I'm a suburban girl who loves the city. Since I was little, since before I knew/cared what a homeless person or a gang member was, I've loved going "downtown."The buildings, the noise, the people- everything excited me.
As I've gotten older, those feelings have only had the opportunity to grow. Serving in New Orleans after Katrina, I found myself enjoying spending time in the ninth ward. Yes it was shady and resembled a war zone...but it was the city. A year after that trip, I got to spend the best summer of my life facilitating urban mission trips in Chicago. However, toward the end of that summer, I started to feel a strange pang for the suburbs. By August, I was ready to go home and figured I just wasn't cut out for the city.
Sometime during my senior year of college, a longing for the city returned and I couldn't push it away. I was discontent and bored until second semester when I started working with two different groups of students- a group of at-risk girls at Muncie Southside High School and a Youth for Christ program in Yorktown called Campus Life. If you know much about Muncie and the surrounding areas, it will come as no surprise that girls at Southside fit into the urban category and the kids at Yorktown were most certainly (rich, priviledged) suburn.
At first, I seriously dreaded my Monday nights with the Yorktown kids. Youth ministry is my passion, but I was used to kids with "real" issues. Thankfully, God put me in my place and showed me how to love these kids and understand their problems- after all, I was just like them as a student.While this opportunity solidified youth ministry for me, it did nothing to alleviate the urban-sububan conflict that was raging in my mind.
Present time finds me back in Chicago, being immersed in urban culture once again. And while I love it, the more time I spend here, the more curious I've become about the problems of my hometown. I'm starting to become interesting in the impact of suburban-urban partnerships and how that might impact these different communities. What issues face the youth of Indianapolis? What gangs are present? What churches and agencies are working to make it a better place?
So, with this curiousity I'm going to start a new feature on this blog. Every week I'm going to profile a ministry or social service agency in Indianapolis and in Chicago. This is mostly for my benefit so I can be more educated, but I hope you'll find it interesting as well.
In Indianapolis:
Save The Youth Inc.
http://www.savetheyouth.org/#
Save the Youth is located in the Meadows neighborhood of Indianapolis and is focused on prevention. They identify at-risk youth and work to keep them off the streets and out of gangs. What interested me most about this ministry is that it was founded by a former gang member who wanted to keep kids from going through the things he went through. Check out the website for more information!
In Chicago:
By The Hand Kids Club
http://www.bythehand.org/index.html
By The Hand has three Chicago locations- the neighborhoods of Austin, Englewood, and Cabrini-Green. These are three of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in Chicago, and kids who live in these areas face issues such as gangs, drugs, and teen pregnancy at far too young an age. By The Hand has afterschool programs for kids from first grade to high school graduation. My friend Julia is a staff member, and their ministry does not end in the classroom. The teachers at By The Hand pick the kids up from school as well as conduct home visits in order to understand and nurture the whole family.
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