SEATTLE — A community leader in Seattle is using his personal experience to mentor kids and provide a space for parents and teachers to find support.
Jesse Rhodes recently became the board chair for the After-School All-Stars Puget Sound Chapter. The program provides free, comprehensive after-school programs that keep kids safe and help them succeed in school and life.
The organization’s vision is that students graduate high school, attend college, find careers they love and give back to their communities.
“Middle school is an important time to remind kids they are shaping their future and they have choices to make,” Rhodes said.
After losing a high school friend to drugs, Rhodes knew he wanted to commit his life to supporting kids as they navigate through complicated stages of adolescence.
“I had someone introduce me to accounting and math in middle school and I ended up going that route, but my friend chose a very different path, with drugs and violence,” Rhodes said.
After-School All-Stars partners with schools on innovative enrichment programs to help students and their communities. The program chapters are strategically placed across the nation to in under-resourced communities to keep kids safe.
Rhodes said the model is simple and effective, and something he’s integrating into another passion project of his: Poco Bar & Lounge, which he recently took ownership of.
“What about our teachers? Who’s genuinely looking out for them? This is a place for people to be seen and heard,” Rhodes said.
The bar and lounge in Capitol Hill is somewhere Rhodes himself frequented years before taking ownership. He plans to use the bar to grow the community’s social resources to provide support for parents and educators caring for a student body on edge.
“We have no way of fully understanding what some of these kids experienced over the past few years of COVID-19 closures,” Rhodes said. “Socially, emotionally and all otherwise. Some thrive online and others are so far behind and feel even more alienated than ever.”
Poco Lounge is a gathering space where he hopes more adults can come together for some socialization and leave with some real-life solutions or ideas, they can put in to action. It’s far from a classroom but Rhodes says his space is evolving to fit the needs of the community. “It’s Black-owned and culturally inclusive.”
Rhodes is hoping to connect with the community by offering an inclusive space for local groups to host Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and anti-racism discussions, with gallery space to exhibit a diverse array of local art.
“What I offer is food and drink with atmosphere and music but what I serve is my community” said Rhodes.
Poco Bar & Lounge is committed to providing adults the same welcoming environment that so many students depend on with the After-School All-Stars program. Rhodes says forward thinking is also an extension of the work he does as the Head of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at Amazon Web Services.