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During the worst of the pandemic, Jermell Mitchell’s work mentoring youth through the Olivet Boys & Girls Club of Reading and Berks County, like so much else, came to a standstill. The isolation hit him hard.

“I was really depressed,” said the 51-year-old single father of two and Reading community leader. “I knew so many kids needed me.”

When the COVID crisis eased, Mitchell went back to work, but he realized, more than ever, the value of community connections. He had thought up a passion project: The nonprofit for underserved Reading youth would foster leadership and service and teach life skills through an after-school program focused on street basketball. But his good intentions would have likely been just that if not for �山ǿ��’s O’Pake Institute for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship.

“�山ǿ�� helped me from scratch,” said Mitchell, the chief executive officer of N.A.M.E. who now works as the city’s education coordinator. “I believe O’Pake is a hidden gem.”

The institute, based at the John R. Post Center at Reading CollegeTowne in downtown Reading, has a wealth of resources, including the SPARK Business Incubator, said John Stetler, O’Pake’s executive director of client and financial services. There, fledgling startups, leaders in technology and nonprofits get help at an affordable cost from high school interns and �山ǿ�� undergraduate and graduate students to create a business plan, develop marketing and social media strategies, and win copyright and trademark protections. Currently, O’Pake has on-campus office space for eight organizations, including N.A.M.E., that goes for a modest rent. There are plans to expand to 22 spots, Stetler said. Another 10 startups receive services virtually, he said.

“For these students, it’s experiential learning,” Stetler said. “It’s developing and enhancing skill sets, professional development. For businesses, it’s workforce development.”

O’Pake has assisted N.A.M.E. in building a board and awarded $5,000 to cover the costs to register as a 501C, Mitchell said. Students have helped him develop an ecommerce website to sell merchandise and generate revenue, he added, and presented a social media plan and ways to use Facebook, Instagram and TikTok more efficiently.

“They’re sending me a blueprint,” Mitchell said. “Without O’Pake, N.A.M.E. would have fallen apart. I wouldn’t be able to sustain or continue it in any way.” Instead, his organization has grown, from serving one child to more than 30 children, he said.

At the core of the nonprofit, said Mitchell, is his vision for fighting stereotypes. “It’s trying to change the way we’re viewed and see each other,” he said. “Most of the time, we stereotype and prejudge people before we meet them, before we even know their names. We have to evolve from where we’re at, from prejudging people.”

Even as O’Pake continues to help him realize his own dream, Mitchell said he’s looking to pay it forward by introducing his mentees to the institute’s resources, so they too, can find support for their passion projects.

“It brings a different motivation when you see other people believe in you and you’re not by yourself,” he said. “These kids would be more determined and have their chest out rather than their head down.”

By Lini S. Kadaba