Good News from the Hispanic Church:

The community-serving activities of Hispanic Protestant churches

by Amy Sherman

Books and Culture, 1 July 2004

Continued from page 2

Staying in School

Of course, kids who don't finish high school won't be going on to college. So, in Phoenix, The Church at the Neighborhood Center sponsors a comprehensive stay-in-school initiative that works with some of the highest-risk teens in the community. The "I Can Do It" program (ICDI) is achieving success with youth who have known more suffering in their short years than most adults experience in a lifetime. These are the children of prisoners, the siblings of gang bangers. They are victims of physical and sexual abuse; the daughters of prostitutes and the sons of crack addicts. But 98 percent of the kids involved in ICDI are maintaining at least C averages and meeting attendance requirements to keep their school journey on track.

According to ICDI director Debbi Speck, the program is premised on the belief that high-risk students can succeed in school, if they are just given a reason to. They must have hope. They need to believe that school matters. More importantly, they need to believe that they matter. ICDI gives kids reasons to stay in school and relationships through which they can begin to receive genuine love.

Church members serve as tutors and mentors, visiting participating teens on campus or at home at least weekly. Some mentors have even had teens live with them for weeks or months when the students' home situations became unbearable. Each student is also placed in a small peer group, typically led by an adult church volunteer. The groups range in size from four to eight youth and are same gender. The groups gather every three weeks, usually for some fun, "horizonetching" activity. Program staff have found that these groups make possible the kinds of peer-to-peer support needed to make school attendance normal and college enrollment plausible. ICDI also rewards participants for their school attendance and academic performance through a combination of financial incentives and special trips.

The program works. Rosalba Espinoza, whose son and daughter are enrolled in it, is just one of the satisfied parents. "Before Ramon [her older son] was in this program," she reports, "I used to get calls all the time—his teacher was always telling me that Ramon was talking back to him and getting into fights. Now that he's in the program, I'm happy because they keep track of him, and he doesn't want to get in trouble." She smiles. "He's like, 'If I do, if I have bad grades or something, I won't go on the field trip.' "

Dr. Ruth Ann Marston, a prominent public educator in Phoenix, commends the program's approach. "Children have very little ability to judge whether what they are learning now is important or not," she explains. "They need a system of short-term rewards." ICDI delivers that. Even more important, Marston adds, it offers the one thing these kids need most: a loving adult in their life who makes them feel special.

Teens in the program refer to their mentors in family terms. Katrina*, a high-performance senior who is headed toward a career as an Ob-Gyn doctor, says her mentor hasn't just been a mentor: "She's been my mother. She's been my best friend. Really, she's been everything, like a sister." Other students agree. One young woman, who was sexually abused by her father almost nightly for years until he was finally put behind bars, shared her life story with her mentor.

"When I needed time," this 17-year-old recalls, "she always made time for me. I always told her everything." This student credits the love of her mentor for the fact that she remained in school, graduated, and did not "end up on drugs."

Strengthening Hispanic Outreach

Jim Towey, the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, recently visited The Church at the Neighborhood Center in Phoenix, commending its deep investment in the community. Church leaders admit they don't get too many calls from the White House, but plenty of inquirers from within the faith community ask for advice from them about launching their own outreach programs. Luis Cortes at Nueva Esperanza is also inundated with requests from Hispanic pastors and church workers for information, training, and resources for new ministries. Cortes says that the media attention generated by the President's faith-based initiative has stirred up increased interest by Hispanic faith leaders in community engagement.

But, Cortes warns, unlike in the black community, the Hispanic church lacks strong institutions for building the capacity of local churches to do effective community development. Although more seminaries and Bible Institutes attended by future Hispanic pastors are talking about community outreach, robust training programs with classroom and hands-on curricula are rare.

"I almost feel like we may have lit a fuse to a powder keg and we were not ready to deal with the explosion," Cortes says. Ray Rivera, too, has noticed a hunger among young Hispanic church workers for more training in community ministry. "They study to be a pastor," Rivera notes, "but after they graduate, they still feel a need to get something else. I see them wanting to engage in training that equips them and empowers them for a holistic ministry." If the training institutions shaping future Hispanic pastors—both Protestant and Catholic—can rise to this challenge, the faith sector may well become the principal vehicle through which America's growing Hispanic community achieves a greater share in the American dream.

Twelve Most Common Types of Social Service Programs Offered

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1. Andrew Billingsley, Mighty Like a River: The Black Church and Social Reform (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).

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