Youth Crew Leads and Learns in the “Zone”

Posted by Marque Jensen on Aug 31, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

One of the positive results of the tornado’s devastation was a collaborative effort by the Northside Community Response Team to raise money in order to  pay and deploy youth into the tornado zone. These young people worked in 3-4 crew across north Minneapolis.  They worked in community, some cleaned up debris, some trimmed trees or helped finish off dilapidated garages.  Working to rebuild is great therapy, especially when you are one of the many who suffered directly.

Desmond Bryant

Sanctuary CDC had the privilege to host one of these teams, from mid-July till late-August between 5 – 9 youth from age 14 – 19 were here Monday – Friday.  Desmond Bryant was the site leader, James Beard (Sanctuary’s Maintenance Engineer) helped coordinate projects around the building while I, Marque, worked in connecting them with work around the neighborhood.

These students worked in our offices, in the offices of other organizations.  They

James Beard

worked in homes and yards of neighbors.  They sorted clothes and helped set-up and run our National Night-Out event.  Because of door knocking efforts they connected over 50 neighboring families with resources in their recovery from the tornado.  They even assisted at Camp Noah, a day camp to help children who have gone through a disaster.  One of the pastors leading the program commented that the team from Sanctuary CDC was exceptionally helpful.

Last week was their final week, on Thursday we pulled out the grill and had an appreciation meal with the work team and all the staff of the CDC and Church.

Appreciation Lunch

Let me tell one short story that demonstrates the quality of this team.  As we were finishing-up our meal a neighborhood leader stopped in to see if our team could help resolve a neighborhood dispute that was growing into a full conflict.  She wondered if the team could remove some debris between two garages that a neither a land lord nor a homeowner would claim.  She did not know that the team were planning to be done after the meal.  Desmond said yes, we could get the debris cleared, and was prepared to do it him self if the kids didn’t want to do more work.  When he told them about the need he gave the the option, stay and help, or go home as planned.  All six of the team members stayed, and their praises are still being sung by Folwell Neighborhood leaders.

In the following days we will post more stories from them of their own experiences.