Our outreach is to high-risk youth. Our youth have great needs and one of the greatest needs is to be connected to a caring, trusted adult who will be a friend and guide them through the days ahead.
Last year we started down a path to fill in a gap that I’ve been very burdened about for several years. We began investing in the foundation of building a mentor outreach team that will eventually stretch all across the state of Tennessee and even beyond.
Our partners and consultants are the Christian Association of Youth Mentoring. CAYM has trained over 400 churches in the best practices of running highly successful church-based mentoring.
Recently Peter Vanacore, the Executive Director of CAYM made another trip to Tennessee from Boston, MA and we spent several days in meetings with those in the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and church leaders from East Tennessee to give updates on our progress.
Our first round of mentor training was held in May and we trained church leaders in a sixteen hour CORE training in all aspects of recruiting, screening, training and managing a mentoring ministry.
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]
Ken Turner (left), Jim Henry (middle), Peter Vanacore (right)
We met with Jim Henry, Deputy to the Governor and Chief of Staff for the state of Tennessee. Mr. Henry has been a very valuable friend from the beginning of the project by giving us the larger vision of the needs of youth in Tennessee.
Our first phase in our mentor outreach is for youth in East Tennessee with a goal to expand to Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee.
If you are interested in mentoring, developing a mentoring program or sponsoring a teen who needs a mentor, please contact us! We are currently seeking partners to invest in the development of the mentor outreach. Prayers are appreciated as we speak with individual donors, corporate donors and foundations.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
