Focus on the Children

Research the special educational needs of youth in your region. Are you able to provide tutoring, class assistance or a resource learning center? Sometimes a community center already runs a tutoring program for kids who families aren’t able to help them with schoolwork or where academic motivation is missing. You can help one child, one evening a week, to keep up in school. That could totally redirect his or her life.

Research nutrition needs. Are there ways you could supplement government initiatives to ensure a good diet and a sound mind?

Research employment needs. Are the youth being adequately trained to hold a basic job? If not, are there ways your group could train them in skills that will help prevent poverty in the future?

Research recreation needs. Are the youth pulled into gang and crime life because of boredom, inadequate supervision or lack of play facilities? If so, think through ways to ensure quality recreational facilities. Many kids are latchkey kids---their parents work all hours of the day, and the children are expected to care for them before and after school. Perhaps your fellowship could provide a special day care/recreation facility for these kids. Most church buildings are underused.

As a group, be on the lookout for abused children. Too often they are unable to ask for help because of the threats of the abusing parents. Learn to identify abuse. . . . And obtain information from your local government and physicians on how to provide help once you have clear evidence of abuse.

Become a regular Big Brother or Big Sister to youth who do not have a mom or dad to model that kind of care and acceptance. You can do this informally if you know such a child or teen in your church or in some other way. Or you can sign up with the national Big Brother/Big Sisters of America. . . .

Research the need for fostering or adopting kids. This is obviously a much greater commitment, but a real need. There are more than a quarter-million youth currently in limbo in the U.S. These kids have no family that can or will care for them; they are shuttled between foster homes---wards of the courts. You can add stability, even for a few months, to a young life that is hurting for love. (Be aware of the emotional cost involved!) Even that temporary investment may show the child that someone thinks he or she is worth caring about. For a child who may have been given messages of shame and almost no affirmation at all, a loving relationship with you will be a lifeline.