Jericho Partnership Announces a Consolidated Staff and Ministry Model

It’s time. Our long season of transition is about to culminate with a new season of ministry known as Jericho 2.0!

This new version of Jericho Partnership symbolizes a renewed focus on the heart of our mission - which has always been to serve Danbury’s youth at risk, and by extension, their families. We’re not being called away from that, and in fact, we’re going to laser-focus on it and serve even more youth in a variety of wonderful ways through academic support (tutoring, summer learning, and school-based Reading Buddies), food security, and family support.  We believe God has been preparing us for years for such a time as this!

To operate most efficiently within this new focus, Jericho Partnership is moving to a consolidated staffing and ministry model, in which the staffs of the Partners Ministries that Jericho mobilized – Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries and Good Samaritan Mission – will become part of Jericho Partnership. Samaritan Health Center is also a mobilized Partner, so we’ll begin operating together in a consolidated manner, however, at this time we aren’t sure when they would formally and legally join the Jericho team.

Jericho Ministry Partners that are not part of the consolidation will continue to be embraced and engaged in a covenant relationship together, as we have done through the years.

To facilitate this new organizational structure, Jericho President Carrie L. Amos has announced the following staffing changes, which have been considered and prayed over for many months; in fact, we have sought God’s leading on every change and decision we have made.

• Mark Lounsbury, currently Stewardship Coordinator, has been named Jericho’s Director of Youth Ministries, with oversight for all youth-related ministry activities; lead staff members of consolidated youth ministry partners will report directly to him.

• Mark Grasso, currently Executive Director of Good Samarian Mission, will be Jericho’s Director of Operations, with oversight responsibility for Jericho’s adult ministries, which are currently under review and are being reduced), as well as internal operations.

• Neil Tan, who has served as the Interim Chairman of Jericho’s Exec Board since Bill Beattie stepped away due to his health, will be rotating out of the Interim Board Chairman role. Bill Beattie, whose recovery has been nothing short of miraculous, has been asked by the Executive Board if he would return as Interim Transitional Chairman of the Board during this season of change (beginning September 1). Bill has accepted. We are so thankful!

In additional to Mark G., Mark L. and Carrie Amos, the new Jericho Management Team also includes Lisa Siedlecki, our full-time Director of Marketing & Communications, and Michael Ronan, our part-time Admin & HR Manager.  

Please keep Jericho Partnership, those we serve, and those who support us in your prayers during this new season of expansion and refocusing. 

Announcement: New Focus on Expanded Ministry to Students

Jericho Partnership is launching a comprehensive overhaul of its services to Danbury’s at-risk youth, to multiply the number of students it can reach with tutoring & mentoring programs and greatly increase its impact among young people in the city.

Leaders from Jericho and Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries have spent the last year talking with key community stakeholders and assessing both academic and socioeconomic needs of Danbury’s youth to determine the most effective way to use its resources to transform more lives.

They concluded that the best way to reach potentially hundreds more students in the city is to focus efforts on expanding tutoring, mentoring, public school-based reading and academic support via its existing CityServe and core programming.

Jericho’s youth ministry services will feature after-school academic tutoring programs and summer learning programs for at-risk students in K-12, life skills, Reading Buddy and academic support programs for students in up to six city elementary schools this coming year (a dramatic increase from the current three school Jericho is working with now), and center-based mentoring programs for girls and boys in grades 6 through 12.

To focus on these areas of great need and impact, Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries will close Pathways Academy, a middle school for boys it has operated since 2008, at the end of the current 2018-19 academic year. 

“While the decision to close the school was a very difficult one, we’re moving ahead certain that the decision will pave the way for us to expand our ministry to students in Danbury with tutoring, academic support, and mentoring services in an impactful way,” said Jericho Partnership President Carrie L. Amos. “We’re going to be in a position to reach many more students. And, our current Academy students will still be among those we serve.”

The Academy is operating this year with just two grades (7th and 8th) instead of the usual 6th-8th grades. Leaders decided at the end of last school to open this year with a limited enrollment so that, if the outcome of the year-long evaluation was to close the school, fewer students would be affected. Jericho and Pathways leaders will work with the parents of the 15 current 7th graders to place them in schools best suited to meet their individual needs and are committed to supporting the transition in any way possible. These students will remain connected with Jericho Youth Ministries through its mentoring and after-school tutoring programs.

“We continue to feel a tremendous sense of calling to serve the youth of our city, and this change will allow us to reach many more students while increasing our commitment to excellence in stewardship,” said Bill Beattie, the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Jericho Partnership and Pathways Danbury Youth Ministries. “Recognizing that we must be good stewards of the resources God has sent our way, we determined that closing the school and instead expanding our academic support services will allow us to make more of an impact with our kids we are called to serve. We’ll do a better job meeting a growing need while remaining financially strong for the long term.”

“We’ve made a significant impact with the things that we set out to do with our school,” said Cedric Rice, founding and current Principal of The Academy. “It’s clear from statistics we’re seeing in Danbury that we’ve helped close the achievement gap among students here. While we’ll no longer be providing basic 6th-8th grade education, we will still be in the business of helping to develop our youth.”

