HENDERSON, Ky. -- Seventh Street Baptist Church is mixing play and learning as part of a program to help keep children ages 6 to 14 out of trouble after school.

The church is using a $53,759 grant from the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice to operate a community education center, where children can take part in sports, academic tutoring and mentoring programs, according to a news report in The Henderson Gleaner.

"Our main goal is to prevent young people from becoming part of the juvenile delinquent program," said the Rev. Anthony Brooks, who wrote the Opening Avenues to Success grant.

The program offers afternoon recreation activities - basketball, table tennis, air hockey, foosball, pool, volleyball and checkers - as well as academic tutoring Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Children are separated into groups when they arrive. One group plays sports, while the other works on academic skills on computers. A free dinner is also available.

"We have an updated computer center that has six computers in it," Brooks said. "We hope this will cause some more of the kids to be motivated to study."

Children can also take part in a new one-on-one mentoring program, according to the news report. The mentoring program targets 20 teen-agers who will be paired with 20 male and female adults.

"It's sort of like Big Brother, Big Sister," Brooks said. "The adults will take the kids out once or twice a week or month (for) whatever schedule the adults allow."

Brooks said the goal of the mentoring program is to help children grow academically, behaviorally and socially.

The program also provides for a Nurturing Parent Program that teaches parents an alternative method of disciplining children. Parents and children learn to deal with difficult situations through practice skits.

"It is anti-corporal punishment," Brooks said. "We train parents and we also have a component for kids of the parents we are training."

Brooks said other churches in the community provide volunteers and ferry students to Seventh Street Church after school ends.