Inner city kids have one of the toughest lives in America. They feel alone in the world as if they don’t have a purpose. This is due to their parents abandoning them, getting arrested for drinking, doing drugs, gang related activities, or are in mental institutions. Their parents mistakes are then put onto them since they are now viewed as bad kids due to the acts their parents committed. This causes separation from social groups, poverty, and movement between adopted families. To help these kids, volunteer organizations and church groups form Inner City Youth Organizations.
Dedicate people that have a passion for others run these organizations. Enter Jerrell Stepeny, a 19-year-old student at Oklahoma State University. Jerrell grew up in the East side of Oklahoma City. He lived in a rough neighborhood called JFK. Throughout the day, he would witness drug deals, gang violence, and police making drug busts. Their parents would abandon their children since they got involved in drugs and didn't have time to take care of them. In most cases though
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“I’m viewed as a brother to them. I’m there to help them in their time of need and to give them a role model they can follow,” he said. Each day that he worked at the organization, more and more kids would stop by to get help. Some of the kids were about to give up on life and were even talking about suicide. Thankfully, the church had over 20 different mentors, not including the other pastors that work there.
Each year the church would gain more and more volunteers that wanted to help the devastated kids and give them a chance at life again. Jerrell was a big part of the recruitment of volunteers. He would recruit up to 12 people a year and on average there were only 20-30 volunteers at a time. “I just wanted to help out as much as I could, I also felt guilty for not being part of this program sooner,” he
Finkelstein, M. (2005). With no direction home: homeless youth on the road and in the streets. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Gwinnett County Public School (2010, June). Education for Homeless Children and Youth. Retrieved February 4, 2014, from http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-mainweb01.nsf/F42D74FA4ECBBFED85257754006DDA21/$file/HEP_Parent_Brochure_10-11.pdf
What our inner city youths need is to see first hand how their decisions can
A well-known program in New Orleans is The Covenant House. It is a well establish program that offer assistance to thousands of youth. Each day, scores of kids walk into Covenant Houses across the Americas for the first time. They get what they need immediately: a shower, a meal, clothes, a warm bed, and medical care if they require it – more than a third do. Then, Covenant House has expectations of the kids. Once they’re safe, clot...
Greg Stier is the executive director, president, and originator of Dare 2 Share Ministries International as of 1991. Stier has instructed over 30,000 Christian adolescents around North America in how to live out their faith in confidence and with boldness. In 1997 he was the guest speaker at the Youth for Christ’s DC/LA events, and he revisited that speakership at Y2K the Fellowship of Christian Athletes forum. “Youth ministry became his full-time focus on April 20, 1999, due to the Columbine High School massacre.” Stier has written such published works as ‘You're Next!’ and ‘Dare 2 Share: A Guide to Sharing the Faith (Focus on the Family)’ as well as several curricula on evangelism preparation. According to Stier, “[he doesn’t] come from a church going… religious family. His was a tough urban family filled with bodybuilding, tobacco chewing, and beer drinking thugs. He recounts how seeming through a lifetime (although not quite that long a time), his tough and thuggish family was led to Christ in one way or another. The impact that Jesus had on his extended family, that from the time he was 11 years of age, he just knew that he was going to be a preacher!” He and his wife Debbie have two children, and currently reside in the Denver area.
Endless Outreach will network with local schools that have a high number of at-risk students. Provide services such as academic coaching and alternative to suspension programs. The non-profit will also provide training school staff on how to deal with at-risk youth, uninspired students, and how to lower gang activity in the schools. With a firm belief that it takes a village to raise a child, our organization will incorporate the family of the students and as well as school staff to create a plan for success so that the student understand the amount of support he or she has. Endless Outreach understands that much of a child’s problems begin at home. Therefore we will assist parents with employment training, free credit repair and budgeting, and help them receive family counseling from other local agencies in the community.
For my volunteer experience I chose to help assist in a program called the Sonshine Club that’s provided in one of the local city schools Kenwood Heights Elementary School. The Sonshine club has been a program that has been established for approximately seventeen years now in which at this particular school they met on Tuesdays from 3:15-4:15pm. Their message to bring to the children is that “there is a bright light out of all of this” (Use.salvationarmy.org, 2014). In Clark county, Ohio the data shows that there are 27% of children between the ages of 5-17 years old, are in poverty (Use....
The mission of StandUp for Kids is “to empower teenagers toward lifelong personal growth through on the streets outreach programs.” This mission statement is clear and concise. It guides the actions of StandUp for Kids, spells out their overall goal and provides a path. StandUp for Kids strives to gain the trust of homeless youth in order to achieve its mission statement (StandUp For, 2014). This trust is sought out through programs such as street outreach where volunteers search for homeless youth who are in need of help. The homeless youth are then introduced to outreach centers where they are provided with food, basic supplies, counseling, educational assistance, independent living skills training and referral services for available programs throughout the community (StandUp For, 2014).
