My church and I usually do community service activities throughout our area every Saturday usually going to a local recreational center to talk to children that have no father figures or a mentor to look up to. So me and a couple of guys go and talk to these young men just to make sure they’re on the correct path and encouraging them to go through the right path and seek God. This is good for them and us because we all grow as Christians and we all need that person to talk to and to have a relationship with so it’s an extremely great opportunity.
What was observed during the experience?
During the experiences that I’ve had while doing this community outreach I’ve observed that at first you can tell that these young men weren’t very excited maybe because they’re mindsets are that the most important people in their lives abandoned them soon we will too. So that it was difficult for the young men to open up so we started of doing activates such as playing sports and watching movies to get closer to the young men. After a while I started to see a sense of acceptance by some of the young boys, we still kept our composer by not pushing to strong in order for these young men to see that we are here for good not to make them feel like a charity case. As soon after the young men began to show interest in what we were trying to do and our purpose of what we were doing, we explained that we wanted to be mentors to them more like “big brothers” we all are not far from age but still time is the best teacher so we use our experiences to help. With that I also experienced during this active part in the community is that these kids have went through more troubling things in their lives than I have and I am their mentors. That’s when the word of...
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...re in. I wish I had this opportunity when I was younger to have a mentor to talk to about my problems with no matter how big or small they are. I can’t say that I’m the perfect young man but I truly believe that I can be a “big brother” or a mentor to a young man that has no father figure in his life or even a big brother. This a self-less act of compassion for the young men in the community and hopefully we can expand in different areas and talk to hundreds of young man that look for someone not far from age to share some light and advice their way. Concluded, I have high hopes for these young men and I feel that now I and my church members are here to push them to the right direction and bring them closer to God and hopefully they can apply what we taught them on their lives and to influence their parents, peers, and follow the destiny God has in store for them.
I serve to Jesus every day by taking time out my day to help others. When my classmates or friends are struggling with something I try to assist them
A number of studies conducted suggest mentoring has taken the lead as the most sought after form of intervention for high risk youth (Miller, Barnes, Miller, McKinnon, 2013; Allison, K. W., Edmonds, T., Wilson, K., Pope, M., & Farrell, A. D., 2011; Spencer, R., Collins, M. E., Ward, R., & Smashnaya, S. 2010; Williams, 2011). Such programs are devoted to reducing risk (Allison et al., 2011) of youth violence, reentry, and delinquency ( Williams, 2011).Though mentoring methods have been the focus of recent research, there is many gaps left in current literature that proclaim more study is needed (Miller et al., 2013) in order to inform programs, and researchers regarding effective methods.
One of the possible research topics I plan to undertake involves analyzing the impact that mentoring can have on the graduation success rate of African American males, particularly when the mentor is a Black male and the relationship takes place in the south. In my opinion, these relationships can have a profound impact on a student’s ability to persist towards graduating from college. Though my research, I want to hear the stories of Black males who have benefited from successful mentoring relationships with other Black men. I believe that establishing a strong mentoring relationship with Black males at a young age can greatly improve their chance of academic success. Furthermore, I believe that mentoring is a strong early intervention mechanism to prevent Black males from dropping out of high school and deterring them from pursuing degrees in higher education. At the same time, I would like my research interest to focus on African American males in the south, but I would like my scope to focus on mentoring relationships between black men; both structured and unstructured.
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).
to Church on a regular basis to show their devotion to God and to help
Community service is something that I have always engaged. In college, I worked with chemically dependent children as both a caretaker and a mentor. After I graduated, I taught at-risk children in a community youth outreach program. To remain involved and aware of the focus of my studies during my first year of law school, I volunteered at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center teaching youth their basic legal rights. Essentially, we strove to empower kids by providing practical information about the legal system and to help them develop more favora...
I learned about the importance of giving back at the age of 11yr old and putting the very important needs of others in front of my own. Volunteering in a homeless shelter at a young age opened my eyes. Where I was placed to give food, clothes, money & hygiene products to people in need. Where would I be right now without the help of God, my mother, family& friends and the church community”. Giving a helping hand to the people in the community is Something we should always do. In the ("bible Acts 20:35 says in everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the lord Jesus himself said: it is more blessed to give than to receive"). Having a compassionate heart for the community blesses the congregation.
As a Lancaster native, I have had an opportunity to experience the many facets of life for youth within the county. I have had close friends lose their way and sense of direction, due to a lack of leaders and positive mentors. I was fortunate to have these positive figures in my life to deter any unhealthy or destructive behavior. As I view things now, I see that more and more young men and women are falling victim to this trap, and have not found a way to end this detrimental cycle. A major issue concerning this matter is a lack of adequate funding for the mentoring programs. There are many individuals who would love to volunteer and assist with the programs, but there should be finances in place to take the youth on field trips of some sort that is related to the program that will make things more appealing, su...
The relationship between young people and nonprofits can be the start of a significant change in our community, and should be a reciprocal and powerful educational experience. An open-minded and encouraging flow of communication between organizations and community members can be the launchpad for the social and environmental change organizations talk about and try for every day. Together, we can make change – not just a semblance of idealism, but reality, as well.
Upon learning that I had to do a service learning project for Ethics class, I immediately began brainstorming ideas. I decided I was going to work on a website for the Esprit De Corp group since they could not find anyone to do it. However, I ended up getting paid for so that did not work out. So I had two back-up plans. My first idea is that I was going on an AWOL trip for Spring Break. AWOL stands for Alternative Weekend of Offsite Learning. We spent a week in Denver doing various community service projects. Now, that was a week of community service, but it wasn’t done in Iowa. So I took the initiative of doing some service in Storm Lake. One day after mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Fr. Klein approached me. He asked me if I wanted to help out by leading a confirmation retreat for 90 Storm Lake juniors that would be confirmed in a couple of weeks. I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to help out the community and maybe even help myself spiritually.
"Youth Mentoring Needs a Rethink, Warns Report - Charity Times Article." Charity Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .
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...
Being involved in the Charity Club at my school has enabled me to do my share regarding community service. In the Charity Club we organize meetings where we come up with different projects , and then we find ways to collect money and clothes for families in need.Just recently we did this project called MAAT, and the purpose of this project was to help the poor families in Pristina and grow the sense of humanism and volunteerism among the youth. During New Year’s day along side Red Cross we shipped food and clothes for families in the region. It was honestly the best feeling ever, seeing the smiles in their faces when they saw the presents we had for them, was priceless.
Humbling yourself and helping the least of these (Matthew 25) is part of the mission that God has called all of his children to. Volunteering at a place that helps children grow in the faith and education is acting as the hands and feet of God. Taking the time out of your day to help a good cause helps to further the kingdom of God. Volunteering at Kid’s Connection taught me that serving doesn’t always have to be a huge ordeal. Serving doesn’t always have to involve flying to another country to help the poor. It can be something as simple as taking the time out of your day to play chutes and ladders with a child that doesn’t know how to count properly yet and teaching him how to play the game the right way. Little things like that do not seem like they would make a difference, but they