Training Helps Strengthen, Empower Local Youth

Apr 19, 2016 | UA News

Article by Urban Alliance staff. Photos courtesy of World Vision.

On Saturday, March 19, World Vision provided a workshop for 13 youth leaders and 20 youth from 10 organizations who participate in the Urban Alliance initiative Next Generation. The training, “Create A Compassionate Youth Group,” helped strengthen their capacity to partner with and equip youth to have a meaningful and positive impact on their peers. 

This training focused on the church and role of youth ministry through the lens of Community Youth Development, character development consistent with Christian discipleship, and how to build peer relationships within youth groups. 

Participants walked away with tools to help look at their programming through the lens of their activities and practices, and ways to promote attentive listening, to improve typical communications cycles found in groups.

Urban Alliance has offered grant funding to organizations in the Urban Alliance network who engage in Next Generation and attended the training, to help put these gained skills and tools to use by incorporating new techniques that directly impact people, improve the culture of their youth program, and build adult-youth partnerships.

If your organization would like to learn more about participating in Next Generation, contact Rosaicela Rodriguez, Urban Alliance’s Director of Implementation, Children & Youth Initiatives, at rosaicela.rodriguez@urbanalliance.com or 860.986.6052.

The staff at Urban Alliance are familiar with Pastor Frank because he is a regular attendee to many of the trainings Urban Alliance provides on subjects like domestic violence, addressing childhood trauma, and better counseling techniques. โ€œThatโ€™s been so valuable to me to be able to bring that back, not only in my counseling but also in my teaching and preaching ministries, โ€œ shared Termine.

Pastor Frank was also one of the original members of the Micah group, a group of pastors that meets at Urban Alliance to discuss and strategize about challenging issues that face the church today. One of those earlier discussions on justice, incarceration, and returning citizens was particularly memorable. โ€œWe all lamented the fact that these men and women were coming out of prison into our churches and just kind of being thrown there,โ€ said Termine, โ€œWe could do better than this.โ€ That discussion planted the seeds that eventually led to the creation of Second Chance Churches – an opportunity for churches to provide support and mentoring to returning citizens that continues today.

When we asked Pastor Frank what he would say to another church that was unaware of Urban Alliance, he said, โ€œIf you are looking to get out in the community and make a difference in the community, Urban Alliance is a super way to do it. Weโ€™re a small church โ€ฆ we canโ€™t do everything. Urban Alliance is a pathway to get our people involved in ministries that are already doing it, doing it well, and just need extra volunteers.โ€

Pastor Frank Termineโ€™s story embodies many things we are trying to accomplish at Urban Alliance: supporting organizations in the communities they serve with training, resources, and opportunities to make a difference. Pastors and non-profit leaders face a wide range of challenges and, therefore, need a wide range of help and resources. Your support can help turn stories of struggle into stories like you find at Calvary Church.

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