Initiative Touts Community Benefits of Church-School Partnerships
by Allie Martin
February 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Dozens of church leaders from throughout America recently gathered at a Dallas-area church to learn how to rebuild their communities through teaming with area schools. Leaders who attended the week-long conference were trained to implement the "National Church Adopt-a-School Initiative" -- a program created by Dr. Tony Evans, president of The Urban Alternative. The purpose of the initiative, according to the program's website, is to "implement a national comprehensive faith-based strategy to address the spiritual and social needs of urban youth and families through a church and public school partnership."
The Initiative suggests that churches take it upon themselves to address the needs of at-risk children and families by providing such services as tutoring, presentations on sexual abstinence and anger management, GED preparation, computer training, credit counseling and repair, and crisis pregnancy care. One of the primary benefits of the program, says the website, is that it establishes the church -- not the government -- as the "best social service delivery system since it is closer to the needs of the people."
One of the pastors who attended the Dallas conference was Mark Mitchell of New Hope Community Church, located in Kenner, Louisiana. Mitchell, who attended so he could learn how to take the program back to his area, says the Initiative has shown that churches can have a major impact on schools.
"We know the problems that exist in our community. We work with families through our church and other programs that we do in our ministry, so we kind of have a little pulse on what the community is in need of," says Pastor Mitchell.
The Louisiana minister attests to the community benefits of getting the church involved. "The church is a viable option to be able to walk alongside with the schools and be able to add a lot of help and assist in being able to turn around a lot of these problems that our school kids are experiencing."
Mitchell understands that proper organization is essential for such an initiative. "You can have great ideas on what you need to do," he says, "but unless you really organize those efforts and are able to implement those social services, then it's nothing.
"That's what this conference has basically offered me," he continues; "the implementation process -- being able to organize the infrastructure of your program so that it can be a quality program [and] very successful in really meeting [people's] needs."
The Adopt-a-School Initiative began more than ten years ago at a Dallas school and has now spread to more than 65 schools throughout the area. The Initiative is an element of Dr. Evan's "Project TurnAround," a social outreach program that employs faith-based solutions to rebuild communities from the inside out.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
