The Video below is from an event in Texas a few years ago posted on someone's youtube.
This is an example of what Is61 wants to bring to communities in GA!
Isayah 61 is designed to serve our communities in Georgia.
The Community Services Initiatives are a strong focus of the overall strategy to Build a healthy Georgia. Once our startup funds are in place to begin full time operations, we'll begin services for the more vulnerable people in our society. Our Children's Services will take some time to fully enact as they will require licensed and trained social workers and other staff but we'll begin creating the framework right away. The most accessible is outreaching to the local Homeless individuals in our area which is as simple as collecting hygiene supplies and comfort care items to keep them healthy and safe on the streets while we install other programs to supplement the currently available assistance from other charities in the area. There are gaps in the resources so we'll focus on those to begin with and add services as we find opportunity. Each of the programs below will launch as funds and staff or volunteers allow.
Our high priority ministry arms are designed to impact the following:
Foster Care & Adoption - A full service community "village" where we employ several sets of trained foster care house parents to manage micro-group homes which allow sibling groups to stay together and accommodate adoptable youth aged 10+ who are less likely to be adopted. We hope to focus first on adoptable children and will create an amazing and safe publicity campaign to find adoptive families for each child or group of siblings. If and when possible, the village will have a Recreation Center primarily for the village's residents but also providing services for all children and foster families in the local communities. This will include support for the families, approved and licensed temporary caregivers for emergencies, babysitting services so foster parents can go on dates or attend needed appointments, training and support classes, trauma counseling, and therapeutic recreational experiences for the children. Isayah 61 will create a Follow Your Dreams Academy at the village which will recruit volunteers from every vocation, hobby, and interest as possible to allow children in care to participate in discovering their unique and special interests and talents.
Post Foster "Aged-Out" Care - An auxiliary appendage to the foster care village is a needed continued support system for un-adopted children who are at risk for failing to launch into their successful adult chapters. Unfortunately this is the majority of un-adopted foster youth. Isayah 61 will collaborate with local churches and ministries to buy men's and women's group care homes where the youth will be given opportunity to practice their adult life skills with our safety net of support and care. Each individual youth will be evaluated and supported to the degree that corresponds to their level of commitment to success. This means that one youth who was working toward a college degree when DFCS services were terminated will be assisted with tuition, free housing, and transportation for school and work while another youth who is in the same house who had no specific ambition or direction at the time of intake, would receive more basic care while they are being mentored and a strategic life plan to help them launch out of our care is being implemented. All youth would participate in the mentoring and educational classes along with having accountability agreements such as any young adult still living at home would have as terms of residency. Our social workers from the village will oversee and implement the mentoring volunteers or staff and will execute individual launch plans to help each youth to learn and earn their way to self sufficiency. One of the mandates of our program will be to allow for certain failures in their post-launch lives where they find themselves in some need for more structured support, to return to the group home situation and work a new plan for independence. In normative family groups, many young adults launch out only to have a failure and return home. For these young people who've been severed from traditional support networks, the village resources will develop a safety net for them on a limited basis and with extra accountability or fast-tracking back on their own; but they need a place to catch them if they fall! These programs will utilize local church and charity support as well as working within our network for job placement, discipleship, and financial support.
Homeless Support Services - In close proximity to our desired initial launch location are a growing number of homeless camps and gathering areas where those living on the streets are found. We also have a few other ministries who provide support for them. One thing missing is an individual approach to knowing these people. It is great to have ministries who provide food and other supplies and we will work with them and support them as much as possible as we go and grow. Some things that are missing are individuals who will take time to get to know the men and women on the streets who can begin to discern what reasons they are on the streets and thereby seek to collaborate to get the individuals the real help they need to change their situation. While that is being done, our street teams can hand out toiletries, OTC medical supplies like triple antibiotic cream or bandages, hygiene items, flashlights(or new batteries), and ponchos. Additionally, having compassionate human contact from our street teams will give hope as we try to find ways to give them a hand up. We'll also organize impromptu street church services for those who desire to attend.
Older Populations Support Services - Another auxiliary arm of the village will be the support system for older populations who do not have families to look in on them. The program would run similar to the Aged Out of Foster Care program but would be more simplistic, recruiting church volunteer groups to figuratively adopt the older person and take responsibility to ensure the person is safe, cared for, paying their bills on time, not falling prey to scammers, have rides to church, stores, and doctors, and specifically plugged in to social channels in the community or church (Bingo, cards, knitting circles etc). This ministry arm comes out of the James 1:27 passage about caring for widows and orphans. This program will include men and women who just need someone to care. Isayah 61 would also seek to interconnect the elder population with the children in foster care and other similar human service programs. The older generation has a lot to offer the younger generation.
At-Risk Youth Programs - Isayah 61 will develop relationships with local churches and DFCS in partnership with trained pastoral and professional counselors in the area to intervene in the lives of young people 10-25 who are experiencing a potential drift toward unhealthy lifestyles. In coordination with qualified staff from the foster village, Isayah 61 will establish recreational, mentoring, social, and educational experiences for these individuals in an attempt to provide positive influences in their lives which may lead them out of harms way. This program will also seek to assist youth in homes where DFCS is investigating issues in a home where our programs could lead to supporting the entire family in order to cause a positive outcome for the children first and also their families.
Mentoring - Mentoring from qualified, vetted, and trained individuals is included in all manner of operations towards younger populations. We will utilize a volunteer database of dedicated men and women with great reputations in their churches and communities.
Job Creation - Isayah 61 will implement a series of fundraising businesses which also provide beneficial services in our communities. These will create new and sustainable job and training resources for mostly the beneficiaries in our other outreach programs but will also include anyone in need of work in the community at large.
Health & Healthy Lifestyles Education - Isayah 61 will begin hosting classes on a weekly basis for the community covering numerous topics that will help the populace achieve freedom in any area of their life that is struggling. We'll utilize a broad network of professionals to help educate people on finances, healthy eating and lifestyle, addiction recovery, parenting, CPR and lifesaving classes, and any other needed program as we find opportunity and an educator to address the need. If we have a ministry space which we are paying for 7 days a week, then the highest and best use of that space is achieved by offering services every day and as many hours per day as possible.
Community Events - See video above... Possibly some free concerts and family events. Community bonding opportunities, community gardens planted...