Katy’s Kids
Katy’s Kids serves 3 – 5-year-olds with the primary goal of preparing students to be kindergarten ready. This includes encouraging improvement in areas of social, emotional and physical growth. To accomplish this, Katy’s Kids employs Conscious Discipline which is an evidence-based trauma-informed approach to social-emotional learning – creating the strong connections vital for optimal growth and development. In 2021, Katy’s Kids received two new grants that allowed the addition of a second classroom!
Sueños Youth Center
The Sueños Youth Center is for low-income, under-served 8th grade thru college aged students. This outreach provides academic support, positive peer activities, learning opportunities and spiritual development in a safe after-school environment. Our goal is to transform urban Phoenix by empowering youth to make a positive change in our city and beyond.
In 2021, in collaboration with Opportunity for Youth, students embarked on a 2-year youth-led initiative to protect the surrounding community from the negative impacts of the light-rail metro system. Together they are advocating
for more green space, affordable housing, addressing food deserts and the lack of service to areas such as trailer parks and public housing.
Educational programming was also expanded to include Robotics Club, offering young people the opportunity to dive into computer programming, technology, and engineering concepts that spark a desire for a future career in tech.
Kid’ Club 2021
Kids Club is a two-week, summer day camp held on the Neighborhood Ministries campus. We host hundreds of kids from the community to participate in this life changing experience. The theme for 2021 was Restore, Rebuild, Rise. Inspiring our kids to Restoring HOPE, Rebuild COMMUNITIES and Rise TOGETHER.
After missing an entire year of in-person Kids Club, we were beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to finally be face-to-face with the kids in our community again. It was amazing to be able to high-five our precious kiddos, give hugs or have them show us their latest moves. Together we touched and transformed the lives of 346 kids!
The Pebble and the Boulder
Mo hadn’t been to Kids Club in few years. Her mother, who brought her in the past, had left home. Mo was excited to come back – not knowing what God had in store. At Kids Club it was a message about God’s love and presence that broke something inside her. She ran out into the hall weeping, screaming at the top of her lungs about every disappointment she was facing.
Helena, an intern with a hard past of her own, invited Mo out back. She asked Mo to take a pebble and throw it at one of the large boulders. She explained how the pebble was her pent-up feelings. The boulder was God and His capacity to handle every emotion she could throw at Him. The next morning, Mo was back, grinning from ear to ear, eager to share the revelation she had that night. “I don’t doubt anymore, because I know there is a God and that He is with me.”