The Near Southside of St. Louis contains one of the largest concentrations of low-income persons and immigrants in the state. Families experience unemployment, underemployment, low wages, and the lack of health care and other basic services. High risk exists for teens to drop out of school, experiment with drugs, or become involved with gangs. Intensive interventions of positive attention, encouragement, and providing opportunities for productive work and constructive involvement with and for the community helps teens counter the negative influences around them.

In response, Kingdom House provides safe-haven for over 500 inner-city children and youth (6-18 years). All services are free of charge. And our youth programs are in high demand, partly through word-of-mouth advertisement among the local teens themselves.

Over the past two years the population of immigrant youth in our community has grown rapidly. Fortunately, we have employed four staff members in our Youth Program who are fluent in Spanish and Middle Eastern languages. Using translation skills, these staff help immigrant families access our services and secure essential resources elsewhere in the community.

Our Youth Program is a notable part of our larger effort to break the cycle of poverty and violence for families and the next generation of youth. As a direct initiative to curb poverty, we assist youth with obtaining employment in the area to gain work experience and raise their family income. We hire some youth to work as peer counselors at our agency to set worthy examples for their younger peers. Through positive peer relationships, youth encourage each other to stay in school make good grades, and pursue college. Meanwhile, staff youth directors do their part to help reduce the incidence of substance use, gang participation, violence, and teen pregnancy among local youth by providing high quality attention.

Education and activities at Kingdom House entice youth during the summer and after school as we intervene to foster their development. Here, the children’s well being improves in several respects. Activities and lessons focus on physical health, and emotional development and prevention education. The valuable outcomes for youth are: physical safety, mental safety, exercise and achievements in personal growth. Overall, the Youth Program strengthens the social skills of high-risk youth as they interact with family, schools and community, thereby improving their ability to solve problems and avoid risk-taking behaviors.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES PROGRAM; DESCRIPTION AND NEEDS

Summer Work Experience

In the summer, 20 area youth gain work experience at major businesses in St. Louis. In 8 weeks of first-hand experience, a teen learns work skills in the business world. Over the years, many of these summer jobs have become full careers.

Pre-Teen and Teen Development

Youth in our preteen and teen program, youth are at that difficult age when everything is changing. Our Youth Development Program tries to hold onto a group of kids who may otherwise be quickly lost. They will learn about their bodies, skills for coping in their family and their community, and information to make choices over drugs and alcohol. During this important year of transition, you can help these kids make the right choices for the rest of their lives

Sports Team

IYouth in Kingdom House sports teams gain confidence, be it in basketball, baseball, or soccer. Some youth have earned athletic scholarships for college with skills acquired on Kingdom House teams.

English Speakers of Other Languages

We have Hispanic and Afghani children who need to learn English. What could be more compassionate than helping a child adapt to life as an American?

Financial Education

In "How to Be a Millioniare" youth learn basic money management skills from volunteers, staff and certified specialists. The classes emphasize earning an income, saving money, investing, utlizing financial goals, assessing the cost of credit, developing a budget and balancing a checkbook. Emphasis is placed on self-sufficiency and responsibility for one's own financial welfare and retirement.

Summer Camp

Kingdom House creates summer camp memories for children: a summer of fun, learning and adventure. Kingdom House will fill a child's summer with camp, day camp, residential camp and participation on a sports team.

Play with Percussion

Learning music improves a child's analytical skills -and it's fun. At Kingdom House, youth learn to play the drums. Our children learn African drums, snare drums, and symbols from a professional musician. As a crowning achievement, the youth drum ensemble gives a concert for family and friends. They have made encore appearances at Kingdom House events.

After School Tutoring and Activities

Kingdom House youth will receive one-on-one tutoring with teen peer counselors and participate in recreational activities during after school hours.

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