AN UPDATE ON ONE OF MY PASSIONS
DRIFTWOOD/YOUTH LEADERSHIP CORPS
DESCRIPTION: The Youth Leadership Corps provides spiritual, educational, life skills and physical training for children and their families located at Driftwood (now called Lauderhill Point).
The program provides after-school programs, a summer camp, jobs programs, vacation Bible school, Sunday school and church attendance facilitation. The Youth Leadership Corps has separate venues for primary, middle school, and high school students.
The program’s goals are to help Driftwood children find hope in their lives and to be able to graduate high school and attend college. All students are provided with school skills assistance, exposed to life opportunities thru a variety of field trips, and taught life and physical skills. Within the program there is 2.5 Club that rewards children for academic achievement.
Spiritual development has included Sunday school and church attendance, vacation Bible school, distribution of Bibles to each child, reading Bible stories and this year, Jam Club. Field trips have included Dolphins games, Universal Studios, the Baptist Christmas pageant, the Nutcracker, the Everglades, Butterfly World, TY Park, the Beach, Movies, Barbeques, Halloween trick and treating and more. Physical development has included teaching the children to swim, ice skate, dance, canoe, fish, bowl, sing and camping. Life skills development has included nutrition training, shopping, cooking meals, etiquette, and conflict management.
The program has also have facilitated a summer jobs program for middle school children. This venue provided 8 children with real working experiences in a variety of settings with church member’s businesses. The exposure to work situations is another link to the importance of school and allowed them to also experience earning money for tasks completed. The job’s program has recently been expanded to offer a job’s assistance program for mothers. Small loans have been made to women for schooling and then they have been placed in work situations.
There is also a Thanksgiving Dinner for Driftwood families and a Christmas party for the children. The Christmas party has historically been held at a workplace and each child is given a present from Santa. The church provides the children with breakfast each Sunday morning. All children receive a birthday gift and celebration on their birthday, and there is an ongoing education program that links the programs efforts to Driftwood parents. These education programs are one hour meet and greet sessions where research from Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Zone project is discussed. Canada’s work has become a standard for elevating people out of the cycle of poverty.
