Greetings Dear Church Friends:
I trust that all is well with you and your family. I am requesting your individual support concerning the information below.
Attached is information pertaining to A Youth Summit entitled, "Take A Stand To Keep Your Seat Drop-In and Mentor Summit." The Summit is being held for children between the ages of 11-17 on Monday, July 25, 2011 from 9:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M., A total of 50 students can be accommodated. It is suggested that there be five (5) students per adult. This youth summit committee will accept students on a first come, first served basis until we have reached 50. Please complete the information on the attached form and submit to me by June 30th (contact information listed).
Note: If your group of children are in a summer camp, please feel free to count this youth summit as a field trip.
A brief history: Some of you are aware of NBCUSA Project Village a mentoring program for children with incarcerated parents. Operated through the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Missouri, and the National Baptist Convention USA Prison Ministry, this program partners with several national organizations. We are launching here in St. Louis somewhat of a different method, but still Project Village will be ministering to struggling black youth. It begins effective October 1, 2011. The major change is parents no longer must be incarcerated for children to participate in this wonderful program, and the primary focus is group mentoring as opposed to one-on-one mentoring. All children can attend even though they may not be experiencing any problems in school or their communities; many are exposed to such nature.
Because the launching of the program is during one of our Partners, "National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice's Annual Conference", we are encouraging all affiliated churches, youth development organizations and schools to participate by registering children. While we can only recruit 50 students for the conference, effective October 1, 2011, we can have 100 or more children. My job beginning in October is to recruit several mentors with a passion to participate in group mentoring settings (five students to an adult) utilizing an evidence research based curriculum, "Pen or Pencil." The students will have the opportunity to determine if they wish to get an education or perhaps become a victim of the penitentiary system). History and Social Studies will play a major role in this endeavor, along with learning from the Civil Rights movement. There is more to come, as we get closer to October 2011 - Great Ministry for Churches.
"This highly interactive summit presented by the National Alliance of Faith and Justice in cooperation with the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice will demonstrate the use of positive youth development constructs and evidence based practices of group and peer mentoring as delinquency, prevention and intervention strategies using history to include templates from the civil rights lunch counter sit-in model, film screenings, and integration of unique financial literacy, competitive tournaments such as "Your future's in JEOPARDY and Spell It Like It Is." I Have A Dream Too will feature special guest presentations and intergenerational dialogue with corporate executives, educators, criminal justice and other professionals to stimulate goal setting about the journey to freedom, a career, and healthy families. The primary purpose of this summit is to help attendees understand the costs and consequences of dropping out versus staying in and the risks involved in signing life's contract with a pen(itentiary) versus the pencil (education)."
Please Register children with your church, and youth organization on the attached form. Email addresses and phone numbers are important because as we get closer to the 25th of July, I will need to keep you informed of information related to the conference; specifically the competitions; "Spell It Like It Is and your Future's In Jeopardy." Actually you can inform me of students you wish to nominate for these contests/tournaments as you submit your registration.
I look forward to participating in the conference myself, as it will be my duty in October to coordinate the program during some evenings and weekends beginning October 1, 2011-through September 30, 2012.
Please forward this E-mail to youth organizations and others churches, as again, if we reach our quota for the conference, they can be a part of the program in October if they so desire. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have additional questions.
Blessings,
Linda Joyce Mackey
Volunteer Coordinator
314 440-6625
"Impacting Lives, Families & Communities"
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