A Volunteer Connection
by Joe Briones (KCUYC Volunteer)

I am coming to the end of my second year with Kansas City Urban Youth Center. The experience has been amazing. I volunteer most Tuesdays and Thursdays and each day is different with the children. The experiences have been as simple as assisting with handing out books to being a chaperone at an event of seven hundred adolescents. One of the most wonderful experiences is to see a child or children engaged with you on a topic. That means you have connected.

The Youth Center is a wonderful and important piece to the community and more importantly to the children of this community. The children are the future of Kansas City and Kansas City Urban Youth Center is invested in these futures. It is building leaders from and for the urban core. The Youth Center helps provide stability to some that need firm ground. I have seen more adolescents attending the Center this school year then the past. The Youth Center has grown in size with the expansion of the main center on Troost Avenue and the recent announcement of the second site at East Hills Village. I have seen new programs implemented with the introduction of ReTHINK and Yoga. But a bedrock with the Center is its core value around Christianity.

The spiritual strength of the Center is evident. The students are taught the teachings of the Bible, which they grasp in their daily lives. A great spiritual moment for me at the Center is when at the end of our day we hold hands in a circle and a pray for safety and peace until we meet again. We hold hands in a circle because we are a community: and I love this community—the family of the Kansas City Urban Youth Center.