This summer sees the departure of 10 StreetLeaders who have all been a part of the program since 2009 or earlier. It’s like losing a limb. They are going on to very exciting things: City Year Philadelphia, Del State University, Del Tech, Phil Art Inst to name a few. Ten students leaving means 10 new students. Moshea Seeney was the winner of this years rookie of the year award. Moshea is 14 and attends Howard High School. Moshea worked at Camp Victory on Wilmington’s east side.
This year we employed 4 graduates of the StreetLeader program as field supervisors. Each one took time to mentor a new StreetLeader for at least an hour each week. This has proven to be a great model for helping new StreetLeaders settle into the program. We had a larger turn out for fun activities and options than ever before; averaging at about 66% attendance at non-mandatory activities.
We planned to have more interaction between interns and StreetLeaders this year and that went well. This sparked some deeper mentoring relationships which was an unforeseen but exciting outcome of increase mandatory interaction.
This years options were film making, cooking, fishing, basketball, Zumba and horse riding. Horse riding was the most popular option and we were so blessed by this opportunity. The StreetLeaders were able to ride – groom – feed – had some horse anatomy education – JoAnne said “We’ve woven a LOT of scripture into each week, and they seem to be really enjoying this. They even got a chance to see my farrier do some hoof trimming, which was pretty cool”.
Two graduates led this year’s girls group discussion and had a great response. They struggled with some disrespect at the beginning and pushed through and had a very successful program. Students commented that “It got better week by week”, “I benefited from information giving, I got to know my prayer buddy very well”, “We learnt to turn a crisis into an opportunity’, I learned to love myself more”.
Comments about guy’s group include, “We talked about things that made me think for days”, I learned that God can help you though tough times”, My cell group leader got deep and is a great person to talk to”, Guy’s group is a good place to see where you’re at in life”.
Some other quotes on StreetLeader experiences, “I learned that children really look up to me”, “I learned that kids that act out just need a little more love”, “The biggest benefit to me was meeting different people from different places and backgrounds”, “I made kids happy and had a feeling of being someone worth looking up to”, “I got to work for the first time”, “Now I must make sure I do well in school and be the leader of my own life”.
Thank you to all of our summer volunteers and supporters who make these opportunities possible.
by: James Russell, StreetLeader Director
PHOTO: StreetLeader and Camp Award Winners