ELLENDALE — The Spot offers a place for teens in Ellendale to hang out on Friday nights. The program, which is put on by Vibrant Life Assembly of God, has been around since September 2012 and, according to the Rev. Patrick Stitt, continues to grow.

Stitt said that bored teenagers sometimes find trouble they otherwise wouldn’t get into.

The Spot runs from 6 p.m. to midnight.

“We get about 40 kids coming to this, which in a small town is a huge deal,” Stitt said. “We’re hopefully going to continue to grow in the days ahead.”

The program happens at what’s called The Refuge, 702 Third St. in Ellendale.

Jacqueline Nussbaum and her husband, Jacob, will take over as leaders for The Spot this year. Nussbaum said that the program was created to help the town’s youth deal with the aftermath when a community member committed suicide.

“We had a building that’s dedicated to outreaching the children in our community, so we had an after-school program going on,” she said. “And we always wanted to reach out to teenagers and we kind of threw it together because of this tragic event. We knew that we wanted to have a safe place for kids to come and hang out and feel accepted and welcome.”

Both Nussbaum and Stitt said the program was important, because there isn’t a whole lot for young people to do in Ellendale.

“There isn’t a whole lot to do around here, and a lot of trouble to get into,” she said.

Nussbaum said she planned on making a couple of changes to the program’s nightly activities this year.

“If I had to distill it down into a mission statement it would be ‘empowering teenagers to impact their world in a meaningful way,’” she said. “It’s just basically getting their individual talents and interests and trying to relate to their own community and give back.”

A typical Friday night at The Spot features food, games and fun. Sometimes, like on New Year’s Eve, it is open. Information can be gained by calling the church at 507-684-3421 or visiting The Spot’s Facebook page (facebook.com/TheSpotTeenProgram).

“The kids love playing dodgeball, and we usually make a snack together,” Nussbaum said.” Some of the kids that we work with might not have a lot of food at home. So we try to have some food available to eat, and of course they’re all growing teenagers, so we go through a lot.”

Other activities include watching movies and a talk time where the teens chat with adults about current events. Stitt said the group has made trips to Valley Fair and various conferences in the past.