Lattes, Cher, and Toilet Paper Elastic Wars

Recently, we started a new program. We seem to be a very music oriented centre these days, and we wanted to feed the creativity of many of our youth. We've also had a number of youth who are becoming more and more leadership oriented at the youth centre, and were looking for something to do. Pairing that with the love that youth have for hanging out at The Door, and soon we had a coffee house brewing (oh, pun fully intended).

Our aim is to have a youth-led program, where we can facilitate and step into the background to help make it happen. In the bitter cold last night we hosted our first one, and with a dozen youth in attendance, we had success. We had three youth interested in leading, so we had them sort out the music, the games, and the overall feel of the centre. We created ambient lighting, had music by Dj Hutch (one of our youth), and even had karaoke, when Aaron coerced a bunch of the guys to join him for The Village People, Celine Dion, and, um, Cher. We served lattes, cake and cookies, had Valentines candy on the tables, and chess boards and card games. The latest trend in our circles is Minute To Win It, and there were ongoing games of ping pong tic tac toe, followed by a race to see who could break a string of toilet paper with an elastic band torpedo (if you think that it is ridiculously easy, I challenge you to go into your bathroom and office supplies, and hang a roll of t.p. off of a broom handle, letting the paper trail to the ground. Shoot away, and let me know your findings). 

Overall, we were happy with the first event, and thrilled that we had a chance to talk to our youth in an environment more calm than drop-in, but cooler than Tim Horton's. Next month, we hope to feature some youth performers, and continue the karaoke trend, which can only get better from here. And, here are some very fuzzy pics from my cell phone, enjoy!

The set-up, with DJ Hutch in the back.

The coffee and hot chocolate bar (I loved playing barista!)

Our drink menu... not bad!

2011... A Look in the Review Mirror

Happy New Year everyone! After a busy close to the year, and some much needed time off, we are back in action today, looking forward to the year that lies ahead of us! But a brief look back, as we celebrate some of the things that left their mark in 2010.


The past year was the year that our youth really took ownership in the centre. This was the first time that many of them wanted to be involved in the operating of the centre. For some, it was as simple as taking on small volunteer roles during drop-in, such as equipment sign-out. For others, it was adding their mark to the walls of the centre with a painting or a sketch. Others still gave fantastic input into special events at the centre. One young guy actually spent a night as an acting shift supervisor (closely shadowed by the real supervisor) as an exercise in leadership and to better understand just what our staff do. As our volunteers and some youth who were in the know went out of their way to challenge him with cleverly disguised bottles of ginger beer (from a distance they look exactly like a bottle of beer), he commented, "This job is hard! There are so many things going on!" And in December, when we had to rearrange the centre to accomodate some new media equipment, one of our youth visioned and directed the whole layout, making the place truly their's.


This was also the year when Project Serve really became a part of our fibre at The Door. While we had run trips in 2009, this was the year when we saw youth participate in all three trips: Toronto, Huntsville, and Mississippi. We saw so much growth in the group of youth that participated in PS, and they blew us away by the time we had completed everything. The level of committment they had to complete Project Serve was incredible! Now we have youth who want to go through the whole process again, and youth who are constantly asking when the next trip is. It's now a part of who we are at The Door, and it continues to be a great experience.


2010 was a year where we saw our partnership with the town and community around us go to a whole new level. We had some high profile events (like the Canadian Idol concert), developed stronger relationships with local service clubs, and got some decent press on local radio and in papers and magazine. We hope to continue to build this even further. 


And of course, this past year was a year when we saw God work in the lives of our youth! We had record attendance to Soul Food, and more opportunities to serve youth in meeting their practical needs. We had opportunities to pray with youth, to encourage them, and to challenge them, and it was incredible!


So with 2010 behind us, now we open ourselves up to where God is leading The Door in 2011, and expecting great things!


 

Icebergs, Buddha, and Temperature

I read somewhere recently that nearly 75% of blogs start with the phrase "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long". Huh, ours is no different. You'll notice that the blog has been quiet, we haven't tweeted in a couple of weeks (but maybe that's because when the kids find out we have Twitter they look at us and roll their eyes, "Re-ally??"). We've been focusing on getting our week to week stuff up and running these past couple of weeks. Last week we resumed "Soul Food", our weekly dinner and discussion group. We had 6 youth out, which was good for our first week, and it ensured them a good feed of tacos (which have quickly become a Soul Food favorite).

This year, we're really excited about our discussion material. Maybe a bit more so than usual, because this particular stuff seems to stick. We have begun using the Habitudes material to guide our discussions. In a nutshell, it uses images to talk about self-leadership characteristics. We've used bits and pieces of this material in our Project Serve training, and it is one of the few things that the youth remember and talk about. Last week we looked at the image of an iceberg, and talked about the fact that 90% of an iceberg sits below the water. Where we can't see it. Then we bridged into a discussion about our outer characteristics and our inner characteristics. Which are more important? Which do we spend more time and resources on? And so, in the coming weeks, we will be sharing the story of the golden Buddha, examining whether we just reflect the culture around us (like a thermometer) or whether we influence it (like a thermostat), and ten other images. It's also exciting because it is faith-based material that also has a value-based companion, so there is potential to use some of this material in our partnerships with the schools too. The youth are engaged when we talk about these images, and the images seem to stick.

So that's a bit of what we've been up to. Hopefully I don't start my next post with, "I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long..." At least you know I have a good excuse!

Taco Time!

As promised, I was going to let you know how the new after-school program went. We've now had two "Soul Food 2.0", and we couldn't be more pleased with the outcome! Last week, we were very happily surprised to have eight youth show up after school to hang out, and stay for dinner. This week, we had seven. We knew this might be an experiment as many of our youth aren't used to programs, especially in the traditional sense that we tend to think of it. So, we focused instead on maximizing our relational time with the youth, and building into the family at The Door. Last week, as we served tacos for dinner we had youth helping us set everything out and clean up, and it was an opportunity for all of us to work together.

It was so natural to move into our videos and discussion after, and the thing that we appreciated the most was that the youth that came out and participated in the whole evening were youth that wouldn't normally join us for those programs. The most exciting thing though, was that they all came back last night! We hope that this time together will be an important one to them, and that it will allow us to continue to work with this group of youth, building into their lives in a meaningful way. We hope it will grow as well, but we are so thankful for the way God has brought these youth into our lives and the youth centre!

Soul Food

The ministry of The Door is one that seeks to minister to many parts of a youth's life: physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. Our programs are geared to reach at least one of these areas, though most will venture into a few. This week, we are excited to unveil a program that we hope will meet the needs of our youth in at least three of these areas.

For the past couple of years we have offered "Soul Food", a space that is aimed to spark meaningful dialogue about character and values, life, and faith. It's been amazing to hear the discussions that come as a result of thought-provoking questions, engaging videos, and even life circumstances. This week, this program will evolve, and we are very excited. Instead of running for an hour and a bit in the evening, we are opening our space after school. We hope to meet our social needs by allowing youth space to hang out with their friends, joining in activities and conversations with them. We want to offer space for homework if it's needed. Then, we will share in a meal together and continue our discussion on focused topics and questions that the youth have. The timing works much better for our youth, and many are drawn to the food for certain, but our goal in the end is to create another space that is consistently available to them, and can allow The Door to be a positive place for them to be.

I'll let you know in a couple of days how this goes.If you pray, please remember this time, we hope that it is one that opens opportunities that are not always there during drop-in. The kids are excited, we are excited, and we can't wait to see what happens next.