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Hi Friends – this week, David Staal is my guest on “It Takes a Parent.” Until this summer, David was the head of the children’s ministry Promiseland at Willow Creek Community Church. He recently left that position to head a ministry in Michigan called Kids Hope USA. www.kidshopeusa.org.
What he has to share is amazing. Kids Hope pairs churches with public schools and kids at risk around the country – and the schools are glad to have the churches involved! You are going to want to hear how and why that’s possible. More public schools are asking for the ministry than there are churches available to provide it!
David will also talk about his own kids, and helping them through a difficult transition with the move which in their words “ripped them away” from their friends. With the economy the way it is and various transitions in our own homes, a lot of us may need his insights.
As always, I get a chance to touch on some issues of the day – like, some awful advice to a new mom in a recent advice column – in the “HeartBeat” section of the show.
I hope you’ll tune in Sunday at noon central time, at AM1160/WYLL Chicago, or streaming live at www.wyll.com, or later here or at the end of the week on NationalReview.com.
As always thanks for listening, thanks for your notes and e-mails – and have a great week!
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Hi Betsy, I saw this story in yesterday’s Chicago SunTimes. I’ve led a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in Chicago since 1975, so I’m fully in agreement with how important it is to build a network of extra adults and learning experiences for kids who don’t have enough family and community support.
I focus on kids in high poverty urban areas, where the family struggles because they are surrounded by poverty, with few lifelines of support beyond the neighborhood. Structured tutor/mentor programs can connect volunteers from churches, businesses, professions, etc. to the youth, and to the community.
There are not enough programs doing this. I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 to build a master understanding of what programs were in Chicago, and to create a leadership evangelism that would bring volunteers, and donors, to all of the programs on a more consistent basis, not just my own.
We host a conference every six months, and the next is May 28 and 29. I hope folks from Kids Hope USA, and other mentoring organizations, as well as leaders of faith based communities will attend. The web site is http://www.tutormentorconference.org
We don’t charge much of a fee, and we give a scholarship to anyone who asks for one. Our aim is to spread the good news of tutoring and mentoring so more congregations, businesses and others become strategic in how they support such programs.
I hope you’ll keep writing about this. We’re just a whisper in the desert without your help.
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