Sport United States Project #10805

Mentoring 500 Alaskan Youth through Sports

by Wellspring Revival Ministries

Mentoring 500 Alaskan Youth through Sports

Project Report | Mar 18, 2014
Turning the Corner

By James Menaker | Executive Director

March is a funny time in Fairbanks. We are rapidly gaining sunlight, snow is melting and streets are clearing. Every year the sunlight and the warm temperatures (rocketing up to the forties!) make people believe that we are having an early spring. Every year. Without fail we will have another really cold spell of below zero temperatures and blowing snow. It happens every year and it always takes people by surprise. However, even if we are not having an early spring, the weather does indicate that we are out of the throes of winter. We have turned a corner towards spring and summer. We are not there yet, but we are now headed in that direction.

Simlarly, Joel's Place is turning a corner. We have a full Board of Directors for the first time in years and they are utilizing their skills, passions and connections to grow this organization. We are hiring new staff to create programs to invest in the growth and maturation of our youth while they are having a ton of fun in our park. We are launching Snowskating at Joel's Place: A cross between skateboarding and snowboarding, snowskating will set up in our fenced yard area and provide a great outdoor recreation alternative for our athletes. We have people and organizations from across the community initiating to volunteer or provide food or play music or sponsor youth.

We are not completely stable yet; we continue to struggle with paying staff and bills on time. We still need to upgrade our equipment and facilities to create a safer and more fun environment. We need to build our partnership base throughout the community and we have some major debts on the horizon. We are not stable yet, but we are on our way. We have turned a corner and can see the goal in front of us. It will not be long before our finances are sustainable, our staff is well trained, our building is high quality, and the teenagers who come through here have a blast playing both indoors and outdoors while finding mentors and developing vision and resources for their futures.

We are not there yet, but it is coming soon. And you are a significant part of turning that corner. Thank you for your generosity, your support and all the ways that you have invested in the youth of our community. We are blessed to have you as a partner.

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Dec 13, 2013
Holidays at Joel's Place

By James Menaker | Executive Director

It is fairly easy to go crazy during this time of year. There are festivities to plan and presents to buy and parties to attend and weather hazards to navigate and family to visit and a thousand other details that all feel important. The holiday season is an amazing time of reflection and celebration but it can also raise your blood pressure and deplete your bank account in the blink of an eye.

Joel's Place is just as hectic this time of year. There are fundraising events to host and skate camps to plan and concerts to promote and grants to close out and year end reports to prepare. It is easy...really, really easy...for me to lock myself in my office while searching for a small piece of silence in order to knock out some of the work. I am able to get a lot done...but I lose something special that comes along with this time of year. The holidays, Christmas in particular, are a perfect time to reflect on unexpected gifts and hidden treasures. The arrival of the Christ child did not appear on anyone's dayplanner. The choir of angels was not scheduled inbetween other meetings. The miracle of God's gift to humanity took everyone by surprise and changed the world forever.

Joel's Place has been full of unexpected gifts this fall. They mostly come in the shape of young men who come through our doors needing somewhere to be loud. They run; they jump; they fall; they yell; they laugh and they grumble. All the while they reveal more and more about the truth of who they are...their character shines through and often inspires the staff. For example:

We have a Ride Team who put in public appearances to promote Joel's Place in exchange for free skating sessions. They feel great ownership over this place and its programs. They mentor younger riders who are learning. They set an atmosphere of family and fun. That would be enough. But this team has decided that they want everyone to be able to skate/bike/scooter for free so they are going out into the community to raise money for their peers.
We began an internship program this fall to see how it would work. We have three youth who spend 10-20 hours per week learning about how to run a business or manage a skate park or operate a cafe. They are learning money management and people managament and self management. Again this would be enough by itself, but there is more. The Joel's Place staff are coming alive with these opportunities to mentor teenagers. They are becoming more creative and more engaging and more joyful because they are able to help shape the lives of youngsters who are eager to learn. It has been amazing.
We hosted our annual fundraiser in November. One of the elements was a video narrated by the some of the young people of Joel's Place. It is remarkable to watch them explain this place in their own words. The video is posted at the Joel's Place website; the link appears below. Their testimony helped us raise over $39,000 for Joel's Place, nearly doubling what we had ever raised before.

These are gifts that we encounter every day at the youth center. There are still a lot of people who look at Joel's Place with suspicion. They talk about the needy kids that we have and worry that their cars will be stolen or they will be mugged. I just shake my head. True, the kids are loud. True, the kids are rough around the edges. But when their true character is allowed to shine, it is worth celebrating.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement this year.

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Sep 20, 2013
Joel's Place gets a New Look

By James Menaker | Executive Director

There are two seasons in Alaska: Winter and Construction.

Construction season has been very good to us this year. Since the end of last winter we have finished paving the outdoor area of our facility, fenced it in, upgraded our sound system, added two inches of weather-resistent foam and put up brand new siding on the facility. The result is a bright, shiny new building that has opportunities for kids to play outside in a safe environment and just screams, "This will be fun!" to everyone who comes by.

First I want to thank the state of alaska, the Rasmuson Foundation and our other generous individual and corporate donors whose belief in our mission allowed these projects to go from dreams to reality. Second, I want to thank the staff who have been willing to put up with disrupted schedules and work environments in order to see a greater, long term improvement come to reality.

The upgrades are not just about looking prettier. They are about being able to invest more of ourselves into more kids. The shiny new siding covers insulation that is going to save us hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in heating and utilities bills in the coming years. This will be money that we can use to pour resources into the youth who frequent our facility. The paved area is fun to skate on, but more importantly the fencing allows the space to be controlled by our staff, providing safety and security for the kids who are playing. We hosted a two week day camp for kids with autism in June which would not have been possible if we did not have clear boundaries and lockable gates to keep them from wandering into the road or neighboring areas.

Joel's Place is not simply about youth getting in from the cold to run around and get out energy. It is about the less blatantly obvious moments of transformation: the quiet conversation with staff in the cafe; the healthy meal when they are just looking for empty calories; the tutoring and mentoring that give confidence and hope. These all happen while the loud music and the chaos of the skate park are in full swing.

I am so grateful for our partners who are willing to help fund the big, flashy things so that they can see the small, important things.

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