It’s safe to assume 13-year-old Xavier Ross didn’t initially set out to be a leader among his peers. In fact, in his words, when he was in 6th grade, “I wasn’t used to following rules, I was pretty immature and I got in trouble a lot.”
But then, after more time at The Academy, the middle school run by Jericho’s Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries, Xavier began to grow and mature – as a student, and in his faith.
Imagine a small army of volunteers from 27 Jericho Partnership churches and beyond, joined together to honor God through corporate worship and acts of service … all with the goal of building bridges and partnering better - together.
Bringing people together is a key element of community reconciliation, and bringing people together for a greater good is what Jericho Partnership hopes to achieve through ShareFest 2018.
We know that many high school and college students need community service hours to complete their academic programs.
Jericho Partnership can help provide those hours, and give you and opportunity to transform a life at the same time!
Contact volunteer@jerichopartnership.org and speak with Angela about the possibilities.
Jay Frank’s life was on a path that gave no hint that there’d be a day when a pastor would show up at his hospital bed to tell him about a ministry serving addicts. Jay had a solid Catholic education, graduated from law school, and, at different times in his life was a teacher, lawyer and a lobbyist (all while living in Alaska), as well as a teacher in a local prep school. But the disease of alcoholism, rampant in his family, grabbed hold of him.
To hear Erick Hernandez tell it, the 6th-grade version of himself was “a rowdy kid” who didn’t pay much attention to his teachers and didn’t care much about his school work. His grades told the dismal story.
Today, however, there exists a completely different version of Erick Hernandez – a “totally focused student” and graduate of Immaculate High School who has successfully completed the Pathways Danbury Mentoring program, grown in maturity and faith, and earned a $10,000 grant from the Maranatha Foundation (a Jericho Foundation Partner) to pave the way to limitless potential.
Natasha Wright has the distinction of being among the first young women to graduate from Naomi Mentoring … and she’s done it with honor, holding the highest GPA of the eight girls who last week graduated from area high schools, the realization of Jericho Partnership’s mission to increase graduation rates among Danbury youth.
Thanks to her success in meeting the criteria set out by Naomi and the Maranatha Foundation (Jericho’s Foundation Partner), Natasha will receive a $10,000 grant to use for educational or career-advancement purposes. A graduate of Danbury High School, Natasha plans to attend Western Connecticut State University to major in Psychology.
She joined Naomi the end of 8th grade and was paired with Mentor Hope Johnson; she’s been with Mentor Michelle Romano since her Junior year of high school, when Hope moved out of the area.
Natasha shares more about her experience with Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries…