Community Youth Outreach

Seeing the need to reach out into the community with the Fair Chance Project programs, volunteer staff member Angel Craig formed our first Community Youth Outreach team. Her idea grew out of her desire to get her grandsons involved in positive community activities. The Fair Chance Project benefits their community, and in this way, the Youth Outreach team is likewise making a positive addition to the life of that community.

The Community Youth Outreach Team currently consists of 4 male youths and 1 female youth (working on adding more females) who are committed to going out into different communities and to all the monthly special events every Saturday or Sunday to pass out flyers and info for the Fair Chance Project, Brush of Kindness, Walking the Yard, Life Changers, Quarterly Parole & Commutation Clinic and Community Defenders Legal Clinic. On other days, they will go into public areas like shopping centers and parks to distribute this literature and share information.

This Community Youth Outreach Program offers our youth, mentorship, positive peer support, personal growth, achieving individual goals, increasing self-esteem and self-worth. This also teaches them to be part of a team, communication skills, discipline and taking initiative. But most of all they are learning to build community ties and learning about themselves.

They recently adopted a small area in the community, where there are about 15 mobile homes that people call home. They are committed to feeding the houseless people “living” in this area as often as they can, with their own money.

This community program will prepare us for a more formal approach to youth work, including the Youth Life Changers, Know Your Rights Workshops and Civic Engagement for our today youths.

— Angel Craig, Volunteer Youth Coordinator