Project HELP, a partnership between FWCC and Living Well Foundation, along with 36 volunteers invested in the lives of Lenwil, Riser and Riverbend Elementarys 5th grade students.  Celebrating who they are and whose they are, while pouring into them life skills, encouragement and vision to begin preparing them for the challenges of middle school.

Goodness and riches of relationship have been poured out on some of “the least of these” in our community through Pretty ‘n Pink and B.L.A.S.T.  these past few weeks.  Only God could open up school campuses, provide the funding and the laborors… 

6 week-long events, 3 campuses, 150 students , 8 hours of mentoring & life skills…all well-seasoned with the love of Jesus,  hope and a future… 45 dads participated…

Topics for the girls included: Beauty from within, Etiquette, The Power of Words.  Each young lady made a word collage reflecting the uniqueness created within her. The young men learned teamwork through rope tying and knot tricks, Respect and Courage provided by WMPD, Importance of taking care of things/ Mechanics and Knowing where you are going through compass reading and our True North Star.

Presenter, speakers and teachers included Paula Gates, Paula Gooden, Esther Townsend, Malori Moody, Kathy Danna, Amanda McKastle, Cheryl Wicker, Richard Gates, Todd Sherwin, CJ Beck, Richard Gardner, Michael Wood, JJ Sailia.  

United Home Care catered all 3 BLAST cook outs.

Hutzler,said, “… it could not have been done without the 200+ volunteer hours  contributed, and she gratefully quoted Paul in Philippians 1: 3-5 … “I thank my God every time I remember you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership ….” 

 In addition, Jana thanked the FWCC/Project HELP team – Norma Wilson, Kathy Danna, Beth Vetrono, Marsha McGee, Dennis Little, Emily Jones, Shawn Downhour, Ginny Hixon, and Suzonne Whedbee

 FirstWest Ministries that contributed to the events were:

 Local Ministries – Richard Gates took the lead with B.L.A.S.T, speakers, prep and set up/clean up; 

Building Services-for OFF-Site set-up – allowing teachers, administration janitorial staff and the whole campus to witness the value we place on these children, their campuses and neighborhoods -THIS WAS HUGE!!!  Worship Ministries – Harrie McCollough  for all tech set-up & support and CDs for the girls; Kitchen Staff for letting us prep and store food; Finance, Outreach, Women’s Ministries - serving & greeting; donations;  All the Ministers that hung out with the young men and dad’s;  Children’s Ministry for sharing scissors, helium and Daddy Daughter for sharing silver boxes;  Volunteer Central – Alivia Roberts for recruiting volunteers for food prep.

 A special thanks to the school administration and Building Services who were gracious hosts!

Again, “I thank God for you…I pray with joy for our partnership”  

Jana

Kids Hope Banquet 2011

The Kids Hope Ministry held its annual Thanksgiving Banquet for the students, volunteers and their families  in the program from Riverbend Elementary and Crosley Pre-K and K.   It was a time of fellowship and sharing of appreciation by the parents, school principal, church and volunteers.  There were 215 people in attendance.

 One of the highlights of the night was the sharing of a mother whose son started in the Kids Hope program when he was in the second grade and is now a senior at West Monroe High School.  His mother expressed her appreciation for the program and to the mentor and her family who has continued to stay in contact with her son throughout his school years.  The mentor has provided both academic and spiritual guidance through the years to both her son and the family. He plans to got to college on a basketball scholarship.  She encouraged the families in the community to become more involved with Kids Hope program.

Anthony Moore, Principal of Riverbend Elementary, expressed appreciation to the mentors for how the program is helping to improve the grades of the students but more important the emotional attitude of the students. 

 If you have a passion for kids who are at-risk, Kids Hope may offer you the strategy you need to give hope to a child. Kids Hope meets the emotional, social, and academic needs of the children at Riverbend Elementary and Crosley schools. Come make a difference in the life of a child.  Kid’s Hope needs volunteers to serve as mentors, substitute mentors, prayer partners, readers, and to help with special events.  For more information contact Ginger Johnson at 343-2728 or 355-6917 or just email gjohnson@firstwest.cc.

Representative Frank Hoffman reading at Riverbend

New Generations – First West’s After School program at Riverbend Elementary – kicked off Tuesday.  We had a group of really excited kids, already proclaiming the program as “awesome”.  One child said he was going to sleep at the school…. but we figured that probably wasn’t a good idea, so we loaded him up with the other kids on the bus to go home. 

