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For the last 3 years Lighthouse has been working on a youth
development framework that will change forever out approach and work.
This summer has been filled
with many sleepless nights, heavy work weeks, frustration, and huge
answers to prayer. We have moved
into our new office, found almost free office furniture,, expanded our
summer lunch program, and spent 9 months planning for an in school
tutoring and mentoring program.
These two new projects mark a significant step towards our new
youth development program. While both programs were part of a
long term vision, the doors opened
up much sooner than planned. It has been a mad dash to get things
together so that we could launch for this school year.
Character Groups: To start,
we are excited about a partnership
that has started in our community with City Life and Youth for Christ
to offer character education classes to all incoming freshman at East
Tech. We teach 9 classes a week for
the entire school year. As we take the time to invest in these students,
in four years, we will have a relationship with every student in
the school.
Sylvan Tutoring The second step that marks a major step toward
bringing transformation to the lives
of our students is a partnership with Sylvan Learning Center. This is a
critical step to change the 36% graduation rate in Cleveland
Schools. We are training 35
volunteer tutors to offer one on one tutoring three hours a week for 30
students. We expect to move the average ninth grader from a 4th
grade level to 6th grade year one
and at grade level by graduation. The tutoring takes place during the
day and is specialized to meet the
needs of each individual students needs..
School is in session:
Lighthouse Inc.SUMMER 2009 SUMMER AND FALL UPDATES
Basketball Expansion In
addition to the in school programs,
we are a l so expanding our basketball program to focus on the
needs of 7th and 8th grade boys. There is a increased focus on skill
development and fitness of each
player while creating a team culture of discipline. We will also plan on
a d d i n g b o t h t u t o r i n g a n d mentoring components to support
the development of our athletes.
Our plan is to travel to at least 7 tournaments all over the U.S.
Lighthouse hires two new staff with a youth focus.
Lighthouse Staff and students take a road trip to Washington D.C. to spend some time together, and to pick up an entire office full of furniture.
It has been a crazy summer.Lonnie Burton Locker Room
Thanks to many volunteers and generous donors, we have been
able to rehab the locker rooms at Lonnie Burton Rec. This allows
our community to secure their
belongings while at the center.
Lighthouse Office Furniture
Etreev, a DC area non profit
helped us equip our office with all the furniture we needed to get our
new office up and running. This
was a $30,000 blessing. If we can find a color copier, we will be set.
C h a r a c t e r G r o u p s a r e started.
We have hosted the first weeks of Character classes at East Tech.
The 270 students are getting High School credit for the classes.
New Tutor Orientation
Mrs. Tucker has organized a team
of 35 tutors for this year. The school was blown away to see 35
volunteers show up to the orientation. Training gets started
the first of October.
U p c o m i n g V i s i t s t o Heaventrain.
Lighthouse continues to host
introduction events on Saturdays.
This is a great way to learn more about what we do, and to see our
team in action. Please schedule a visit.
Jonnie Fine and Sellars Johnson bring a new
flavor and focus to the Lighthouse Youth
Development plan.
Jonnie Fine: Jonnie is one
of the most successful urban
youth workers you will ever find. He is the City Life director for
YFC in Cleveland and has been hired to help
Create a youth
d e v e l o p m e n t p r o g r a m f o r
H e a v e n t r a i n Kids that are
growing up. He
i s c o a c h i n g Sellears to create
a strong program at East Tech and
at Lonnie Burton Recreation
Center.
Sellars Johnson: A former
Heaventrain Kid, this up and
c o m i n g G o s p e l R a p p e r, understands life on streets and is a
l i v ing te s t imony o f God’s
faithfulness . He is a great example to our young men about
how a man of Character lives. He will lead the
C h a r a c t e r
groups at East Tech and an
a f t e r s c h o o l Club at the rec
center. He is
l o o k i n g f o r volunteers to
help staff these activities.
Look what happens when we all work together.
Multiple groups, working together, make
a big impact on the Community.
It all started with a Soccer c a m p l a s t s p r i n g . T h e
C l e ve l a n d C i t y S t a r s a n d Lighthouse Inc. partnered with
CMHA and the cities Recreation department to host a soccer camp
for elementary students. During
the event, a gentleman asked, how can I help? The center manager
explained that he was frustrated with the locker rooms, they were
old and in bad shape, kids and
adults did not want to come to the center in fear their belongings
would be stolen. He felt if was a big barrier to making a deeper
impact on the community and he
felt fixing this simple problem would have long lasting results.
Just so happens: Funny
thing is that the man that he was
talking to was an executive for Hadrian, one of the largest
manufactures of lockers in the world. He made a couple of calls
and it was done.
We had to hop to it, and get some volunteers ready to tear our
the old Lockers, the team from Cherry Valley CON and a few
volunteers from the community
worked with the Lonnie Burton Staff to tear out the old lockers. A
team of volunteers from Hadrian came for two days and made sure
the lockers were installed. To top
it all off, Sherwin Williams donated the paint, Dependable Painting
prepped and painted, and Lake Erie Electric donated the fixtures
and electrical work. Long story
short, the kids are using the new lockers
Our office is now functioning.
We got some first class office furniture and had a chance to build some memories with some young men that are sure to last a lifetime.
A blessing can turn into a burden and often times a new
opportunity brings new challenges. That was the case this spring when
Lighthouse moved into our new office. What we found is that a new 2600 sq. ft office, takes a lot of furniture. And that if your staff does not have
the tools to work, the office does not function.
Huge answer to prayer came when an office in D.C. donated
everything we needed to get set up. We grabbed a board member, a few
staff, and a handful of kids and took a road trip. a 26 foot box truck later and we had an office filled with very nice office furniture. We had a
chance to spend some quality time with a group a great young men and
our office was up and running. Special thanks to the Medina CON VBS kids who raised the money for the trip, and BedNaz for moving us in.
On the Mic with Mike.Some thoughts from the Blog of a Heaventrain Kid.
Have you ever just sat back and reflected on what your life has been so far? Frequently i find myself doing this; wondering what could’ve been if ida done things differently or better; but the thing that really made me think was when my father moved from Euclid. We’d moved there when i was 12, and i lived there for the first two years. I remember my aunty nessa whenever i was there
i mean, it brought back so many memories….have you ever had a place make you sit down and reflect on everything? it rekindles pain, resparks fire, relights light……but like that song that i was listening to while helping my father pack, the old me is dead and gone and its time to look forward.
1360 East 9th Street Suite 200Cleveland, Ohio 44113