WHAT IS OUTREACH TOGETHER?

When we started Youth Rise in 2020 we did so out of a definitive call from God to cast a different kind of net and stand in the in-between to reach young people who came from difficult situations.  I had spent the first part of my ministry career in the local church at Hope City and although I loved every minute of my time in my role I felt that the types of youth that needed to be reached required a special kind of attention and strategy.  We founded Youth Rise with the purpose of empowering youth from vulnerable communities to rise to their God-given potential.  We wanted to follow the need and go directly into neighbourhoods with high risk factors for young people.  

I can distinctly remember the feeling of disconnect that I felt from being ripped from my local church networks.  I had regularly attended church pastor meetups, church conferences, youth pastor lunches etc.  I still was attending these but I had to process things through many different filters before it became relevant to our context.  I longed for community and connection that could relate to the work we were doing daily and I had to go out of my way to create these connections.  I kept looking around and seeing so many isolated pockets of amazing people doing incredible things with youth outreach.  It seemed that there was a consistent story.  Outreach youth workers and Youth Pastors running outreach programs who were looking for a larger community; Looking to be resourced and equipped to be able to tackle the incredible tasks ahead of them.  

Common issues repeated such as,

• What to do when youth become belligerent and exhibit problem behaviour towards volunteers and staff

• How to connect with schools when it seems like they keep writing you off

• How to start to fundraise and allow others to capture the heart and vision behind your ministry

• How to successfully recruit volunteers for the mission

• How to take a young person on a journey who has no concept of who Jesus is and disciple them to be a lifelong believer and follower

• How to create proper systems that will benefit greater ministry outcomes

   

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with questions that are directly connected to the reality of running a youth outreach organization.

 As much as I love Youth Rise and have given my heart and soul into running it, this is so much bigger than Youth Rise.  I want to see unity.  We need each other.  The task in front of us is way too immense to try and tackle on our own.