4 of 12 blessings we are celebrating!
“I am just thankful I made it to age 20. Many of my friends didn't.”
~ Youth Mentoring Student
In the spring of 2023, your support and grant funding allowed us to begin a Landscape Academy. This is a program, led in partnership with Everybody Eatz, for mentoring and training youth and young adults to provide income and the means stay off the street. Here, students can be accepted and learn soft skills needed for job success, gain landscaping and construction skills, as well as other trades, and earn a paycheck for their work. This team of youth and young adults has quickly become part of the fabric of Camp Restore, Everybody Eatz, and our community.
As we grow the Landscape Academy, however, we recognize there are much deeper needs than we originally anticipated. While landscaping skills and a paycheck are helpful, we quickly realized half of our youth were in need of a place to live - and this was only the tip of the iceberg. True transformation takes more.
Little by little and by the grace of God, together we added to the program. We are now able to offer six different opportunities for students looking for a new path forward filled with resilience and hope for a brighter future. The program includes:
Housing (Room & Board)
Soft Skills
Education
Vocational Training
Mentoring
Transformative Travel
Youth in the program have the opportunity for housing, food, drivers training, tutoring, career coaching, cooking experience, interpersonal relationship development, and more, all while earning a paycheck as they go. The Everybody Eatz and Camp Restore team strives to meet the needs of each youth as it arises while our students consistently work hard to contribute to the goal of making this community a better place.
And the impact of this love has shown:
One young man had lost his way when his mom became ill. He began breaking into a garage in his attempt to find a stable shelter. His social anxiety and lifelong homelessness had arrested his ability to make progress in his life. Once he entered our program, he began making strides to overcome his anxiety and started an entry level job. Now, he works at a company guiding him towards his engineering goals. He was even baptized this year! This led him to feel at peace for the first time in his life.
Another youth was stealing cars, and slowly dropping out of school. He is now on track to graduate this coming June! He has learned many skills, stopped getting into trouble, and is working on identifying a career that will support him and his family in the future.
Now, each student is goal oriented and has hope and a future.
We are thankful for our partnership with Anthony and Noel Smith of Everybody Eatz, a Detroit-based nonprofit organization which distributes food boxes to community members in need and assists in disaster relief. Their faith, leadership, and dedication to these youth are unparalleled.
None of this can happen without YOU! Thank You for the role you play in transforming the lives of students. Click here, give now.
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