Our Vision:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon us to heal, comfort & free; to rebuild cities and restore

old ruins”.   (It’s a paraphrase of Isaiah 61:1-4)

 

Our Mission:

Facilitate a family-style, residential, leadership, business, and entrepreneurial

equipping program.  We facilitate a Christ-centered whole-life approach, to discover,

develop and empower each “Aged Out” persons unique potential..

 

Our Cause:

Every year an estimated 26,000 at-risk youth are released from foster care and deemed legally responsible; within Foster Care circles it’s called “Age Out”. Quite often, they “Age Out” and go back to old neighborhoods, fall victim to wrong influences, lack the ability to take advantage of readily available resources and have no healthy parent, guardian, or positive caring adult who could model healthy family.  So, regrettably:

 

• 1 in 5 will become homeless within 4 years

• 1 in 4 will be incarcerated within 2 years

• 71% of the females will become a single parent by 21 years old.

 

These statistics are a result of their exposure to physically and/or emotionally toxic environments which cause Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) like abuse, abandonment, dysfunction, drugs, and violence. For the alarming 104,000 young people who have aged out of foster care in the last four years, these statistics tell a heart wrenching story of their continued pain and dysfunction.  

 

Our Solution

 

 We’ve re-designed our ministry to help encourage these at-risk youth to be God-fearing, and productive citizens.   Until we are able to launch a Sustainability, and Skill Development, Stabilization in our community.  It is a comprehensive, three-year, residential, and training model with a threefold goal: capital campaign for the construction of a residential campus, the “aged out” youth will initially stay in what we call “Host Homes”.   A “Host Home” is a local person or family with a spare room in which they’d allow, on a temporary basis, an “aged out” person to reside.  Training for “Host Home” providers will be conducted through our partnership with Gateway Woods Children’s Home in Leo, IN.

 

In year 1, the resident (aged out youth) starts the “Stabilization Phase”.  We’ll spend a great deal of time working on matters of the heart.  To put it mildly, many of our residents will have experienced a great deal of trauma through abuse, rejection, and abandonment.  So our goal, through an each-one-reach-one model, is to develop truths like: they are loved, accepted, and belong.  These concepts form the foundation of what we call the “Forever Family Culture”.  The residents will also engage in various daily activities at the Love Church building designed to move them toward greater roles of responsibility and leadership. Things such as, cleaning, answering phones, serving in Love Urban Grounds (our soon to be launched café), Love Auto repair, technological needs within the organization, and a host of other training opportunities.

 

Year 2 begins the “Skill Development Phase”.  We hope to have construction underway for a residential campus by this time.  We won’t waste any opportunity, so while construction is underway, the residents will themselves participate in the construction project.  Who knows, there may be a future community developer being developed in the process.  At its completion, the residents will move from “Host Homes” into our new campus.  Then begins a focus to discover and enhance their unique giftedness in a field of training. Moving from work ethic training to personal, more specific, trade training.  While looking for their unique giftedness, we will also work to develop and inspire an entrepreneurial spirit.  They will be involved in future development of related social enterprises that will assist with the ministry’s ongoing sustainability.  As the residents learn to recognize and act upon opportunities, they’ll be empowered with the skills to make it anywhere God may lead them.

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Year 3 marks the “Sustainability Phase”.   By this time they will have earned a certification in some relevant and marketable job skill, such as, Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), Information Technology, Culinary Arts, etc.  Next we begin the search process alongside of the resident to identify, purchase, and renovate a home which is the final step in their graduation process.  The resident will graduate our program with home ownership, job and skills training, and a great start in life.   We will do so in conjunction with help from other residents, the future home owner, our business and church partners, and the community.  Our desire is to give them all the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty and cultivate a generation of righteousness. More importantly, these young people will be influenced daily with Christ-centered mentoring and leadership development. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on how you can get involved, please contact Wallace at 260-422-8961