FAITH-BASED ACTIVITIES FOR YOUTH
A program of Sierra Health Foundation, Area Congregations Together and the News & Review
Sacramento's faith community hosts thousands of challenging and enriching activities each year. The Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Area Congregations Together and Sierra Health Foundation are working together to connect Sacramento's 400,000 young people with these activities as well as to improve the quality of the activities that are available.
The Sacramento News & Review has been happy to work on this project. As an organization, our underlying mission is to make our community a better place. We see many wonderful faith-based youth programs that are under-utilized, primarily because the community is not aware of them. This website, sacyouth.com, provides a place where faith-based organizations can post their activities, programs and events for youth. People in the community can search sacyouth.com for activities organized by faith, age, location or type of activity. The goal is to make the resources of Sacramento area faith organizations more available to the youth in our community.
In addition, the News & Review has committed to printing a page of faith-based youth activities in the newspaper each week. Sacramento's 400,000 young people can visit sacyouth.com or pick up a News & Review and find classes, youth groups, community service, camps, athletics, day care and other activities provided by local congregations and faith organizations.
Sacramento Area Congregations Together is working directly with youth workers from across Sacramento and from a variety of faith-based communities. Faith-based congregations have been the leaders of many social, political and economic movements in our country and now must become a dynamic force in solving youth concerns in our community. Youth ministry plays a vital role in strong youth development. The best way to prevent young people from becoming involved in risky and destructive behavior is to help them achieve their full potential. We will help youth ministers and youth workers give young people the opportunities to build practical life skills, exercise leadership, form relationships with caring adults, access safe, free, meaningful, and fun recreational activities, and be participants in helping their communities to thrive.
Sacramento ACT will operate as a networking "hub" where youth workers and youth ministers can come together to share and recieve training from each other. In addition, we will work to cultivate a vision among these youth workers for the practical needs of youth and families in their communities, addressing community issues like gangs, ethnic or class division in the community, and the challenges faced by broken families.
Sierra Health Foundation is providing the grant that makes this project possible.
We (these three organizations) have joined together because we believe that our young people need places where they are valued as important members of this community. They need mentors that can show them how to be better people and peers who can share that journey of growth with them. They need to be given opportunities to make positive change themselves. These programs already exist and it is our mission, with sacyouth.com, to connect young people and their parents with these existing programs and activities.
Sincerely yours,
Jeff vonKaenel
President
Sacramento News & Review
(916)498-1234, ext.1371
Alec Binyon
Interfaith Ambassador
Sacramento News & Review
(916)498-1234, ext. 1395
Jim Keddy
Executive Director
Sacramento Area Congregations Together
(916)447-7959, ext. 113
Dorothy Meehan
Vice President
Sierra Health Foundation