Posts Tagged ‘Children’

Lisa Thompson is the National Liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking at National Headquarters.

Recently Lisa and her work with the Army to end sex trafficking was featured in “Christian Single” magazine.

Download the entire article and learn more about how you can help abolish sexual trafficking.

You can read more about The Salvation Army’s position on sexual trafficking on the national website and find out about events to spread awareness and support of victims on the Combating Human Trafficking webpage.

Captain Jolinda Shelbourn, Women's Ministries Director, left, talks with member of Women's Ministries Priscilla Boothe, right, of Bloomington, while playing bingo during The Salvation Army Women's Ministry in Bloomington Sunday late afternoon, September 13, 2009.(THE PANTAGRAPH/B MOSHER)

Being able to serve others efficiently means knowing the unique needs of your audience.

While The Salvation Army prides itself on its ability to help meet the basic needs of all men, women and children, it also knows that sometimes, special attention is a need all of its own.

The Salvation Army in Bloomington, Illinois, sought to meet that need for 25 girls and women as it hosted a Women’s Day event Sunday, September 13th.

Pantagraph.com covered the all-female party that offered everything from bingo to health screenings and certificates for free haircuts at the local cosmetology college.

“We’re hoping to touch the community,” said Capt. Jolinda Shelbourn, director of women’s ministries for the Salvation Army in McLean County.

“Women are working, teaching, raising their kids, and they need some time away, and we provide that. Sometimes, they just want something clean, free and fun that they can do with their families. We are trying to uphold women in society and let them know that there is a lot of good things they can do together or without anyone else.”

The Army intends to hold similar events once or twice per year.

So much of what The Salvation Army is known for is its timely and dedicated disaster response initiatives.  From mud slides and tsunamis to earthquakes and tornadoes, the Army is always there to provide a warm meal, an attentive ear and a firm shoulder.

Sometimes though, the stories of what the Army does to preempt and prevent heartache, despair and hopelessness, get lost.

The Chicago Tribune ran a story yesterday about a group of siblings from one of its roughest neighborhoods that are now “blossoming” in one of the Army’s music programs.

Destiny Jones, center, turns in an art project at the Salvation Army center on 69th Street in Chicago (Credit: Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune)

The siblings were initially featured in a Tribune story that detailed their life in one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

The three-girls-and-one-boy sibling group was offered scholarships to The Salvation Army’s Adele and Robert Stern Red Shield Center where they participate in the camp and after-school programs.

Julian Champion, who oversees the center, said he was moved after reading the Tribune story about Dewine, 10-year-old Destiny, 7-year-old Dynasty, and 7-year-old Courtney Mims.   The story did not list the family’s address, but it did include a photo of the children playing in their front yard. So the day Champion read the story, he gave the picture to his program director and sent him on a mission to find them. He wanted the children immediately enrolled in the center’s programs.

“This is why we exist,” he said. “Our children are just as gifted and talented as kids anywhere. We want to provide opportunities for kids here that they don’t normally get.” They get get help with their homework, learn about art and drama, have physical activities and take music lessons.

How the children came to be a part of the program is truly a testament to The Salvation Army’s commitment to meeting human needs right where people are.  Champion’s desire to reroute these youths from a life of drugs and violence is the same passion with which the hundreds of Salvation Army camps, before- and after-school programs, and children’s groups are established and run.

“One of the things that most concerns us is children missing opportunities to do things,” said Brad Baker, the center’s program director. “Unless they have opportunities, we don’t know who we’ll have. We could have the next great clarinet player, the next Benny Goodman.

“These kids around here love to play basketball,” Baker said. “But in college there are only about eight basketball scholarships. There’s always a seat in the band for musicians.”

So maybe this work isn’t so different from an emergency disaster response: The Salvation Army stepped in in the lives of these children just in time, responding to an urgent, emergency call from their community.  They needed hope, they wanted to see another way out of the lives that they knew, and just like always, The Salvation Army was there.

The New Jersey Newsroom is running a four-part series on the New Jersey Salvation Army.

The third installment talks about Camp Tecumseh, a sprawling, 400-acre facility in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Entitled, “Camp Tecumseh Brings Salvation to New Jersey Kids,” the article follows the experience of a 19-year-old Newark man who believes the camp saved his life.

