Guidance
By Sally Lew, Jubilee Consortium Board Member
I have devoted most of my adult life to working with young people – as an educator, a mentor, a coach, a big sister, an auntie, and a godparent as well as a single-parent. It became very clear to me, early on, that guidance is critical in a young person’s life. Guidance that comes from caring adults – caring adults who are investing in tomorrow’s future. I also believe strongly that guidance goes hand-in-hand with youth development.
Karen Pittman, executive director of the Forum for Youth Investment, defines youth development as the ongoing process in which all youth are engaged in attempting to (1) meet their basic personal and social needs to be safe, feel cared for, be valued, be useful, and be spiritually grounded, and (2) to build skills and competencies that allow them to function and contribute in their daily lives. As Hugh Price, former president and CEO of the National Urban League, put it so succinctly in 1998, youth development is “what parents do for their children … on a good day.”
Today’s parents are straddled with so many more challenges in parenting/raising a family than our parents ever did in decades past. This is why “youth development is a combination of all of the people, places, supports, opportunities and services that most of us inherently understand that young people need to be happy, healthy and successful.”
And THIS is where the Jubilee Consortium comes into the arena of the many youth development (and family-focused) programs. Jubilee provides “the ongoing process” and level of guidance with its array of program offerings for the whole family (e.g., youth leadership: youth boxing and scuba diving; and health: aerobics and salsa dancing). Jubilee’s array of experiences incorporates the key elements of supports, opportunities and quality services as well as a spiritual component.
As a (non-Episcopal) board member of the Jubilee Consortium, I recognize the driving force, strength and vision that the Consortium’s founding rectors brought to the many neighborhoods served, recognizing the disparities in urban, low-income, predominantly minority communities. This core group of “member churches came together out of a common belief that churches should be able to provide much more for their communities than a place to worship.
These churches understood that through a dedicated, coordinated, collaborative effort, they could work towards effecting a more meaningful social change within their communities.” And as a board member, I am honored and humbled to be in the company of such insightful leadership and commitment as we create healthy and just neighborhoods through enrichment opportunities and leadership programs.