CAPPA, short for the Community Alliance for Progressive Positive Action, is an all-encompassing enrichment program focused on building community through young students.

Students from Lycoming College are making a real difference there this year.

“When school starts in September, we start working,” Loni Gamble, founder and executive director, said. “The pandemic caused a lot of damage to the kids and in order for them to really bounce back and be even better they need to spend more time on tasks that fulfill them.”

Every Saturday, CAPPA tutors and participants meet at Cochran Primary School to work on a wide variety of artistic projects and academics in a collaborative and encouraging environment. Each year, the work is displayed at the CAPPA Performing Arts Showcase, where students and tutors perform everything they’ve worked on together.

“The showcase gives students an opportunity to share the work, to build self-esteem, and it’s a chance to share what they’ve been working on with the public,” Gamble said.

During CAPPA’s Saturdays at Cochran, various different student organizations from Lycoming College volunteer time to help mentor the kids.

“That’s the main focus,” Gamble said. “Building self-esteem and having the opportunity to connect with positive role models who motivate them. We’re lucky to have the tutors and mentors we do. I am impressed every Saturday when they show up to give a few hours on a weekend. For college students, that’s pretty impressive.”

Organizations that have been heavily involved in CAPPA’s Saturday events are Lycoming College’s Black Student Union and the Pom and Dance Group.

BSU is a student-run organization working to build up and support the black community in the area, Jordan Golding, BSU President, said.

“I’d like for BSU to be educational support for students,” Golding said. “A place that you can go to for socialization, but also a group with some socially redeeming value and an aspect of social justice.”

Golding connected with CAPPA through Gamble’s late wife who worked at Lycoming College and was close with the BSU.

“Loni’s wife was very special to the college and to the Black Student Union,” Golding said.

Golding and Gamble both were involved in organizing the city’s inaugural Juneteenth celebration in 2022, where they started talking about CAPPA.

“I explained to him who I was and what we were doing and he started talking about CAPPA,” Golding said. “As soon as I read the mission statement I was sure this was something I wanted to be involved with … helping youth in the community and providing support and enriching their lives. And to be able to do that here in the community … I just knew I could make it work.”

When BSU first started as tutors and mentors, they were primarily working on artistic enrichment.

“We’ve since broadened that naturally to include personal character development,” Golding said. “How to greet someone, how to shake their hand, what it means to be kind to people, how to treat someone with respect.”

Gamble said a large part of why CAPPA works so well is because each tutor brings their own unique skills to the Saturday events. Golding, originally from Jamaica, loves sharing his passion for Caribbean percussion.

“We help them with academics, we help show them different pathways for them to follow,” Golding said. “They get to see black people who are in college, who are young, who care about them and their futures.”

Cordell Faltz is a graduate from the CAPPA program and remembers the opportunities he was given being transformative.

“I initially got involved when I was 9 or 10,” Faltz said. “My mom ran a dance team called Expressions and Loni invited us to perform.”

Faltz has since graduated from Pennsylvania State University and went to graduate school at Bloomsburg University. He is now a guidance counselor at Lycoming Valley Intermediate School and still works with CAPPA.

“CAPPA was hopeful,” Faltz said. “There are a lot of people living in poverty in the area with very few outlets. I never had the opportunity to see other black individuals prioritizing education and the importance of making goals and being an advocate for the community. Loni was that for a lot of kids.”

Faltz credits having a strong mother with his success, but also CAPPA for giving him a larger scope of possibilities. “Loni and CAPPA gave us a bigger vision … we are more than where we live. CAPPA was teaching all of that.”

Faltz currently works with Gamble as the program director for CAPPA and helps connect the organization with the district he works at to provide educational resources.

“CAPPA provides that platform for kids to shine,” Faltz said. “It’s been a blessing to have gone through the program and to be able to come back and help share the mission and reinvigorate CAPPA.”