By Kurt Rietema
This summer we’re preparing for some of the most ambitious programming that we’ve ever had with YF Neighborhood! So as the spring flowers have come in bloom and our minds start drifting towards flip flops and beach towels, we thought we’d give you a sneak preview of what we have in store.
YF Neighborhood Day Camp
As a kid, I was a decent enough student that the possibility of summer school was never a real one. Still, the threat of it loomed irrationally large in my mind. Nothing could be worse than to be locked indoors doing time knowing my friends were dallying in the sand and sun while I served my sentence for failing grades. In my mind, summer school could be nothing more than an academic juvie surveilled by sadistic teachers who could think of no better way to spend their summers than to scare students straight. But summer is a different story for families in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, KS. For families who can neither afford to have one parent stay at home nor pay the high fees of camps and organized sports teams, summer school is preferable for kids rather than the alternative of being stuck at home with no way to see their friends. And for parents who rely upon the structure and stability of school for their kids 10 months out of the year, they depend upon summer school for no-cost adult supervision. Yet when the last of the fireworks are ignited on the 4th of July, the loneliness and boredom soon sets in and blue collar parents are left with no good options for their kids for the remainder of summer vacation.
So this summer, YF Neighborhood is going to fill in the gaps for those remaining weeks of summer vacation so local families won’t be left stranded. We’re going to do what Youthfront has been known for around our city for 80 years: we’re bringing camp to our neighborhood! After summer school ends in July, our day camp will welcome 16 elementary school kids from our neighborhood. They’ll go on field trips to go hiking, chill at the pool and take swimming lessons, do arts and crafts at the library, hang out at Snack Shack KC, and learn about God’s story through fun, interactive storytelling. The whole city will be our camp campus! We’re building off of the foundation of programs we’ve done in previous summers and expanding the amazing work and reputation that the after school club has earned in the community led by YF Neighborhood’s Amber Booth.
Amp’d Up Summer
Two years ago, the young people in our neighborhood who participated in ImagineX, our youth social entrepreneurship program, wondered how they could bring friends and fun to our otherwise boring parks. They were tired of the lonely summers at home and vowed to make the next summer a summer to remember. They called their venture Amp’d Up Summer and converted a donated utility van into a mobile equipment library and cranked up the fun. This year, we’re building off of what they started and instead of a few hours every week, Amp’d Up Summer will be an opportunity for a crew of 8 middle and high school students to make an impact doing good in their neighborhood every day all summer long.
The Amp’d Up Summer crew will help out at food pantries, clean up empty lots in our neighborhood, be our youth leaders who facilitate the day camp, create their own new ImagineX ventures, have fun at Youthfront Camp and work together with a team of people who join God in bringing new life. Over the course of the last year, YF Neighborhood staff members Joe Gonzales and Phil Kim gather together with more than a dozen youth on Thursday nights where they have fun and ask deep theological questions. Through Amp’d Up Summer we’re going to take those questions out onto the street and desire to develop a new generation of youth who will bring more glimpses of heaven to earth in our neighborhood.
City Impact Camp
In the Roman-ruled world, the Jewish people were always on the losing end of the social and economic order. So when word of the Messiah’s coming came to Mary, she had a sense that God’s coming kingdom wouldn’t be contained to the religious spheres of synagogue and temple alone. Mary knew that the news of the Messiah meant that in Christ, God “has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” God’s good news in Jesus Christ wouldn’t only be good news after death. Jesus was good news to everyone he came in contact with in life. Outsiders became insiders, strangers became neighbors, the unclean became clean, the blind received sight, the hungry were fed. Throughout the early church, Christ’s followers created a new social and economic order where the dividing walls of their world were unmade. Everyone belonged and everyone had enough in God’s new family.
Our work with YF Neighborhood is likewise, grounded in a place and among people who are on the losing end of the social and economic order of today’s world. While we’re working to develop a new generation of young people from inside our neighborhood to find themselves in God’s mission through Amp’d Up Summer, we’re also inviting youth from outside our neighborhood to find a life of Christian solidarity with those left out. This summer, we’re launching City Impact Camp. We’re inviting youth (many who have served as teen staff at Youthfront Camps!) and other high school students from more affluent backgrounds to help out with YF Neighborhood day camp, serve organizations that lift up those left out, have guided reflections on the intersection of the challenges in our city and God’s kingdom, and learn all about Christian community development. This is a low-barrier way for youth to have extended immersion among people who are different from them in their own city and an opportunity to experience God’s Spirit making one new family.
If you have a high school student in your life looking for a way to make an impact in their city, please send us an email so we can give you more information!
Join us in making an impact through YF Neighborhood:
We have several opportunities to give of your time or your money unmaking the dividing walls of our neighborhoods and making a world where everyone belongs. Volunteer at our afterschool program for elementary students, play games or serve ice cream at treats at Snack Shack KC, sort pallets of fresh fruits and vegetables at our monthly food distribution, organize a Something to Eat event to pack mac & cheese or apple cinnamon oatmeal for local food pantries, or help out with our Thursday night youth group. Check out our upcoming opportunities here!
We’d also urge you to consider donating towards all of the awesome summer programming outlined above. With just over a month before the madness begins, we’re just over halfway toward making our $20,000 goal and we’d love your help in making sure we get there! Whether you can make a monthly donation to our work at YF Neighborhood or one-time, we’d be honored to have you on our team. Give today!
About Kurt Rietema: Kurt is the Senior Director of YF Neighborhood at Youthfront. He holds a Master’s in Global Development and Social Justice from St. John’s University. Kurt is also an adjunct at MidAmerica Nazarene University and at William Jewell College. Kurt and his wife Emily live with their sons, Luke, Perkins and Leo in an under-resourced neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas called Argentine.