We will have 20 children in the 2nd grade attending the program held at the school.  We will take them right after school to eat a full dinner meal, then spend about 90 minutes with teacher tutors going over homework and education enrichment exercises.  Then there is a 30 minute time for devotion and character building.  Then what appears is going to be highlight of the day – we will read out loud to the children for about 20 minutes starting at 5:30.  Research has proven that reading to a child increases that child’s ability to learn and comprehend.  It was great seeing the kids on their blankets (provided by First West) completely engaged in the book the Riverbend Reader was reading. 

You can help in a couple of ways with this program.  First – you can become a reader.  It’s simple – just pick a book that we provide and read to a group of children.  The other way you can help is to volunteer to be in the class while the teacher is helping with homework.  This is second grade level school work – so don’t be afraid!  You can do it.  Volunteers during this part of the program are critical so we can save money on paid staff.  Without you, we will be spending money better spent in other areas – such as the higher level training needed for the Broaden Horizons tutoring program. 

Come check us out!  Monday through Thursdays from 3:15 to 5:50.

We are now signing up volunteers for readers in the Community School program!! This ministry opportunity is one that will change YOUR life, and the lives of children in our community right here in Ouachita Parish!  Everyone can be a part of transforming our neighborhood!  It’s as easy as ” one fish, two fish…. red fish, blue fish…” 

We will be assigning 2 readers each day, Monday through Thursday beginning September 26^th. Please let me know what day you would like to begin.

Once you have committed to a day to read, please be sure you arrive at Riverbend Elementary by 5:20 pm.   You will need to sign in with the Site Coordinator at the school, pick up a name tag, and they will show you to your classroom area.

Books will be provided for you to choose from at the school, or you may bring your own favorite children’s book from home to share with the children.  The children will gather at 5:30 for you to bring their day to a close with our reading time that will last until 5:50 pm.  Once you have read to your students, you are free to leave.   Staff from our New Generations program will help the students gather their belongings from the day and get them ready for the bus that will take them home at 6:00 pm.

How easy is that?  You get all the fun when you read to the children!  The students learn and grow before your very eyes!  And a Community is transformed in HIS name!   

Contact Kathy Gwin at kgwin@firstwest.cc or by cell at 366-7264

Broaden Horizons Summer 2011

Summer 2011 Broaden Horizons came to a close recently.  We had a Student Building full of energetic middle school and high school age youth (50); most of them from the Riser Middle school area which includes the Riverbend neighborhood. After spending 8 hours a day 4 days a week for 8 weeks,  we had quite an impressive list of activities. And they heard the Gospel every day, most of the time more than once. At the end of this post is a partial list of activies that they participated in during the summer.

A special thanks to our staff for hanging in there and leading this group of young people through the summer. And now …. ON TO THE AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM.  More on that later. 

Some of the activities for the summer:

Daily Devotions;  Bible Studies-Titus;Romans;REAL Women;Women in the Bible;Dave Ramsey Financial Training for Youth;Do the Hard Things – Living NOT like the rest of the world;Music;Art;Cooking;Jewelry Making;Cake Decorating;Group Counseling with Project HELP;Law Enforcement – Ouachita Parish Sheriff, Louisiana State Police, WMPD;LA Technical College;ULM;Delta Community College;Excalibur;Sallis Horse Farm;ULM Natatorium;John and Donna Avant pool;Landry’s Vinyard;Job Shadowing-Melanie Massey PT;ConAgra Foods;Brookshires Warehouse;KTVE;Jobs for Life training; (Speakers) Toxicology;Pottery;Car Insurance;Aneshesiology;Militiary;Red Cross;Physical Therapy;Photography;Social Work;Aviation.

And at the end of each day – we cleaned the building.

Pretty N Pink Banquet

Project HELP (Healing. Education, Life Skills, Parenting)  is a ministry of our Counseling center and is co-funded by the Living Well Foundation.  Its goal is to improve the mental, emotional and behavioral health of students in the Riverbend, Riser and Lenwil school zones through counseling, education, support group and mentoring services.

