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Author: Dave Draggoo, ddraggoo(at)voyager.net
Director of Looking Glass Ministry

Date submitted:  February 16, 2005

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I am a Church & Community Worker assigned by the GBGM as director of Looking Glass Community Services, a rural ministry among low-income ant at-risk families in southern lower Michigan. Last summer we facilitated an Asset Development program with some teens from a low-income mobile home neighborhood in our service area. It turned out to be a terrific experience, both for our mission outreach ministry, but mostly for the youth and the positive outcomes they experienced.

Below is a copy of a fall mission letter that gives most of the details of the program. We are continuing to get feedback on how lives of the youth have been changed and good results of this program. More information on the Asset Development approach can be found by going to the Search Institute (affiliated with the Lutheran Brotherhood) on the web.

 

October 29, 2004          
Dear Mission Partners,

We here at LGCS have had an exciting summer and I would like to share some of that with those of you who have been so generous with your prayers and gifts of support.

For the last year LGCS has worked on a collaborative program with Michigan State University Outreach Partnerships in East Lansing as well as with the Baker College Summer Youth Training Program in Owosso. The MSU portion of the program involved a 2 night/3 day training experience in June on the MSU campus. This training was for a dozen at risk teens, 3 supervising Mission Interns and myself. This training focused on team building, how to conduct Asset Mapping door-to-door interviews, entering data into the computer and generating a final report.

These teens were then enrolled in the Baker College Summer Youth Training program. For 2-3 days a week they attended career training classes on the Baker College campus in Owosso. The other days the kids were assigned to LGCS which served as their work site experience. The Asset Mapping activities took place on these days each week. An Asset Map identifies the positive people, places and things in a neighborhood. In addition to the class work and work site experience, the youth were paid a minimum wage, provided by the Baker College piece, for all of the time they spent in this program.

Liz and Kelly, two Mission Interns recruited through the Detroit Conference Leadership Development Committee, supervised the teens in the Asset Mapping project. They also organized and implemented a summer recreation program that reached 33 children in this low-income mobile home park on Tuesdays & Thursdays for each the six weeks of the program. In addition, Melodie, who had just graduated from MSU with an MSW, served as the Site Director for this twofold program.

We were able to secure grants from 3 agencies within the county totaling $8,000 which provided a major portion of the cost of these summer programs and the interns. LGCS funded the remaining balance which was a little over $3,700.

Though the recreation program for the children was very successful, we are most excited about the outcome of the Asset Mapping project with the at-risk teens. For a variety of reasons the number dwindled from 12 to 7 within the first couple weeks of July, and we had some concern if the program would be able to continue. However, by God's grace, the remaining youth melded into a sweet group and they grew by leaps and bounds. Kids who initially were shaking in their boots when asked to go up to a door and ask for an interview, were quickly saying, "I want to do the next one!" They also got to experience entering their data into computers, and in the final two weeks met on the MSU campus with research people who helped them develop their final report. This consisted of 15-17 slides of information, charts and graphs which they created themselves in PowerPoint. Each teen then developed a set of notes which interpreted their slides, shared how that slide related to Asset Development, and concluded with recommendations from the teens on how additional assets could be developed within their neighborhood.

The real excitement came as the kids had the opportunity to stand before several groups of people and share the results of their six week research project. We were blessed to be able to present reports to the Detroit Conference UMW School of Christian Mission in Flint, the Shiawassee County Health & Human Services Council in Owosso, the LGCS Board, neighborhood residents, community leaders and the press in Shaftsburg, the Perry School Board and to two annual conference committees in Flint.

It is hard to describe the impact the program on the teens (and adults) who took part in this project. At one of the presentations a community college sociology professor told the kids that adults have life careers doing the kind of research they did this summer. In addition, she told them that their presentation was of higher quality than that of many of the college students in her classes. This made all of us feel quite proud.

One of the young men on the team is 19 and dropped out of school in the 10th grade from a program for difficult teens. With encouragement and support from the team, the week following this summer program he asked his father to take him to Owosso and he enrolled in the Baker College Pathways program to finish his GED, and he is still attending classes. The long time owner of the mobile home park who has known this teen since he was a young child in the neighborhood said, "I've never seen such a change in a person. I didn't believe a kid could change so much in such a short amount of time."

Following one of the presentations one of the girls on the team was heard saying to another girl her age from the audience, that she had not been doing well grade wise in several of her classes, and went on to say, "Now that I can see what's possible I've got to work harder because I've only got 2 years to get my grades up."
 
A few more indications of the impact of this experience:

  • A girl withstood peer pressure to attend an overnight party with alcohol, because she didn't want to miss an Asset Presentation the next morning
  • Two other girls turned down an invitation from other teens to a party that would include alcohol
  • A fourth girl asked to be taken home from a party where things were happening that she knew her parents would not approve of
  • A parent was shocked that her daughter called to inform her that they were running late at the mall and would it be all right if they stayed a little longer
  • Another parent told how during a shopping trip for school clothes her daughter indicated that she didn't want the sloppy clothes any more, that she liked dressing up more (from a struggle we had with the summer dress code and dressing up for presentations)
  • A young girl who could get so nervous at getting up before people that she would become nauseated, has shared with audiences that she now feels more confident and at ease getting up and speaking to people
  • Journal entries that each of the teens shared with the staff revealed numerous specific instances of significant internal growth and life changing experiences during the summer
  • Even the staff reported how much they learned and grew in this experience and how exciting it was to have such a meaningful role working with youth and seeing them grow and develop as they did

It goes without saying that I myself have been enlivened and renewed from this venture. It has confirmed our conviction at LGCS that when we find meaningful ways to share God's love, acceptance and support that lives are changed dramatically. We have all been greatly blessed by His guidance, mercy and grace this summer.