Things are crrrrazy busy these days at The GreenHouse. We're:
wrapping up our after-school programs with end-of-the year parties,
interviewing/hiring/registering/planning for summer programming,
getting a new garden off the ground.
(Even though I have absolutely no role, other than to cheer for our new garden, I still really, really like it! Thus, the new garden-y look for the blog).
and planning our major fundraiser for the year, "Kids at Heart"
all at the same time!
In spite of all of the craziness, we've been blessed to experience some fantastic times with youth lately (and of course some hard incidents with youth mixed in too). One highlight that tops the fantastic list was last week's trip to City Hall with our Leaders in Training Team to meet with Councilmember Ashby.
Pretty darn exciting for them, considering most adults have never gone to City Hall for a meeting with their Councilmember!
Despite the pressure of it all - the fancy tables and chairs in the conference room, the elevator ride to the fifth floor (I got the sense that most of them had not had many elevator rides), and the suits on the people who they presented to - they did an AMAZING JOB! They were well prepared and each one of them nailed the part they were supposed to talk about. They shared the picture boards they had created as well as their ideas for improving a specific part of their community (more on that later in the post). Our Councilmember was very attentive to them and really made each one of them feel heard and cared for. And the most amazing part?! At the end of the meeting, she asked if she could meet with us again in two weeks to follow-up with us on the information they were able to find out on our behalf! What? That never happens?! Aren't we the ones who are supposed to beg for a follow-up meeting? I believe that was the grace of God granting us favor in that meeting. He is good!
As we walked out, our Councilmember said to another person who was in there with us, "That was the best meeting I had all day. And it was the most productive."
The kids were all smiles when we left. What an amazing experience for them - so empowering, so encouraging, so gratifying.
This is an exciting journey that THEY are leading the way on. Their dream? To clean up this vacant, trash-filled, grattifi-riddled lot and turn it into a safe, landscaped, paved walkway that their entire community can use every day as they walk from their apartment complex to the 99 Cent Store. Please pray with us that the owner of this lot will say yes to their proposal (that he'll grant an easement to the City so that the community can pave and landscape it). I can see it! Can you?