The "Economy" of Success

Token Economy is much more than dollars. It is an economic system that is used to teach our Pathways' Academy students about the important relationship between hard-work and getting paid, the importance of saving for the things that have lasting value, and how their own character will be a significant factor in their ability to get the best employment opportunities in the future.

We call them “Token Economy Dollars” because our monetary system is based on dollars and we want the experience to be as real as possible. A student could earn as much as $4,000 in a school calendar (average is half that amount), assuming a limited number of deductions. We used to given each student a check every week, with tax deductions, but we found it became too cumbersome to manage. Now we provide monthly awards base on visible evidence of student performance and citizenship.

Stocking the school store with items of value to the students is key to the effectiveness of the program. When the store has low priced items in it that are easily consume, student will spend what little money they have on this low-hanging fruit. When there are high-value items available student will save their dollars to make a wiser spending decision. Items like a bicycle ($3,000 TE), $50-Game Stop Card ($600 TE), or an Amazon Fire Tablet Computer ($1,000 TE).

Student are given TE dollars each month based on their citizenship, academic performance, and special awards by teachers. Student can also give their peers a peer grant for “Man of Honor” recognition. The biggest awards are given for citizenship. 

- Principal/Math Teacher Cedric Rice

Kolby's Story

KOLBY'S STORY

Kolby Sinclair, 17

2018 Danbury High School Graduate, GPA: 3.34

Will attend Quinnipiac College, International Business Major

“At one point in my life, I was a loud-mouth, always getting in trouble. My S.A.Y. Yes! tutor and my mentor helped me realize that acting out wasn’t cool, that I wasn’t going to anywhere in life with that attitude. He taught me the importance of knowledge. If I didn’t have a mentor, I wouldn’t be doing as well in school, and going to college. Instead of studying for tests, I’d probably be out partying. My mentor definitely changed the direction of my life.”

Kolby’s story is representative of the nearly 50 at-risk boys and girls whose lives are being transformed through Jericho’s one-to-one mentoring programs; our vision is to have 100 as we grow. Your contribution supports our various programming for youth and adults.

Vote for Jericho for Hope Award

We're so blessed and encouraged!

Jericho has been selected Northeast regional winner of The Hope Award for Effective Compassion by World magazine, based on the work we do to serve Danbury.

We're now in the running for the international prize of $10,000, which will be used to support our ministry to at-risk children and adults here. The winner of this prize will be determined solely by VOTES!  So we need your help!

Read World's story about Jericho HERE.

Will You Be a Champion?

Jericho’s Champions of Hope is a group of our Gift Partners who support our mission with consistent monthly giving, providing the firm foundation Jericho needs to plan and sustain ministry. 

From Jericho’s perspective, consistent giving takes the “unknown” out of planning, allowing us to confidently undertake sustainable programs that will best serve our children and adults in need.

Having a solid base of Gift Partners – regardless of the gift amount -- enables us to be more efficient with the resources God brings our way. 

THE VALUE OF YOUR GIFT IS MORE THAN DOLLARS & CENTS WHEN YOU GIVE MONTHLY!

Champions of Hope receive separate communications, invitation to an annual dinner, a private tour of Jericho’s ministry buildings.

To become a Champion of Hope, or convert your current gift level to monthly:

·        Visit jerichopartnership.org/donate, and click on any gold button

·        On the window, check the box that says “Become a sustaining, monthly contributor” and then follow the prompts

 Thank you in advance for helping us be more efficient!

Building on a Legacy Fund Update

Ministry in this next phase in the life of Jericho is being measured against two concepts: following God’s leading as we serve the at-risk community, and honoring the legacy built by Bill & Kathie Beattie.

Even with Bill no longer at the helm, our ministry to Danbury’s needy residents has continued; our team is as focused as ever on the mission God gave to the Beatties 30 years ago. To that end, we’ve created a fund called “Building on a Legacy,” which exists specifically to increase Jericho’s impact in the city of Danbury and advance this mission. The fund is being set aside until our leadership team, and the Beatties, decides the most strategic way to use it to increase our impact in Danbury. 

Bill’s vision for at least some of the funds: to increase resources for mentoring and tutoring, along with clinical services, for fatherless youth in Danbury.  At the same time, resources would be used for initiatives and educational programs designed to reduce, over time, the number of fatherless youth in our community. 

We’ll be sharing more about these and other possibilities as our leaders continuing praying and seeking God’s guidance. In the meantime, we invite all who have appreciated what the Beatties have meant to Jericho and to Danbury to prayerfully consider contributing to the fund.  

Your gift will enable life transformation among our city’s most vulnerable children and youth.

To give:

1)     Click HERE, and then click on the gold “Legacy” button. On the window, click “choose a designation” and select “Building on a Legacy.”

or

2)     Send a check to Jericho Partnership with “Legacy Fund” in the memo

Please know that it helps us greatly if this Legacy Fund gift were over and above any regular giving; this allows us to continue our current services and programming, while we consider how to use these additional funds to build on the Beattie Legacy.