Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

site web  

FAIRFIELD —The next time someone says there is nothing to do in Fairfield, high school students will beg to differ.

A group of more than a dozen youth created a Web site to provide exactly that type of information to their peers. Their site — the Uniting Youth Project, sponsored by the United Way of Butler County — gives links for information about Fairfield City Schools, the community, homework help, college planning, places to go, volunteer opportunities, teen health and safety, and after-school employment.

"There's plenty to do in Fairfield, and this just allows people to find more information about it," said student Will McIlwain at the Aug. 27 unveiling.

Lead by community member Howard Dirksen, the teens created an all-inclusive site at www.teenplace.org.

Their goal is to get other teens to create sites for their communities.

"What we've developed is going to be a very useful Web site for students to use," Dirksen said.

The links and ideas were generated by students, and Christopher Fields designed the site. As part of the United Way effort to reach out to area schools, this program is in line with that of the Character Education program in Hamilton and youth center for Lakota students, said Maureen Noe of the United Way.

The idea was generated at the 2007 Youth Summit held in February.

Garrett Walt, a 2008 graduate from Fairfield High Sschool, said this was an exercise in teamwork and careful planning. His section of the project was about college planning, which he was doing at the same time as he was selecting sites.

"We really kind of learned how to select things for a project like this," he said.

While there are countless links out there to good Web sites, he said his team was challenged to find the best sites with the most information.

"It was kind of helping me as I was trying to help people."