week. Every participating child receives a free breakfast and lunch, and an afternoon snack.
"We fill their day up with arts and crafts, STEM activities, academic and reading retention programs, physical education, field trips, and many other fun things for kids to do," he said.
Clayton said that there is a charge for AFES memberships, but they offer scholarships and other forms of financial assistance to families based on income, and accept government childcare subsidies from families who qualify for such assistance.
"We do have a fee, but it’s a sliding scale fee, so we try not to turn anyone down because of money," he said. "When we started AFES, we did not want income to ever become a problem for kids and their families, for any of our programs."
Clayton emphasizes that all young people are welcome at AFES, no matter their household income or behavioral problems.
"We accept kids who may have been more of a handful at other daycares or afterschool programs, or kids that are struggling in the home or struggling at school," he said. "That’s kind of always been our knack, but any and every kid is welcome."
AFES also sponsors the annual Community Christmas program, which it took over 10 years ago from the now defunct Operation Christmas. Each participating child receives toys and at least one new outfit of clothing from this AFES program.
"We average at least 400 kids per year who will get Christmas gifts that they maybe wouldn’t otherwise have received," he said. "We also open up our gym and other families can come pick up their toys and gifts for their kids."
He explains that individual Fort Dodge area families who are relatively affluent agree to sponsor needy families each year for the Community Christmas program.
"We are making sure that families with kids can have some sort of Christmas without being stressed out about how they are going to pay other bills," he said.
Even though AFES focuses primarily on providing afterschool activities and services for children from preschool through eighth grade, other AFES programs are aimed at older teenagers and young adults.
AFES has a "youth diversion program," for example, which is designed to assist troubled or delinquent kids. These are sometimes young people facing criminal charges or school expulsion. As an alternative, such teenagers are referred to AFES for programs designed to get them on the right path in life.
One of the newest examples of an AFES program for teenagers is the gun violence prevention program. It began after Fort Dodge experienced a string of shootings and deaths in 2023. AFES secured some state funding to offer gun violence prevention and intervention services.
"In this program, we target 14- to 24-year-olds with the message of not resorting to gun violence, and keeping yourself out of situations in which you may need or want a gun," he said. "And we also focus on the safety aspects of guns."
He said that the gun violence prevention program emphasizes to young men in particular the potential negative consequences of gun ownership and carrying a gun in public.
"To lose your own life or take someone else's life isn’t anything to take lightly," he said. "That split-moment decision could end your life or someone else’s life, or end up with yourself in prison forever."
Clayton noted that older ex-cons are sometimes involved as volunteers in the gun violence prevention program.
"We’ve been able to have some guys that have been arrested and spent some really long years in prison talking to some of our youth that we think are heading in the wrong direction," he said. "We let them see firsthand what can happen when serious mistakes are made."
Even though AFES is not always successful in saving every kid, Clayton maintains that his organization overall has made a very positive impact on the lives of thousands of young people.
He notes, for example, that many young people who have participated in AFES sports programs have received scholarships to play sports, and many are now college graduates.
"Even if you just get a kid to graduate from high school and become a productive citizen, those are victories, man," Clayton said. "We’ve helped a lot of families and kids in the past 25 years."
"Many of our former AFES students are thriving, they’re raising kids of their own," he said. "To see kids that went through our program, now bringing their kids to us, has also been something really special."