Correspondingly, these poor urban neighborhoods can lead to less effective parenting due to the stress and struggles they are facing, which may cause adolescents to develop delinquent behaviors. Due to the high crime rates in such neighborhood, adolescents are more likely to be exposed to deviant peer groups and gang behaviors, and these may result in a stronger deviant peer effect on the adolescents. (Deutsch, 2012)
Recreational activities are essential for inner city communities as it helps provide youth with opportunities to stay active by offering a diverse range of activities to help suit the desire and needs of each individual. The Canadian Parks Recreation Association (CPRA) states, “participation in recreation, sports, arts and cultural activities can reduce self-destructive behavior, negative social activity, crime, racism, isolation, loneliness and alienation in children and youth” (CPRA, The Benefits Catalogue 1997). Recreational activities offered to inner city youth include wellness, arts and educational classes. To help single working parents, many recreational programs are offered before and after school, providing youth with a wide range of of health and social services (Browne et al, 1998). Community centers are scattered throughout the community, which offers the residents free daily programs. Resource groups also offer a breadth of opportunities for inner-city youth to be active. Offering additional resources such as mentorship and coaching for children of single parent families to promote positive development. Further research of recreational benefits throughout inner city communities has concluded that recreational activities are pivotal, because it helps to increase the overall health and well-being of residents (The
I began by tutoring at the Boys and Girls Club (BGC) and eventually became a teacher at the boys and girls club. The focus of my continued volunteer work was to enrich the children’s after school experience whether they needed help with homework or busy work. During my volunteer work the issue that stuck out in my mid continuously was social class or classism. The BGC emphasizes many different issues and points such as “creating aspirations for the future,” “Helping youth become responsible, caring citizens and acquire skills for participating in the democratic process is the main thrust of these programs and also to develop leadership skills and provide opportunities for planning, decision-making.” BGC encourages kids to engage in healthy and positive behavior as well as to help the youth build and discover creativity in the arts “Club programs help develop fitness, a positive use of leisure time, reduction of stress, appreciation for the environment and social and interpersonal skills.” (bgca.org)
... such amazing results on the first year but within the first year over sixty men came for help on a different matter. Don Brewsters' team had did prayers with the men everyday, and helped them to activities like weightlifting competitions and racing the other men. Lords Gym was teaching men to use better judgment and make the best decisions for their lives and others. The team that ran the gym celebrated when someone new came to the church for help.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is a charitable organization that I have been involved with for four years. “[They] believe that every child should have the opportunity to reach his or her full potential” (Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada, 2011). This mission statement shows their true dedication to allowing children to not be held back by their lack of socialization at a younger age and to be able to find who they are and make a difference in the world. I decided to pick this experience in particular because of the huge impact that it had on my life. Although we met only once a week it was an experience I will forever remember. I had one mentee in particular that showed such great advances in the year that we spent together. This little was in grade 5 at the time and was very shy; having being raised by one parent he had a lack of parental figures in his life. From such a young age he had a hard time trusting people because those around him always seemed just to leave. By me being their week after week he began to realize that I was not going anywhere fast. Although at first it took a long time to get through to him he eventu...
There are certain types of people that go out of their way to keep others happy. They influence and help others when they need it. While in this unique period of time, it can seem quite uncommon to see someone try to make a difference in their community. Most adolescents are much too absorbed in video games, cell phones, or other technology that comes into their lives to look at the bigger picture around them. This “bigger picture” consists of the community they live in, the school, church, and friends that mostly influence who they are if they so choose.
Every time Chad spoke, he reminded us to remember “Who we are and Whose we are.” At first, I ignored him, God was speaking to me through Chad, but I shut him out. The band sang every night, and the worship, which once led me to praise and be joyful, reminded me of my anger. They sang about God, but this could not have been the god that put me through these trials. Later in the week, Banning spoke on ending of the Prodigal Son’s story, the son was lost, but now is found, he was welcomed home with love and open arms from his compassionate, loving father, who had been waiting for him. I knew at that moment the I needed to come home, I was not and could never be too far gone. I stayed after the band sang “Good Good Father,” and I sat with God, I felt his embrace in a way I never had before. I was able to speak with Banning, Chad, and my leader Amanda. Their words of encouragement have stuck with me, and given me the confidence to share Christ with the world. Shaver Lake changed my life and brought me home to God and to my church family. I am still not perfect, but I am loved. “Who, Whose, and Why,” has become my motto, as a reminder of Chad and Banning’s words, which came straight from God to save me. God knew those words and those exact worship songs, were exactly what my lost and broken soul needed to hear, needed to sing. I can no longer shut the church, and its people, out of my life. I have renewed faith and I am striving to grow closer to God and allow him to shine through in anything, and everything, I do. I have come back to my “Good Good Father,” and I am loved by