Over 750 students were educated about such topics as social and emotional bundaries in relationships, how to have a healthy realationship, sexual assault and bullying.  5th grade girls, preparing to enter middle school, were taught about topics that included true beauty, hygiene, puberty, appropriate dress, etiquette and manners.  5th grade boys were taught life skils that included mechanics, law enforcement, knot tying, trust, serve, choices and teamwork.

After conducting family assessments, 291 advocacies and referrals were made.  Goals for this group included education, employment, family stability, health, self sufficiency, interpersonal skills and mental health.

We are learning that to give many of the children in the neighborhoods around our church campus a reasonable chance at success in life, we need to HELP  ”fill in the gaps” in their development.  Project HELP is a huge part of that process and we congratulate Jana Hutzler and her team on their great work over the past two of years.

Here are the numbers from the activity the past school year:

85 students from 76 families in emotional, social or academic crises were served through 1,263 professional mental health sessions.  Over 90% of the 258 goals set were met or partially met. 

Here are some quotes from students that were touched by Project Help:

“it helps me calm down”, “It helps me to stop saying ‘kill me’”, ”helped me stop fighting”, ”Teaches me to not lose control of my anger”, and “If you lose a really close family member, they will help you feel better”. 

Quotes from parents:

“My family faced a horrible tragedy – 3 funerals in 3 days.  The program at First West Counseling Center is estraordinary.  My family has been extremely blessed and I don’t know what we would have done” (This family could not afford counseling and Project HELP became their lifeline.

“My two boys in the program are doing much better.  Thank you for giving my children a safe place to express themselves”

Part 2 coming next…

They are young, energetic, imaginative and they have career aspirations ranging from lawyer to nurse to “something in the fast food industry.” Who are they? The students representing First West’s Broaden Horizons (BH)!

Richard Gates and I had the privilege of conducting mock job interviews with a small group of these young men and women. These students recently completed a job training course where they learned about different career opportunities available to them. They learned how to complete a job application and other skills they will need as they seek employment. This life skills course concluded with these mock interviews for the position of their choice. Some students practiced interviewing for summer jobs while others pretended to already be in the work force and seeking new opportunities. The students did a great job of critiquing one another, discussing posture, facial expressions, attitude, eye contact, responses to the questions, and other elements of the interview process.

As much fun (and educational!) as the interviews were, the best part of the evening for Richard and me was after the interviews when the students went around the room talking about their love of Broaden Horizons and what it has meant to them. The students initiated this time of sharing. Here are a few of their comments.

“I’ve learned to like myself better.”

“We have fun and learn lots of interesting stuff.”

“When I was in after school programs before, we just did homework and then they took us home. That’s all we did. Here, we have people that care about us. We do lots of stuff—not just homework. People here care, and it’s fun.”

“It’s been good for me to see how different races get along and can be friends and do things together. It’s not about color. It’s about us being friends.”

One young lady talked about how BH has changed her. She’s gone from being shy and never speaking to anyone to being one of the most talkative of the group. While she didn’t do so great in school in the past, she’s excited that on her last report card, she had four As and 3 Bs. Her goal is to be a straight-A student. The theme of their comments was appreciation for BH and the life skills classes as well as the fun and just being together with friends. Most of all, they love having this new family that cares for them and has shown them hope for the future.

You too can be a part of this rewarding program.  If you have any special skill or hobby that you would like to show the group, please contact Terra Taylor at ttaylor@firstwest.cc.  We are meeting Monday through Thursday from 8 to 4:30 all during the summer.

“I wanted to let you know again what a blessing the Kid’s Hope Ministry is here at Riverbend Elementary.  Mrs. Ginger Johnson and her group of mentors are a God-send for our children.  Most of our children come from homes of broken promises and situations where almost none of their needs are met.  To know that someone is going to show up once a week to spend time with only you and let you know that God loves you and so do they, is something out of the ordinary in their everyday life.  I have seen children completely turn around their grades, as well as their attitude, once a mentor has been assigned to them.  I know of many of their parents who tell me that Kid’s Hope Ministry is very important not only to their child, but to them as well. I think that if the members of First West could witness the smiles on the kids faces and the blessings that come from mentoring, Ms. Ginger would have to turn potential mentors away there would be so many” (Editor note: There are almost 500 children at the school – we won’t be turning any potential mentors away any time soon!)

You can contact Ginger Johnson if you are interested in becoming a mentor for Kid’s Hope.  Her email address is gjohnson@firstwest.cc