“I had just completed my first year of high school, and 29 of my classmates were killed that summer, murdered,” Darell Houseton said. “Most of it was gang-related. But some people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocent bystanders. Twenty-nine is a lot. And I like to think that since I was at camp, I wasn’t No. 30, ‘cause some of these people were my friends.”

In addition to its youth camp, Tecumseh also opens its doors to veterans and seniors throughout the year for camp experiences catered to their needs.

Indeed, Camp Tecumseh is a respite that the Army endeavors to share with as many as possible.

We all need a break from time-to-time.  Stress at work, the neverending responsibilities of home, and all of the stuff in the middle can wear anyone down.  The monotony of routines.  The auto-pilot we often find ourselves working and living in.  Every now and then we all feel the need for a break.

Now what if – for whatever reason – there was no break to be had from your worries?  No vacation days.  No partner to pick up the slack.  No support system to help get you through rough times.  No moment to just slow down, take a minute and breathe.  Then what?

For so many – especially those who are able to enjoy Camp Tecumseh and the hundreds of similar Salvation Army camps across the country – there is no respite from their troubles.

The homeless, the disadvantaged, the neglected.

Through our youth camps, Kroc and recreation centers, veterans and senior programs, and Community Cares programs, The Salvation Army offers thousands of opportunities to escape, if only for a moment.  The services that we offer echo our belief that only once people have inner peace – no worries for food, shelter or immediate needs- can that peace be reflected in their lives.

For those very reasons the work that the Army does is so much more than saving souls.  Sometimes people just need to be saved from one nightmarish week, one day.  So while eternal salvation is our ultimate goal, salvation from isolation, despair, frustration and being overwhelmed are equally as important.

The Bremerton Salvation Army in Washington state brought together the area’s homeless with elected officials for its “Lunch with Electeds.”

The Kitsap Sun writes that, over a lunch of  turkey and potatoes, “society’s downtrodden” got some face time with city council members, mayoral candidates and state representatives.

“The homeless told lawmakers about a number of daily challenges, like finding a ride when Kitsap Transit is reducing service because of budget issues. Others spoke of the difficulty in making themselves presentable for a job or job interview, with limited opportunities for showers and haircuts.”

“The things you just take for granted,” said Fred Chang, Port Orchard city councilman.

The Salvation Army is doing its part.  The article reports that the Bremerton Salvation Army is planning to open a hygiene center adjacent to its downtown location to help the homeless overcome cleanliness obstacles on their way to gaining employment.  They’ve also asked lawmakers for help on creating a winter shelter that homeless people could use during the cold-weather months and for continued communication between agencies that work with the homeless and lawmakers and police agencies.

One meal at a time, one story at a time, lives are being changed.

It can be easy to separate ourselves from the marginalized of our society; to explain away or justify reasons why our lives are so different.  But events like this remind us that no matter our station in life, we are all the same with the same fundamental needs: food, shelter, and access to opportunities.

Indeed, the Bremerton Salvation Army’s lunch is a great example of the Army’s goal to meet human needs wherever and however.  Although we’ve evolved from the years where “soap, soup and salvation” was our slogan, we are always mindful of our beginnings and how offering people the very basics can often open doors in their futures that were never options before.

Major Froderberg from The Salvation Army’s Headqurters in San Francisco recounts her recent trip to Africa as part of her World Services Mission work.

Pennies, dimes, quarters…
odd coins thrown into a jar…
tucked away in a drawer.
Small change we might surmise…
but not to the 505,326 children who attend 2,098 Salvation Army schools in developing countries around the world.
In the Kibera slum, one of Africa’s largest slums, little Miguel attends The Salvation Army’s elementary school. Today he is happy as he walks my daughter and I to his home, because we will visit his mother, and bring a special gift of food.

As we talk with Miguel, he tells us that he dreams of being an airline pilot, and we tell him how pleased we would be to fly with him. His mother, Eunice, who is HIV positive, dreams of living long enough to see him graduate from school. Most Kenyans live on one dollar per day, and Eunice supports her family and pays for Miguel’s required school uniform and supplies by selling fish near their one-room, tin shanty. She knows that the hope for her child’s future lies in education.

For the price of that daily cup of coffee… we can make the dreams of so many children, like Miguel, become a reality through education. Your gift to The Salvation Army World Services will provide a wide variety of expressions of compassion, touching lives in developing countries around the world.

Small coins yes…
but…
Not Small Change!