Nine-year-old Kimberly Richardson’s idol on the big screen is country music star Taylor Swift. So the first thing she wants to do when she steps inside Central Baptist Church in the afternoon is sing.

At the church, located off West Whitner Street in Anderson, Kimberly doesn’t sing the songs that Swift performs on her videos. But she doesn’t mind. It’s still music.

On a recent day, she was standing in the church’s choir loft singing with her 4-year-old brother Colin.

“I got that joy, joy down in my heart,” came out of them in a little rhythm.

No instruments, just them and a couple of adult volunteers. While Collin was trying to stay still and focus, Kimberly’s eyes were lit up.

Jason Vaughn, their leader, told them it was almost time for their next activity.

“Can I come back up here and sing when we are done?” Kimberly asked.

Sure, Vaughn told her. While they were on a schedule, it was still summer, a more relaxed time.

This is God’s Little Angels Learning Center, an after-school program Vaughn created about six months ago. It’s a vision he’s had for about two years. And it’s no small feat because the program is an all-volunteer program free to parents and open to any child from 3 years old to fifth-grade level.

Every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 to 6:15 p.m., kids can be found here, working on crafts, receiving one-on-one tutoring lessons from adult volunteers and learning basics about God.

And singing.

Vaughn, a 24-year-old Williamston man, is host on his own Christian radio show on WRIX, 103.1 every Thursday at 10 p.m. He’s a life-long member of Whitfield Baptist Church on U.S. 29 North and has worked with youth ministry most of his adult life, he said. He trained at Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in Hendersonville, N.C., where he earned an associate’s degree in ministry.

Though he has worked with youth through his own church, he said he felt called to do something more.

“I feel so called, so compelled to work with kids who are struggling and suffering in school,” Vaughn said. “I just think there’s such an important need for this kind of training, to help catch kids up. I’ve been into the schools and I’ve seen them struggling.”

It’s also important, Vaughn said, for the program to help parents and families. That’s why he wants the service to be free.

Right now, he has about 20 children enrolled in the program and about the same number of volunteers – all of who go through a background check before they can help out, Vaughn said.

The kids meet in an activity room; they have the letters of the alphabet on the wall, along with some of their pictures and a roll call of names. A bookshelf in one corner holds the learning center’s donated supplies: books, workbooks, crayons, pencils and craft supplies.

Another wall is decorated with crosses they colored and pictures of the American flag.

Some of those pictures, along with a bag full of crafts — small decorated trinket boxes — are going with them when they take a field trip to a local nursing home, Vaughn said.

On that recent day there were about six children on hand. They had their snack time, one-on-one tutoring time and chapel time — and then it was time to sing.

Next they moved on to arts and crafts. Then they learned a verse from the Bible — one they needed to memorize for their next visit. And then it was story time — though on sunny, warm days they play outside, Vaughn said.

Vaughn said the key is that everything they do is centered on school work or learning about God. Aside from helping them with reading, writing and arithmetic, he also wants them to know they are loved, that they have a purpose in life.

“I’m in it to see kids’ lives changed,” he said.

As for the changing, Theresa Hunter of Anderson said she’s seen a lot of it in her grandkids, Kimberly and Colin. They’ve been coming to the learning center just about as long as it’s been open, she said. Colin already knows his alphabet, can spell his name and can count to 10, she said. Kimberly has improved her reading skills.

Hunter said she keeps the grandkids during the summer and after school while their parents work. When the center was opening, Vaughn passed out flyers in her neighborhood, around E Street and the other alphabet streets.

“It was a blessing to know (Vaughn) was going to start something like this close by,” Hunter said.

Each afternoon, she said she and Colin watch from their house to see when the first car pulls into the church’s parking lot. That’s how Colin knows it’s time to go. Then they walk to the church, she said.

“Kimberly’s ready to go when she gets off the bus,” Hunter said. “And every day, Colin says, ‘Are there any cars down there yet?’ ”