Many Smiles at Christmas Time
It was a great week of sharing God's love and hope with youth and families for Christmas. We are grateful for the financial support and donations that made everything possible!
Highlights were hosting 7 Christmas parties, driving around the neighborhood to give gifts to families and the "shop and wrap" event that allowed youth to come and pick out Christmas gifts for their siblings.
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Running Forward Youth Take to the Streets to Help Those In Need
Running Forward runners decided to encourage those who may be in need. They packed 30 sack lunches and provided socks, gloves and hats for those who might benefit from them. We drove around the neighborhood until we found 30 people and were able to pray for a few people as well.
On our way back to New Life Centers the runners were asked what they thought about the community service project and one runner said: "Let's do it again!"
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Volunteer Mentors Shown Appreciation for Their Hard Work
All the volunteer mentors gathered for an Appreciation Thanksgiving meal. We ate and handed out raffle prizes. Each mentor received a gift card as a token of appreciation from New Life Centers for all their hard work with their mentees.
There was a panel discussion by some of our most seasoned staff mentors. It was a great opportunity for the volunteer mentors to learn from those that have been mentoring for years. We talked about practical ways to live life on life with our mentees in a way that encourages personal faith in Jesus Christ.
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La Semilla Students Invite Their Famillies for a Night of Fun
La Semilla after-school program hosted a Community Dinner for our students and their families. Nearly all of our current students and families were able to attend! Everyone enjoyed a dinner of fajitas, rice, beans & pizza.
After dinner, families participated in a series of fun team activities. Activity stations included assembling a large puzzle together, making a "friendly monster" out of play dough, attempting to build the tallest tower with Jenga blocks, and making a park/playground out of miscellaneous craft and recycled items (e.g. felt, pipe cleaners, balloons, straws, yogurt containers, medical tape rolls, cardboard tubes, etc). Families had a lot of fun working together, and their creativity and building skills impressed us all!
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Urban Life Skills Hosts First Neighborhood Volleyball Tournament
Urban Life Skills first high school volleyball tournament was a success. With four teams signing up for the one day tournament, we were all able to enjoy five hours of volleyball. There may be a relatively small community of volleyball within the neighborhood of Little Village, but those inside this network are close and friendly. Some of the high school students had never been to the New Life Centers gym for volleyball, but had expressed their interest in continuing to participate in ULS programming.
It was important to provide a safe and communal space for such an event and the demonstration of sportsmanship and leadership was apparent. Team captains on the court were communicating with their teammates respectfully and demonstrated respect for their counterparts as well. In retrospect, it all felt like a family where bread was broken, games were played, and fun was had.
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Lights, Camera, Action!
Youth from our New Life Centers program attended the premiere night for the #BelieveChicago Beacons of Hope Student Films. During Spring Break, they participated in an internship program with AT&T and joined other youth from around the city in filming and producing a documentary featuring people in the city that work to help lower the gun violence in Chicago by empowering youth. Youth had the chance to travel through different neighborhoods, learn about people’s stories and their work, while also learning different aspects of the film industry including utilizing film camera, understand the concept of lighting, and also how collaborate with a diverse group of students on a project. This documentary also featured one of our mentors and highlighted the work that New Life Centers does in our community!
We will announce when this documentary is released to the public!
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Resilience in the Boxing Ring
Andres, AKA Andy, became involved at New Life Centers through the in-school mentoring program. He joined boxing at the beginning of the summer and had his first official match this past Thursday at Simon’s Park Boxing Tournament. Although Andy did not win his first match, he showed great resilience by stating that he did not view his loss as something negative since he can learn from it and make the adjustments he needs in order to become a better boxer. It is this type of character development that we want to instill into our boxing program. Joined in ringside were Andy’s fellow peers and boxers from our program who showed great support during the match. They will get a chance to compete once more time in two weeks at Ada Park - stay tuned!
Look For Our Arise Creations Booth at CCDA Conference!
The Arise Creation's middle and high school girls will host a booth this year at the CCDA Conference in Chicago. The girls have been working hard to reach their goals both as individuals and as a team. Each day they are learning what it means to be rooted in God's truth, the theme of the CCDA Conference this year. They are excited to learn how to manage the Arise booth, interact with customers and use the register in the weeks leading up to the conference so that they can finally put into practice the things that they have been learning together this semester!
The girls have also enjoyed deepening their relationships with one another through events outside of the classroom, such as, attending the Blue Man Group, eating at Chipotle together and attending Open Studios. Thank you to everyone who has faithfully supported the girls so that they can continue to be empowered, encouraged and educated through our Arise Creations program!
If you will not be attending CCDA conference this year but would like to purchase jewelry from Arise creations please visit our Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AriseCreations
Former The Vine Student Comes Back to Teach
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Diamond came to The Vine afterschool program at New Life Centers when she was in 1st grade. She struggled with school work and would become discouraged easily. The Vine teachers started encouraging Diamond’s mother to seek out additional support for her at school. We walked her through this process and her daughter was able to get an IEP (Individual Education Plan) at her school. Once she received this she began to flourish! The partnership between her family and the school combined with Diamond's renewed energy to learn resulted in a straight-A student by middle school. In 9th grade she continued to come to the Vine each week for homework help but started to pursue her passion for art. Two years later she is a JR. in high school and is dual enrolled in a community college. When she graduates high school, she will almost have her Associate degree!
Diamond and her mom have always been heavily involved at New Life Centers. They are always looking for ways to give back to the people who have become family to them. This year Diamond, her Aunt Tille and her mom are offering the children at The Vine a free 8-week art class with all the materials provided. The kids are ecstatic and every day they are asking if it is art class day again!
Citywide Basketball Tournament at Moody Bible Institute
The citywide basketball tournament, called Cross City Collab, was the first of its kind for New Life Centers. The event brought together a total of 20 teams from 12 different organizations and schools from Chicago. Moody Bible Institute graciously agreed to host this big event.
Not only did everyone enjoy a competitive basketball tournament; but each team heard a presentation of the gospel and was challenged personally as well. Over 225 people attended the event either as a player, spectator or volunteer![fusion_vimeo id="https://vimeo.com/285407983/5ebb7e0bba " alignment="" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class=""][/fusion_vimeo]