Over this past year it has been our privilege to support, work alongside, and hear stories of our project partners. Our Local Partners, Central Alberta Youth Unlimited, Hope Mission and the Outreach Centre, are doing amazing work in meeting vulnerable youth and single parents where they are at and providing mentorship, relationship and bringing hope.
Outreach Centre
Our support of the Outreach Center and specifically Julietta’s Place and Dragonfly Centre, allows the staff to continue to meet the complex needs of women and children who have been affected by Suicide, Domestic Violence and Homelessness. These adverse experiences have the potential to leave deep, lasting wounds that can bring messages of not being worthy of love. A child therapist passed on to me a story of a little one she was working with, who had faced such experiences and felt those wounds. The therapist asked this little one if there was a game they could play.
“Hide and Seek! Do you know it?”
“Yes I do,” said the Therapist. “You go hide.”
So after the child hid, the therapist took her time ‘searching’ for this little one. Finally the therapist ‘found’ the child and with great delight said “I found you!” The child looked at the therapist and asked “Did you really want to find me? No one has wanted to find me before”.
There are many children and youth in our city who feel passed over, not valued enough to be sought after. We are grateful for the presence of Outreach in our city with their caring and compassionate staff who bring hope to those who are living and hiding in fear and despair. This past year, 97 individuals resided in Julietta’s Place for an average of 360 days and there is a waitlist for child therapy.
Central Alberta Youth Unlimited
CAYU offers a program called ‘Stepping Stones’. They are committed to walking with pregnant and parenting youth towards hope and wholeness. Through building a community of peer support, creating opportunities to develop essential life skills, and offering one-on-one support to young moms, Stepping Stones is there for the long-term, helping young families raise their children in a safe and supportive environment – making a lasting difference in their lives! Stepping Stones is offered here in Red Deer, Sylvan Lake, Lacombe and Ponoka.
“I didn’t have anyone supporting me except for one family member. The stepping Stones mentors showed up for me in so many ways, from formula and diapers, to folding laundry, or just sitting and having a conversation over coffee with me. They just… supported me. I felt known and seen. Stepping Stones has taught me a lot over the time I have been attending; it’s not just breakfast and a fun program. It’s true friendship and a relationship where you navigate life together.”
Youth Engagement is another CAYU program which assists students in developing a balanced life: spiritually, mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. This philosophy of a balanced life is for teenagers to hear a message of hope, learn Christian values, and ease the transition from childhood to adulthood. Youth Engagement staff host weekly clubs, volunteer with school athletic teams, carry out Gym Blasts (student team-building rallies) and are involved in various other activities on and off school campuses. There are Youth Engagement programs being run in Blackfalds, Lacombe, Sylvan Lake, Red Deer, Maskwacis and Rimbey.
Hope Mission
Hope Mission initially started in Red Deer offering Kids in Action and Youth in Action afterschool programs for students. Hope Mission has observed the growing need around food in many families of our city. For multiple reasons, more and more children are coming to school hungry and Hope Mission’s food ministry has expanded to include 14 schools serving breakfasts and 21 schools receiving frozen meals for families in Central Alberta. Additionally, Hope Mission offers frozen meal delivery, afterschool clubs in 6 schools, summer day camps and overnight camps to give kids the opportunity to experience the love of Jesus in fun and safe environments.
For the people that our Local Partners come alongside with, we wish that a roof over their heads, a few counselling sessions, a grocery gift card, or a hot meal would bring relief for families (and for those little ones especially), but it’s much more complicated than external circumstances. They are lost. Jesus talks about lost things in parables. A sheep who the Shepherd leaves the rest of the flock to go and find. A lost coin that a woman turns her house upside down until she finds. Jesus says this is what God is like when He pursues His children.
God—the searcher, the seeker, the determined, dogged finder. God is where the lost things are, seeking the ones who are hiding and ones who maybe don’t know if they want to be found. We are seeing God move in the lost souls though the actions of our Local Partners.
These partner organizations and their staff are a refuge for those who have been shattered by circumstances, who are worn down from a string of uncontrollable things and feel powerless to change them. For those feeling despair from their own choices, for those that experience the crushing weight of sin, failure, and frustration. For those that suffer from a lack of modelling of good choices, those that feel uncared for and as a result become apathetic. Our partners, Central Alberta Youth Unlimited, Hope Mission and the Outreach Centre, provide a loving, healing embrace to those who have known little about love.
Laurie
