Listen, Listen, Love, Love: Working with At-Risk Youth

Listen, Listen, Love, Love: Working with At-Risk Youth
By Terri Stewart

Hi! I’m Terri Stewart, the founder of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition. I work with youth who are affected by incarceration. That can be youth who are in prison, youth who have left prison, or youth whose parents have been or are in prison. There is a consistent theme – prison.

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:37-40)

I love working with these youth and their families. My typical week is filled with driving from Woodinville to Seattle to Snoqualmie to Kirkland to Yakima and back home again. At least it isn’t all in one day!

Why do I do this crazy amount of driving? Because we practice what I call Extreme Accompaniment ministry. An Accompaniment ministry is when you walk with someone listening and loving. You don’t walk in front, leading them. You don’t walk behind, pushing them. You walk with them, wherever their path leads. Sometimes that path starts at King County Youth Detention Center and leads to Echo Glen Children’s Home in Snoqualmie and then to the Ridgeview Girl’s Group Home in Yakima! It can be a circuitous route! But Extreme Accompaniment has the possibility to cause restoration, transformation, and healing unlike any other method.

The difficulty of this method lies in its intensity and commitment. There are few called to travel with a marginalized youth for 12 months or more. But that is what makes it Extreme! And it is extremely fun! Extremely fulfilling! Extremely challenging! And Extremely transformative!

Right now, the ministry has 3 needs:
1) Volunteers
2) Donations
3) Committed, daily prayer warriors

Prayer Warriors
For our volunteers, I lecture that their spiritual grounding comes first — without great spiritual practices of Bible reading, prayer, and accountability groups, they will not be able to maintain a healthy ministry. Given that, I list prayer warriors as the #1 priority! The spiritual grounding of the chaplaincy comes first.

Volunteers
We need people to join in the task of Extreme Accompaniment. If you feel called to a 12-month commitment of one-on-one relationship with a youth affected by incarceration, we need to talk!

There are three exciting ways this can be experienced:

• Neighborhood Youth Mission Team: This is the Extreme Accompaniment of following a youth from incarceration at King County Youth Detention Center to wherever that youth’s path may go.

• Mentors in Mission: This program works with youth before they are incarcerated – those who are in the ‘at-risk’ category. This includes youth from low-income homes and those with incarcerated parents. MIM is a weekly mentor opportunity/meeting combined with the mission work of creating a community garden for the youth’s family. A ministry two-fer – you help a child and you feed their family!

• Kairos Prison Ministry Torch Mentoring: Here, volunteers commit to participating to a spiritual renewal retreat within a detention setting. Youth walk alongside volunteers after the retreat until they move on to their next steps.

Additionally, we need administrative support to maintain our Facebook, Twitter, and web presence. We also need a data entry specialist to do a few hours of work a week. Lastly, we need traditional chaplain volunteers to enter the detention centers.

If you would like more information about any of these items or opportunities, please contact me at YCC-Chaplain@TheChurchCouncil.org or call me at 425-531-1756.

The Youth Chaplaincy Coalition The Youth Chaplaincy Coalition is a group of like-minded individuals and churches that seek to provide services, in a faith-based context, to Youth Detention Centers. Mission: The mission of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition is to provide quality, innovative, comprehensive services for the whole person, to youth and families affected by the justice system within a quality volunteer and work environment staffed by knowledgeable, ecumenical, and caring faith-based volunteers.

Crystallize Meaning: Moving Deeper Into Advent Advent starts November 28th and goes to Christmas Eve, December 24th. During this time, this blog will be offering a daily special spiritual practices opportunity led by a world-wide set of artists (poets, photographers, story-tellers and more!). For each day of Advent, an artist has been assigned a piece of scripture and they will “host” that day—offering their creative response to scripture. You are invited to come and read that scripture and to meditate on the creation that has been offered for your reflection. You can then leave your own response linking to your own blog or simply leave an observation in the comments. Come on over! We’d love to offer our hospitality to you through hosting an Advent reflection.

DOWNLOAD CHANNELS 67 HERE. Des Moines UMC feeds in Body, Mind and Spirit • #givingtuesdsay • WJC Stepping Out Event • Make It Happen at Assembly 2014 • Clarkston UMC and Highland Elementary School Pumpkin Patch • Dr. Monica Coleman speaks at The Well • Rethinking Our Camps in the Midst of Change • Listen, Listen, Love, Love: Working with At-Risk Youth • On the Shelf: Advent Resources • Journeys: Certified Lay Minister Training • Musings: The State of the Modern Church • Bishop: Testing our Assumptions • To subscribe to Channels, e-mail channels@pnwumc.org.