Years ago, while teaching at Chester High School, Twyla Simpkins noticed that her students—many facing difficult circumstances at home—struggled to understand the value of learning. That realization sparked a powerful classroom conversation: How did Chester become what it is today?
What began as a discussion turned into a mission. Twyla began collecting and sharing Chester’s history, building a resource that would inspire not only her students but the broader community. That passion for preserving the city’s past—and creating a space where residents can connect, reflect, and write new stories—became part of the foundation of the Yes Center.
Over the years, Twyla has accumulated a large collection of historical artifacts about Chester. She has been traveling with that collection to various locations for educational presentations around the region as one of the Yes Center’s pillar programs. The collection is wide-ranging and ever-growing. While there are other local organizations that preserve the history of Delaware County, Twyla recognized a need for the representation of Chester’s deep and diverse history.
Greenlawn Cemetery is one of those pieces of diverse history that was almost lost. The YES Center shares the history of one of the most famous Black cemeteries in the region and helps people reconnect to where their loved ones are buried after paperwork was lost years ago.
In addition, the YES Center runs a community quilting project, organizes the annual MLK Day celebrations in Chester, and runs a “woman changemaker” series, which is a gathering of women telling stories in their own voices of their lived experiences. In March, the series inducted some of the community’s most important change-makers, including State Representative Carol Kazeem, Doctor Kristin Motley, and more.
The Yes We Can Achievement and Cultural Center building on 7th and Sproul Streets in Chester is a unique and beautiful historic space that used to host day camps and community services. It features a well-used gym and a pool, but decades of declining upkeep have left the building in fragile shape. In 2014, a series of incidents, including flooding, roof damage, vandalism, and theft, forced the Center to close its brick-and-mortar location until further repairs could be made.
Due to the state of the building, no programming is currently taking place in the physical location of Yes Center. The Yes Center operates through traveling programs that present the historical collection to regional groups, and the other programing lives on through borrowed spaces and creative planning.
The YES Center is currently fundraising to restore the building so that it can again become a physical hub of the community that it has been in the past. When it reopens, it will serve as a gym, community center, library, and museum telling the story of Chester’s deep history.
“I firmly believe that the answer to some of the city’s ills is to have a recreation center where kids can come and play and swim. Where there are job opportunities, senior opportunities, infinite possibilities”. – Twyla Simpkins
Watch a video on the history of the YES center
Find out more about The YES Center
