Hope for the Future

Through our programs at the Northern Lakes Impact Center, we work with a considerable number of youth coming from all different backgrounds. One area we specialize in is targeting youth who are considered At-Risk or who are either adjudicated or in an alternative-to-incarceration program.

This outreach, while rewarding, can be very difficult. Its tough working with teens - and younger children - who are carrying so much anger! When you have youth who dont care if they live or die, how do you convince them that anything you say is important?

To make matters worse, violence committed by youth in our society is commonplace. According to the Department of Justice, one in eight violent crimes were attributed to juveniles with juveniles accounting for 16% of all violent crime arrests and 26% of all property crime arrests in 2008. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, December 2009.)

So what is the solution?

The solution is what it has always been: Jesus Christ. We need to teach children about Gods love and help them to believe that no matter what their home life may look like, there is a God who loves them enough to die for them!

One of my favorite verses that relates to our ministry is Psalms 26:2 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. (NIV) I believe that working with youth, teaching them about the love of God before they get caught up in the ways of the world, is one of t ...