As each child enters the room for karate class, they bow, as a sign of respect. They do the same when they leave. In between, master instructor Willie Coleman imparts a few other lessons.

About discipline. About responsibility. About leadership.

The karate class is one of the many programs offered at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church designed to reach out to the community. And it seems to be working.

Coleman said that students who have had trouble in school with attitude and anger management problems have improved in the four months they’ve been taking the karate course.

“They went from getting D’s to B’s to A’s,” he said as he kept a watchful eye on the dozen or so students in attendance one recent night. “The attitude change was tremendous.”

More than just grades have improved. The discipline and exercise have helped some of the students who were at risk for diabetes improve their sugar levels, he said. Attitudes also have improved. Thirteen-year-old Jarren Hunley, who has earned his second belt since starting the class, was a self-described bully. What he learned in karate class changed all that.

“It helped,” he said. “I learned how to stop being a bully. I learned about respect.”

Coleman said that students who bully others are penalized by having to fight three others in class. “They see what it’s like to face a bully,” he said.

Coleman started the class with another instructor, Bruce Daniels, and has been working with St. Philip’s to bring the program to the Fernhill Road church’s East Side neighborhood for a very modest voluntary fee. Parents and grandparents are often on hand. Jeremiah Jones, who comes to watch his grandson, 12-year-old Niles, called it “a great experience for the kids.”

“It keeps them out of trouble. It gives them something positive to participate in. They get a lot out of it,” he said.

The Rev. Gloria Payne-Carter, pastor of the historic church, said the karate program took an empty space at the church and filled it with energy and children.

The class is just one of the many ways St. Philip’s is reaching out to its community.

“This past summer, we ran a summer program through the parish center engaging about 20 young people, ages 10 to 17,” Payne-Carter said.

She said the focus of that program was to encourage the young people to provide service in their immediate community. They did so by cleaning people’s yards, cutting their grass, planting flowers and visiting the City Mission.

“We wanted to instill in them the principles of Martin Luther King,” she said. “To give back to the community.”

The centerpiece of the community outreach, she said, is the food pantry, with distribution on Wednesdays and Thursdays.