Welcome DOOR Atlanta Summer Staff!!!

We welcomed the DOOR Atlanta summer staff last night. Joining us this summer are Alisha, Betty, Sally, Charlayna, Liz, and Edrick. Each week our staff will explore and practice a different leadership trait. Our leadership word of the week for staff training week is "Teambuilding". We're working on getting to know one another and learning to work as a team this summer and support one another through the celebrations and the hard times. We're learning how to work together to lead the youth in exploring "The Stranger in our Midst: Welcome and Hospitality". Check out our facebook fan page for pictures from each day of staff training. Today we had a great time with Jessica, one of our board members, who led us in lots of great teambuilding activities. She helped us anticipate how we might better work together all summer long and how to support one another as we made grids without being able to speak, created cubes that balance on small circles and transported ourselves through small spaces while blindfolded. Check back soon to hear how our week is going!

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

Hospitality vs. Safety

Last night I went to a meeting at Central Presbyterian Church, one of our partner churches and the home of our summer mission trip program, regarding our homeless neighbors who are living around the church. Central Presbyterian had gathered all of the ministries housed in their building as well as other neighbors around the area to “discuss and wonder” how we could live out the gospel in the midst of the realities of providing hospitality to the homeless in Atlanta. I was so proud that our ministry is partnered with such a thoughtful church who takes seriously their call as a church in the downtown area that provides hospitality to folks who are homeless. But at the same time takes seriously the safety of its staff, the children in the child development center, the youth who come to serve through DOOR, and congregation members. It is a tricky balance to find and if there were easy answers, the faithful people in this church would have answered them already. But there are no easy answers. There are certain risks and trade-offs with living out a gospel of hospitality. How do you provide a place to sleep outside the building without that area also serving as a bathroom since the public restrooms close at 7 p.m.? Do you provide a portable bathroom if that also means having inappropriate behavior happening in that same space? How can churches join together and demand enough shelter or transitional housing for everyone who needs it? Even if we get shelter for everyone who needs it how do we reach out to those who struggle with mental illness and won’t voluntarily enter into any type of housing? The questions seem to never end. And these same questions surrounding hospitality and welcome are the focus of our summer program this year. With the closing of the Peachtree and Pine shelter (to read more, check out this article http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.aspx?storyid=143774) there will probably be even more people who are homeless on the streets of Atlanta this year. And so these questions that Central Presbyterian Church is asking are timely and essential. We’ll let you know how you might be able to join in with this advocacy work as we move forward from “discussing and wondering” to action.

~Jannan Thomas, DOOR Atlanta City Director

“Leveling the Path to Participation”

The Corporation for National and Community Service says that youth who participate in service are more likely to be successful in school and to avoid risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, promiscuity and crime. In March 2005, the corporation, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau conducted a study around teenagers and volunteering. Here is a link to the complete study (http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/07_0328_disadvantaged_youth.pdf), but some interesting data that emerged includes:

· A "class gap" exists in teenage volunteering. The volunteer rate of youth from disadvantaged circumstances (DAC) is 16 percentage points lower than the rate for other youth (43% and 59%, respectively). Similarly, youth from DAC are less likely to indicate that they engage in positive civic behaviors or hold positive civic attitudes.


· Although youth from DAC are less likely to volunteer than other youth, when they
do volunteer, they do so with the same level of intensity. Among all youth volunteers, 38% devote at least 52 hours a year to volunteer activities.


· 76% of youth from DAC who volunteer are nearly 50% more likely than youth from DAC who do not volunteer (51%) to say they are very likely to graduate from a four-year college.


· Religious organizations and spiritual beliefs play a key role in volunteering among youth from DAC.
*48% of youth from DAC say they volunteer because of their religious or spiritual beliefs, compared to 36% of other youth volunteers.
*39% of youth from disadvantaged circumstances who volunteer do so through religious congregations, compared to 33% of other youth.
*Among youth from DAC, volunteers are nearly 60% more likely to attend religious services about once a week than are non-volunteers (63% vs. 40%, respectively).


As City Director of DOOR Atlanta I believe that our service learning programs should be available to all young people regardless of income level. DOOR Atlanta is exploring how we can make our current programs more accessible to young people regardless of income. Not just because of the reasons cited in this study, but because I believe we are compelled by our faith in Jesus Christ to do this. I feel the Spirit is already moving us in this direction through the work of our Dwellers in a program called GOAL. GOAL is a girls’ mentoring program through one of our partner churches (Neighbors Abbey) and Sylvan Hills Middle School (the middle school closest to our Capitol View Dwell house). We will also be placing a Dweller to serve specifically with this program next year. I have also been in conversation with three diverse Atlanta youth groups that are interested in building bridges between various races and socio-economic groups through service. If you are interested in joining us in this mission, through your time or talents, please contact me at jannan@doornetwork.org.